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CO-WINNER: The Triennial Alan Walker Book Award, sponsored by the American Liszt Society 2023
A new and wide-ranging collection of essays by leading international scholars, exploring the concept and practices of virtuosity in Franz Liszt and his contemporaries.
In the annals of music history, few figures have dominated the discussion of virtuosity as much as Franz Liszt. A flamboyant performer whose hair-raising technical feats at the piano created a sense of awe-inspiring excitement and an icon whose star power radiated far beyond the realm of music, Liszt was, along with his early model, Paganini, among the first major performer-composers to define himself principally by virtuosity.
Featuring new essays by an international group of preeminent scholars, Liszt and Virtuosity offers a reevaluation of the concept and practices of virtuosity as shaped and defined in Liszt's multifaceted oeuvre, as well as a reconsideration of Liszt's relation to other major and lesser-known musical figures, including Czerny, Schubert, Chopin, Brahms, Debussy, and Marie Jaëll.
Set in the context of larger trends within the fields of music history, music analysis, intellectual history, and performance studies, these capacious explorations demonstrate that Liszt's uniqueness and significance resided in his ability to transform virtuosity into a revolutionary musical force, pushing the piano aesthetic to the limits of sound and poetic meaning.
A new and wide-ranging collection of essays by leading international scholars, exploring the concept and practices of virtuosity in Franz Liszt and his contemporaries.
In the annals of music history, few figures have dominated the discussion of virtuosity as much as Franz Liszt. A flamboyant performer whose hair-raising technical feats at the piano created a sense of awe-inspiring excitement and an icon whose star power radiated far beyond the realm of music, Liszt was, along with his early model, Paganini, among the first major performer-composers to define himself principally by virtuosity.
Featuring new essays by an international group of preeminent scholars, Liszt and Virtuosity offers a reevaluation of the concept and practices of virtuosity as shaped and defined in Liszt's multifaceted oeuvre, as well as a reconsideration of Liszt's relation to other major and lesser-known musical figures, including Czerny, Schubert, Chopin, Brahms, Debussy, and Marie Jaëll.
Set in the context of larger trends within the fields of music history, music analysis, intellectual history, and performance studies, these capacious explorations demonstrate that Liszt's uniqueness and significance resided in his ability to transform virtuosity into a revolutionary musical force, pushing the piano aesthetic to the limits of sound and poetic meaning.
Price: $190.00
Pages: 446
Publisher: Boydell & Brewer Inc.
Imprint: University of Rochester Press
Publication Date:
27 July 2020
Trim Size: 9.00 X 6.00 in
ISBN: 9781580469395
Format: Hardcover
BISACs:
MUSIC / Genres & Styles / Classical, Art music, orchestral and formal music, MUSIC / Musical Instruments / Piano & Keyboard, MUSIC / History & Criticism, Keyboard instruments
This collection of essays is a sophisticated meditation on virtuosity itself.
Liszt and Virtuosity succeeds in its ambitious goal of rehabilitation and reconceptualisation, revealing virtuosity not as empty display but as a profound creative force that shaped musical Modernism itself. It thus transforms our understanding of Liszt from mere showman to visionary composer - one whose integration of technical mastery with expressive depth created new possibilities for musical meaning.
— LIMELIGHT
The book brings together these insights by the world's most important Liszt's scholars and performers. [...] [This book] deepen[s] our understanding of the concept of virtuosity and of different approaches [and] re-evaluates virtuosity, specifically its given definitions and practices, through Liszt's own understanding in connection to his contemporaries
— NINETEENTH-CENTURY MUSIC REVIEWS
This splendid volume dispels any lingering prejudices against nineteenth-century piano virtuosity and especially against Franz Liszt--often suspected of practicing a musical dark art. By casting new light on Liszt's singular virtuosity in essays on his instruments, technique, and teaching through to his revolutionary compositional aesthetic, the internationally distinguished authorship aspires to a level of understanding no less transformational than the work of the spectacular figure at center stage.
— John Rink, Professor of Musical Performance Studies, University of Cambridge
There is a lot to think about in this volume. It is dense and rich, well researched, and thoughtful. Perhaps it is virtuosic in its own way, with its apparent casual command of fine detail. This is the kind of collection where single lines might spark new scholarship.
— MUSIC & LETTERS
Doran has organized the collected articles thoughtfully. The early chapters help to prepare for the later chapters [so] the whole is greater than the sum of its parts. [The chapters] work together to impart a clarified understanding of Liszt's attitudes towards difficulty in piano music.
— JOURNAL OF THE AMERICAN LISZT SOCIETY
Liszt and Virtuosity succeeds in its ambitious goal of rehabilitation and reconceptualisation, revealing virtuosity not as empty display but as a profound creative force that shaped musical Modernism itself. It thus transforms our understanding of Liszt from mere showman to visionary composer - one whose integration of technical mastery with expressive depth created new possibilities for musical meaning.
— LIMELIGHT
The book brings together these insights by the world's most important Liszt's scholars and performers. [...] [This book] deepen[s] our understanding of the concept of virtuosity and of different approaches [and] re-evaluates virtuosity, specifically its given definitions and practices, through Liszt's own understanding in connection to his contemporaries
— NINETEENTH-CENTURY MUSIC REVIEWS
This splendid volume dispels any lingering prejudices against nineteenth-century piano virtuosity and especially against Franz Liszt--often suspected of practicing a musical dark art. By casting new light on Liszt's singular virtuosity in essays on his instruments, technique, and teaching through to his revolutionary compositional aesthetic, the internationally distinguished authorship aspires to a level of understanding no less transformational than the work of the spectacular figure at center stage.
— John Rink, Professor of Musical Performance Studies, University of Cambridge
There is a lot to think about in this volume. It is dense and rich, well researched, and thoughtful. Perhaps it is virtuosic in its own way, with its apparent casual command of fine detail. This is the kind of collection where single lines might spark new scholarship.
— MUSIC & LETTERS
Doran has organized the collected articles thoughtfully. The early chapters help to prepare for the later chapters [so] the whole is greater than the sum of its parts. [The chapters] work together to impart a clarified understanding of Liszt's attitudes towards difficulty in piano music.
— JOURNAL OF THE AMERICAN LISZT SOCIETY
Introduction: Virtuosity and Liszt - Robert Doran
Part One: Liszt, Virtuosity, and Performance
Après une lecture de Czerny?: Liszt's Creative Virtuosity - Kenneth Hamilton
Transforming Virtuosity: Liszt and Nineteenth-Century Pianos - Olivia Sham
Spirit and Mechanism: Liszt's Early Piano Technique and Teaching - Nicolas Dufetel
Paths through the Lisztian Ossia - Jonathan Kregor
Brahms "versus" Liszt: The Internalization of Virtuosity - David Keep
Part Two: Lisztian Virtuosity: Theoretical Approaches
The Practice of Pianism: Virtuosity and Oral History - Jim Samson
Liszt's Symbiosis: The Question of Virtuosity and the Concerto Arrangement of Schubert's Wanderer Fantasy - Jonathan Dunsby
From the Brilliant Style to the Bravura Style: Reconceptualizing Lisztian Virtuosity - Robert Doran
Part Three: Virtuosity and Anti-Virtuosity in "Late Liszt"
Harmony, Gesture, and Virtuosity in Liszt's Revisions: Shaping the Affective Journeys of the Cypress Pieces from Années de pèlerinage III - Dolores Pesce
Anti-Virtuosity and Musical Experimentalism: Liszt, Marie Jaëll, Debussy, and Others - Ralph P. Locke
Virtuosity in Liszt's Late Piano Works - Shay Loya
Part One: Liszt, Virtuosity, and Performance
Après une lecture de Czerny?: Liszt's Creative Virtuosity - Kenneth Hamilton
Transforming Virtuosity: Liszt and Nineteenth-Century Pianos - Olivia Sham
Spirit and Mechanism: Liszt's Early Piano Technique and Teaching - Nicolas Dufetel
Paths through the Lisztian Ossia - Jonathan Kregor
Brahms "versus" Liszt: The Internalization of Virtuosity - David Keep
Part Two: Lisztian Virtuosity: Theoretical Approaches
The Practice of Pianism: Virtuosity and Oral History - Jim Samson
Liszt's Symbiosis: The Question of Virtuosity and the Concerto Arrangement of Schubert's Wanderer Fantasy - Jonathan Dunsby
From the Brilliant Style to the Bravura Style: Reconceptualizing Lisztian Virtuosity - Robert Doran
Part Three: Virtuosity and Anti-Virtuosity in "Late Liszt"
Harmony, Gesture, and Virtuosity in Liszt's Revisions: Shaping the Affective Journeys of the Cypress Pieces from Années de pèlerinage III - Dolores Pesce
Anti-Virtuosity and Musical Experimentalism: Liszt, Marie Jaëll, Debussy, and Others - Ralph P. Locke
Virtuosity in Liszt's Late Piano Works - Shay Loya