Liszt Hungarian Rhapsody 2 analysis. Franz Liszt

Franz Liszt - Hungarian composer, virtuoso pianist, teacher, conductor, publicist, one of major representatives musical romanticism. Founder of the Weimar School of Music.
List was one of the greatest pianists XIX century. His era was the heyday of concert pianism, Liszt was at the forefront of this process, having limitless technical possibilities. Until now, his virtuosity remains a benchmark for contemporary pianists, and the works - the pinnacles of piano virtuosity.
Active concert activity generally ended in 1848 ( last concert was given in Elisavetgrad), after which Liszt performed rarely.

As a composer, Liszt made a lot of discoveries in the field of harmony, melody, form and texture. Created new instrumental genres(rhapsody, symphonic poem). He formed the structure of a one-part cyclic form, which was outlined by Schumann and Chopin, but was not developed so boldly.

Liszt actively promoted the idea of ​​a synthesis of the arts (Wagner was his like-minded person in this). He said that the time pure arts» is over. If Wagner saw this synthesis in the connection between music and words, then for Liszt it is more connected with painting, architecture, although literature also played big role. Hence the abundance program works: "Betrothal" (based on a painting by Raphael), "The Thinker" (sculpture by Michelangelo on a tombstone Lorenzo Medici) and many others. IN further ideas synthesis of the arts have found wide application. Liszt believed in the power of art, which could influence the masses of people and fight evil. His educational activities are connected with this.
Leaf Led pedagogical activity. Pianists from all over Europe visited him in Weimar. In his house, where there was a hall, he gave them open lessons And never took any money for it. Borodin, Siloti and d'Albert visited him among others.
Conducting activity Liszt took up work in Weimar. There he staged operas (including Wagner), performed symphonies.
Among literary works- a book about Chopin, a book about the music of the Hungarian gypsies, as well as many articles on current and global issues.

"Rakoczy March" from Hungarian Rhapsody No. 15.

The genre of instrumental rhapsody itself is an invention of Liszt.
True, he was not the first to introduce this designation into piano music; since 1815, rhapsodies were written by the Czech composer V. Ya. Tomashek. But Liszt gave them a different interpretation: by rhapsody, he means a virtuoso work in the spirit of paraphrase, where instead of operatic melodies, folk song and dance motifs are used. The form of Liszt's rhapsodies, based on a contrasting comparison of two sections - slow and fast, is also marked by originality: the first is more improvisational, the second is variational *.

"Spanish Rhapsody," performed by Alexander Lubyantsev.

*It is curious that Liszt retains a similar ratio of parts in the Spanish Rhapsody: the slow part is built on a variation in the theme of the folio, close to the sarabande; fast part is also based on the variational principle, but in the sequence of topics, features of a freely interpreted sonata form..

"Venice and Naples" 1/2h, performed by Boris Berezovsky.

This comparison reflects folk instrumental practice. The music of the slow parts is proud, chivalrous, romantically elevated, sometimes in the nature of a slow, militant dance-procession, reminiscent of the old Hungarian palotash dance (similar to the polonaise, but two-part), sometimes in the spirit of an improvisational recitative or epic narration, with an abundance of decorations - like "halgato note". Fast parts draw pictures of folk fun, fire dances - chardashi. Liszt often used characteristic figurations that convey the sound of cymbals and the richness of violin melismatics, emphasizing the originality of the rhythmic and modal turns of the verbunkosh style.

"Venice and Naples"2/2h.

"Canzona"

In addition, receiving large fees as a virtuoso pianist, Liszt often donated money: to help flood victims, to a monument to Beethoven, and so on. This inner nobility is also felt in the way he made concert transcriptions of music by other composers. Thus, he promoted the music of Bach, Beethoven, Schubert, his contemporaries (in particular,). He wrote a book about Chopin. Liszt taught for free.

Liszt's whole life is work, composing music and touring. He visited Russia twice. Always and everywhere his performances evoked the delight of the public. There are even special term — listomania. The term was coined by Heinrich Heine, describing the mass hysteria that occurred during Liszt's Paris concerts. A film of the same name was released in 1975 (directed by Ken Russell, UK). The role of Liszt in the film " Listomania» performs English singer Roger Harry Daltrey (band The Who). But even more interesting is that the role of the pope is played by Ringo Star ( The Beatles). The film, of course, is from the category of fantasy, but it is curious to watch.

Those who wish will watch the film, but about Liszt's last long-term love (actually 30 years) for a subject Russian Empire can be read. Living together with Carolina did not result in an official marriage, because this was prevented specific people. Neither more nor less: Russian emperors and popes.

The topic of Franz Liszt is extremely large, so I will limit myself to a brief biographical sketch and I will focus on only one interesting moment.

Multicultural Europe in the 19th century

Liszt was born in Hungary (then the Austrian Empire), was brought up as an artist and received his first recognition in France, worked in Switzerland, a new creative period started in Germany. And the end of his life fell on Italy, where he became an abbot in the Vatican.

Thus, the culture of all these countries left its imprint on the work of Liszt, and he himself made his own contribution to these cultures. Such interaction for Europe is not at all unique.

Liszt knew the Hungarian language poorly. Nevertheless, he remains a Hungarian artist. The great Polish composer was a Frenchman by father and lived most life in France. But he considered himself a Pole. And in Poland there are two shrines: Catholic Church and Chopin. In Hungary they revere their Franz Liszt.

So, Franz (Franz, Francis) Liszt was born on October 22, 1811 on the territory of the Austrian Empire. His father served as a "sheep overseer", and in free time played in the orchestra of his master - Prince Esterhazy (Esterhazy). In the same orchestra that J. Haydn led almost all his life.

His father was also Liszt's first teacher. These childhood activities and some of the lessons he took in Vienna and Paris are Franz Liszt's only education. Then there is music, music and music.

You can listen to all of Listov's music. The only problem is that sometimes “guides” may be required: too many connections with literature and even painting. Of the literary ones, the most interesting are the “Sonnets of Petrarch”, the sonata “After Reading Dante” and works related to the Faustian theme. From the picturesque - "The Thinker" or "Betrothal" (based on the sculpture by Michelangelo and the painting by Raphael).

Of all the vast heritage of Liszt, I would like to dwell on only one work: Hungarian Rhapsody No. 2.

Hungarian Rhapsody No. 2

.
I once wrote about Leonard Bernstein as the author of the musical West Side Story. But this wonderful musician was also a strong popularizer of music, hosted programs, organized concerts for young people in New York. Text printouts of these concerts were also published in the USSR.

In one of his books, Bernstein talks about the connection between music and language. He believed that folk song reflects everything: rhythm, accents, speed of speech of each nation. From folk music, these features pass into " great music". No in French strong accents, this language is smooth, fluid - and this manifests itself in french music. Italian has a lot of long vowels - and the slowness of the vowels is again reflected in the music. Spanish is rhythmic and rich in consonants, and so is Spanish music. And in Hungarian, most of the stress occurs on the first syllable - and Hungarian music is famous for its original accents.

I believe that this is a topic of large related studies, but I could not help but give this curious point of view. And Franz Liszt perfectly felt and understood the essence of Hungarian folk music.

Recall that previous eras had little "interest" in folk music, although the interaction, of course, has always been. A keen interest in folklore arose precisely in the era of romanticism.

Liszt is the founder of the rhapsody genre. Rhapsodes are ancient Greek singers who compose epic songs. A few thousand years later, the "genre came to life" precisely in the work of Liszt, and above all in the Hungarian Rhapsodies.

Emma, ​​these tears make me love you even more!

In the old Soviet film Funny boys There is a funny scene in the Music Hall. A visiting celebrity, an Italian conductor, falls under the stage. And on the stage there is something unimaginably monumental: a giant orchestra, a couple of dozen pianos, the same number of harps.

Hapless main character(L. Utyosov) gets on stage instead of the Italian, he scratches himself, twitches, the orchestra plays. The hero sees Lenochka in the hall, makes signs to her: “Understand, understand! That's stupid!" The orchestra again takes the signs for the instructions of the eccentric conductor and continues to play. And the orchestra performs Liszt's Hungarian Rhapsody No. 2 in orchestral arrangement. "Original interpretation" - a certain connoisseur makes a verdict.

And the orchestra is playing. One of the spectators is crying bitterly. Her companion utters the sacramental: "Emma, ​​for these tears I love you even more!", believing that she was so touched by Liszt's music. And Emma's shoes are tight ... (Oh, this Hungarian Rhapsody No. 2. Let's still love each other for those and other tears).

But the same rhapsody sounds in many other films (“Delirious”, “Who Framed Roger Rabbit” - 3 Oscars, “Shine” 1996 and others). Even in Tom and Jerry and many other cartoons. I counted about fifty films and cartoons, then I stopped counting.

I think that Franz Liszt himself would have smiled when he learned about such popularity of his rhapsody in popular culture next century - something like another wave listomania. But it's just good music, albeit extremely virtuoso.

The ability to be in the common European stream and at the same time the ability to hear "native speech" - distinguishing feature all romantics. Thanks to them, we ourselves learn to hear and understand "someone else's speech." And we try not to forget the "native".

In the "Hungarian Rhapsodies" Franz Liszt managed to embody the unique beauty of the culture of this country. It is believed that this composer became the founder of a new genre. Nevertheless, the Czech musician Tomasek used to call some of his own creations this way. Ferenc maintained respect for his homeland throughout his life.

History of creation

Liszt, who created the Hungarian Rhapsodies, is the creator of the genre, since he managed to develop a certain structure of works and classify them. character traits. Tomaszek had compositions that had no similarity and logical foundation. Franz Liszt did not live in Hungary, his fate was connected with other European countries.

At the same time, he often recalled his childhood years, while the boy listened to gypsy songs for hours folk songs. The composer was prompted to create rhapsodies by a certain historical event, which was associated with Hungary. In the native land of the musician, a revolution took place, aimed at combating the feudal-landlord system of the Austrian authorities.

The uprising, unfortunately, did not win, it was suppressed with particular cruelty. Hungary became part of Austria again. The patriotic soul of the musician was struck by this fact. Then he had the first ideas related to the creation of rhapsodies to Hungarian folk melodies. In total, Liszt composed 19 such works.

He wrote his first rhapsody in 1851. Until 1853, the musician created 13 more compositions. In 1882 he demonstrated rhapsody 16. Three years later, three more works appeared. Subsequently, Liszt, together with Doppler, created orchestral versions for some of the numbers.

Character traits

Liszt's "Hungarian Rhapsodies" piano works which are based on melodies and national motives of Hungary. The composition is a concerto, its melody has a homophonic-harmonic warehouse. There is an abundance of melismas: trills, raising grace notes and other musical ornaments. The accompaniment in this case is dotted.

Rhapsody No. 2 sounds in computer game titled "The Adventures of the Muppet Monster", published in 2000. The composer is Hungarian by nationality, however mother tongue did not know and spoke only German.

In rhapsody 15, the author quoted a revolutionary Hungarian song called "Rakoczi March". This composition is an example of the verbunkosh style. In Budapest, Liszt realized himself as the first president of the national music academy.

Franz Liszt is opposed by catchy, contrasting and dynamic "Hungarian Rhapsodies", based on - folklore sources. Liszt developed them over several decades. (The rhapsodies were created in the following order: No. 1 - around 1851, No. 2 - 1847, Nos. 3-15 - around 1853, No. 16 - 1882, Nos. 17-19 - 1885. Six of them (Nos. 2, 5 , 6, 9, 12, 14) arranged for orchestra by Liszt and Franz Doppler.)

The original sketch was Hungarian Melodies and Rhapsodies (twenty-one pieces, 1840-1848). Most of the tunes contained here were included in the nineteen rhapsodies later written. “I drew wealth there,” Liszt wrote about these topics, “where I found it: first in my own childhood memories, which go back to Bihari and other gypsy celebrities, and then in the fields, in the very thickness of the gypsy orchestras of Edenburg, Pressburg, Pest, etc. finally, I remembered and in my own way reproduced many motives, characteristic features, which, with rare generosity, communicated to me either on the piano or in the recording ... " (Only three rhapsodies (Nos. 16-18) do not use folklore sources.).

These melodies vividly captured the features of the verbunkosh style. The genre of instrumental rhapsody itself is an invention of Liszt.

True, he was not the first to introduce this designation into piano music; since 1815, rhapsodies were written by the Czech composer V. Ya. Tomashek. But Liszt gave them a different interpretation: by rhapsody, he means a virtuoso work in the spirit of paraphrase, where instead of operatic melodies, folk song and dance motifs are used. The form of Liszt's rhapsodies, based on a contrasting comparison of two sections - slow and fast, is also marked by originality: the first is more improvisational, the second is variational. (It is curious that Liszt retains a similar ratio of parts in " Spanish Rhapsody» (circa 1876): the slow part (cis-moll) is built on a variation of the theme of the folium, close to the sarabande; the fast part (D-dur) is also based on the variational principle, but in the sequence of themes, features of a freely interpreted sonata form are found ( main party- D-dur, secondary - F-dur, final - E-dur).)

This comparison reflects folk instrumental practice. The music of the slow parts is proud, chivalrous, romantically upbeat, sometimes in the nature of a slow, militant dance procession, reminiscent of the old Hungarian palotash dance (similar to the polonaise, but two-part), sometimes in the spirit of an improvisational recitative or epic narration, with an abundance of decorations - like "halgato note". Fast parts draw pictures of folk fun, fire dances - chardashi. Liszt often used characteristic figurations that convey the sound of cymbals and the richness of violin melismatics, emphasized the originality of the rhythmic and modal turns of the verbunkosh style; among them we single out: a) the “gypsy scale”, b) repetitive quartal chants, c) characteristic dotted cadences, syncopations. The methods of ornamental variation of themes and unexpected changes in the nature and pace of movement are also associated with folk practice.

Franz Liszt "Hungarian Rhapsodies"

Hungary is a country with a bright cultural flavor. National music is filled with contrasts and is very different from European classics. In the Hungarian rhapsodies, Franz Liszt managed to embody all the colorfulness of the country's culture.

To know Interesting Facts about the work of the composer this genre to get acquainted with the masterpieces classical music and also listen famous works possible on this page.

History of creation

It is believed that it was Liszt who became the founder of the genre. However, before him, some own works so called the famous Czech composer Tomasek. The creation of the genre is attributed to Liszt, because he managed to create not only a certain structure of the rhapsody, but also classified specific characteristic features of the compositions, while Tomaszek had these simple works that do not have a logical basis and similarity among themselves.

• Despite the fact that the composer is Hungarian by nationality, he did not know his native language and spoke only German.
• In the 15th rhapsody, the composer quoted the Hungarian revolutionary song "Rakoczi March". This composition is an example of the verbunkosh style.
• In Budapest, the composer became the first president of the national music academy.
• Franz Liszt was especially fond of compositions 12 and 14.
• The second rhapsody sounds in the famous animated film « Tom and Jerry».
• Together with Franz Doppler, the composer orchestrated six of his own rhapsodies. These include the second, fifth, sixth, ninth, twelfth and fourteenth.
• In addition to the Hungarian Rhapsodies, Ferenc composed another work on the Spanish national theme.
• The composer wrote a book about the Hungarian gypsies, about their national culture and music.
• It is noteworthy that the first rhapsody was started before anyone else, but completed after the writing of the second rhapsody. The composer worked on the composition for a long time.
• Rhapsody refers to epic genre in art.
• One of best performers Rhapsody is the Hungarian pianist György Czifra.
• The culture of style is music similar to the music of recruitment. This explains the proud, heroic mood of the works.
• The name of the genre goes back to the speech of the rhapsodist. Rhapsode is a foreign analogue of the button accordion, the narrator of historical events.

Liszt's most famous rhapsodies

Each of the rhapsodies deserves attention, but nevertheless, the examples of Franz Liszt's work are the rhapsodies numbered: 2,6 and 12.

Second Hungarian Rhapsody

Most characteristic work in this genre, is the most famous and performed.

The structure is two-part with an introduction, built according to the suite principle.

The slow introduction reproduces the speech of the rhapsodist. Improvisation brings the listener into the world folk life Hungary. The chord accompaniment is replete with grace notes and melismas characteristic primarily of Hungarian music, it reproduces the performance on the strings folk instruments this country.

The slow lyrical folk song Lashan is the basis of the first movement. The part has a pronounced Hungarian flavor, thanks to the dotted endings. The theme will then change. The composer uses his characteristic methods of melodic development, namely the inclusion a large number passages.

The second theme is presented in higher registers and has a dance character. Thanks to the introduction of material reminiscent of the game stringed instruments, a light image is created. The theme is actively developed and leads to the return of the first two themes, namely the introduction and the main theme. We can say that the first part has a three-part form with a varied reprise.

Part II is dance, it is based on national dance fry.

Frishka is the second part famous dance Czardas. Was popular thanks to Verbunkosh. The main features of the fry are liveliness and swiftness. The dance allows you to display a picture of folk festive fun. Gradually, the texture becomes more complex, and the theme accelerates to the limit. Wave-like dynamics either brings the listener closer or further away from the epicenter of events.

It is noteworthy that the composer uses the most characteristic harmony, namely the alternation of tonic and dominant. Thanks to numerous variations on the theme, the music does not become monotonous. After the grand climax, the movement begins to slow down. The code construction adds a special theatricality. The composition captivates the listener with its own variety of musical themes.

Hungarian Rhapsody No. 2 (listen)

Rhapsodies in films

Many directors turn to the work of Franz Liszt, his rhapsodies can be heard in many modern films and TV shows: