Franz Liszt languages spoken, written or signed French
Lieder
Franz Liszt composed about six dozen original songs with piano accompaniment. In most cases, the lyrics were in German or French, but there are also some songs in Italian, Russian, and Hungarian, and one song in English. Liszt began with the song "Angiolin dal biondo crin" in 1839, and, by 1844, had composed about two dozen songs. Some of them had been published as single pieces. In addition, there was an 1843–1844 series Buch der Lieder. The series had been projected for three volumes, consisting of six songs each, but only two volumes appeared.
Today, Liszt's songs are relatively obscure. The song "Ich möchte hingehn" is sometimes cited because of a single bar, which resembles the opening motif of Wagner's Tristan und Isolde. It is often claimed that Liszt wrote that motif ten years before Wagner started work on Tristan in 1857. The original version of "Ich möchte hingehn" was certainly composed in 1844 or 1845; however, there are four manuscripts, and only a single one, a copy by August Conradi, contains the bar with the Tristan motif. It is on a paste-over in Liszt's hand. Since in the second half of 1858 Liszt was preparing his songs for publication and he had at that time just received the first act of Wagner's Tristan, it is most likely that the version on the paste-over was a quotation from Wagner.
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