Thank you Ian for interesting information (free downloads).

I only know one Mephisto Walz which I will never play in my life.
I used to listen to it every time I had my lesson because one boy played it before me.
I liked it (Liszt was highly regarded in the USSR, may be still is).

Do you play all Liszt Mephisto Waltzes?

To me Liszt is a great man, complex personality, good musician, great pianist, fascinating man.

I like some of his music and don't care for other. I am still discovering him. I recently discovered Palm trees (or something like that from Swiss travels). As a young person I would not like it, but learning it with an intelligent student I found that the piece is not bad at all.

I find that Liszt learned and improved as a composer all his life.
I love his show off pieces (Rhapsodies, paraphrases etc), I like some of his songs (lorelei), I love his concerto (hidious for some people).
I like his Miphisto Waltz, so some parts (like in concertos) I don't like.

His orchestral music is very interesting and should be played more.
I should learn more about him still and his music.

I don't know how people can learn so much music and how they can keep all of it in their head.
My head is very bad. If I memorize one thing I lose the other (like a computer with limited capacities). Now I am not sure I even can memorize.
I admire people who know so much music and plus can play it in concerts.
E flat concerto is a good one. What about the second one.
It is not bad I think, but now as good.

It is so nice to be so talented. I think I may be a little talented, but I am not very talented.

What are you reading about Liszt?

Much of Liszt's most beautiful music - like that of Schubert before him, that of Rachmannineff and many others after him, and even at times that of Mozart and Bach - is beautiful precisely because it makes use of one specific harmony. The chord in question has several names, the most commonly used among which is the "half-diminished seventh."

We emphasise that the beauty of this chord is inherent, in of and for itself, regardless of any progression within which it may be embedded. Let us look at a few examples of its use in the expert hands of Liszt, specifically in the renowned third of his Three Dreams of Love, opus 168. The poem it sets, by Freiligrath, urges us to "love as long as we are able" and to "be careful with our tongue."

It comes first at A, and evidently moves the composer to linger long upon it, introduce a flourish, and feel justified thereafter in venturing off into the remote but all the more effective key of B major!


The theme here is marked "with passion" and "more animated," and this time (at B) Liszt uses our chord in the third bar.


Then at C D E and F he even contrives a short but interesting and effective sequence based upon this same chord; a fascinatingly beautiful thing which had probably never been done in that way before.


Finally, at G and H, we see this same thrilling combination used to accompany and justify the use of two sequences of consecutive fifths!

The Doctor (in message #5 above) is to be praised for his analytic insight into the harmonic writing of Liszt. But I must suggest that the chord he marked as A - different from all the others highlighted - is in fact not a decorated form of the diminished 7th, but rather an augmented 6th chord (the E in the RH is still a natural, thereby forming an augmented 6th against the Gb in the bass).

Nonetheless, I look forward to seeing more of his insights into Liszt's harmonic writing.

Baz

The examples cited by Member Grew, if written as seventh chords in root position, are surely identical to the famous Tristan chord, are they not?

Best,

Alizstair

Yes - but the Tristan Chord is in its virgin form spelled F-B-D#-G# rather than F-Cb-Eb-Ab, thus emphasizing the upward tendency of the treble fourth.

Sherbet it is still not identical, any more than a german sixth chord is identical to a dominant seventh, or a peel is identical to appeal.