LISZT, list, FRANZ ( 181 1-S6) . A famous Hun garian pianist and composer. He was horn at Raiding, near Oedenburg, in Hungary, October 22, IS11, and began his musical education at the age of six years. After three years' instruction he surprised his friends by playing a difficult con certo in public. The evidences of his genius were so patent that his father organized further con certs, which not only enhanced the boy's musical reputation. but gained for him many important friends and patrons among the Hungarian nobil ity. It was by means of their financial support that the young pianist was enabled to spend six years, completing his education. at Vienna. to city his family removed in 1821. His teachers were the celebrated Czerny (piano) and Salieri (theory). men of strong artistic personal ity. who undoubtedly supplied the ballast that enabled him to resist the imisical trickery in com position which at first beset his work. After a few public concerts in 1823. he and his father journeyed to Paris. with the view of securing for the boy admission to the Paris Conservatory, which, however, was refused him. owing to an old rule which excluded all foreigners. He. how ever. studied theory for a time under Paer and Reicha. His first. operetta. Don Sangho on he chateau de ramour. was produced in 1825. Two years later his father died. upon which he gave top his concert work, and settled as a teacher in Paris. Contemporary critics described him as `a pianist, the most extraordinary and faseina ting ever known. and one of the most wonderful of improvisators.' His early piano compositions were in the style and fashion of the Is:Hod. and were largely paraphrases upon popular or fash ionable operas, in which art was frequently sac rificed to a sort of trickery, passages being so written as practically impos sible to any one but himself. Ile met with immediate success as a teacher, the aristo cratic patrons and friends of his boyhood ral lying to him. and enabling him to satisfy every social as well as musical ambition. appear alive of Paganini in Paris in 1831 inspired him to become as great a virtuoso on the piano as that master was on the violin. He was of a peculiarly impressionable temperament, and was in turn strongly affected by the political happen ings of the period. the ceremonialism of the Church, the genius of Beethoven. Welfer, Chopin, Berlioz, Schumann. and Wagner; be-ijes which he experienced several a Ithirs of the heart, the most serious of which was his unison with the au thoress 'Daniel Stern' (the Countess d'Agoult). Together they retired to Geneva (1835), where three children were born to them, two daughters and a son. Cosima, the youngest of the daugh ters, married first Ilans von 13iilow (1857), and, after separating from him in 1869. became the wife of Wagner.of whom her father was a mighty champion. In 15:39 he reappeared in public with signal success, his only serious competitor hieing Thalberg (q.v.). whom he easily out rivaled. Tn 1849 he beeame kapellmeister to the Grand Duke of Weimar. a post which he relin quished in 186]. Four years later he took minor orders in the Catholic Church, and was quently known as the Abbe; Liszt. During his period of service at Weimar occurred the really great events of his life. Ile was enabled to dis
cover, help. and introduce many artists of whom the world came to be proud: he advanced most thoroughly the school of music to which he be longed. and which has since been described in the history of music as the New German Sehool, whose characteristic was a freedom from the old classical rules of tonality and form. Here also he began his second period of composition, by which alone he is to he judged as a composer. His work was now characterized by his own individ uality as a creative artist, and marked by the inherent mysticism of his nature. Ile took up orchestral instrumentation and the classic sym phony where his great predecessors had left it. and evolved the symphonic poem. in which the emotions and their portrayal are of more impor tance than the prescribed forms of the elassie symphony or overture. While the -ymphonie poem was akin to the symphony in style. it was smaller in extent, and had no pause between the movements—which latter were bounded or di vided according to the emotional moods and de mands of the subject or story under treats ent. In brief, the fundamental laws of f111111 were adhered to. but not the vonventional formula.. Perhaps the most eventful incident connected with his stay at Weimar was his introduction and championship of Wagner and his work. Ile pro duced grin in 1850, and revived Dm r Pre arndr lionlinder and Taniahnum r. He also pre genteel notable work: of Ralf. Schumann. and Berl ioz. 1 n 1875 he became president cf the Hun garian Academy of Music at Pesth. between Which city, Weimar. and Rome he spent the last few year.; of his life. With the passing of tier critical musical c pinion has come to be widely divergent regarding the value of his work and his place in the list of great composers. By many much of his work is considered to be not altogether free from charlatanism; but, contra dictory as the differing estimates may be, he is unhesitatingly conceded to have been a man of genius. As a pianist he has never been excelled. Besides this Liszt gave to the world a method of technique and interpretation by which the piano became almost as eloquent as the orchestra. Thematic catalogues and lists of his many com positions are plentiful. He wrote chiefly for the piano, although toward the end of his life or chestral and religious compositions were in the majority. Few great men have been more loyal to their friends and convictions than was Liszt, and still fewer have been as greatly beloved by their contemporaries, or as highly honored by the world. His writings include: Lohengrin ct Tann liduscr de Richard Wagner (1851) ; Frederic Chopin (1852) Ueber Fields Notturnos (1859) ; Robert Franz (1872) ; and, most important, Des Bohemiens et de lour musique en Ilongrie (1859). He died in the midst of a Wagner festival at Bayreuth, July 31, 1886. Consult: Ramann, Franz Liszt als Kiinstler and Mensch. (Leip zig, 1894), the best biography: Von Lenz, Great Piano Virtuosos (New York, 1899) ; Amy Fay, Music Study in Germany (New York, 1880), an excellent personal sketch ; and, for a critical ap preciation, Huneker, Mezzotints in Modern Music (New York, 1899).