page_title: Late works of Franz Liszt
section_title: A more complex picture
hierarchical_section_title: Late works of Franz Liszt / A more complex picture
context_page_description: The radical change Franz Liszt's compositional style underwent in the last 20 years of his life was unprecedented in Western classical music. The tradition of music had been one of unified progression, even to the extent of Johannes Brahms' First Symphony being known as "Beethoven's Tenth". Beethoven's own three periods of composition are monolithic and united. Liszt's, by comparison, seem deconstructivist. Replacing pages which in Liszt's earlier compositions had been thick with notes and virtuoso passages was a starkness where every note and rest was carefully weighed and calculated, while the works themselves become more experimental harmonically and formally.
  However, as with his earlier compositions, Liszt's later works continued to abound with forward-looking technical devices. Works such as Bagatelle sans tonalité foreshadow in intent, if not in exact manner, composers who would further explore the modern concept of atonality. Liszt's work also foreshadowed the impressionism that would characterize the work of Debussy and Ravel, as shown in Les Jeux d'Eaux à la Villa d'Este from the third volume of Années de Pèlerinage.
context_section_description: In one sense, it can be tempting to think of the late pieces as an extension of Liszt's earlier works, as they exhibit a similar adventurousness harmonically, an intense chromaticism and a tonal ambiguity. What is new is the sadness of heart which pervades many of the late works. As tempting as it can be to think of Liszt as the father of modern music on the basis of his late music, looking at his achievements in these works as ends in themselves would be erroneous. Liszt's technical achievements in his late music are one side of a more complex picture.  Along with the increasing interest in Hungarian and other national schools of composition already mentioned, essential parts of this picture are tragedy in Liszt's personal life and developments in his friendship with Wagner.
  In his later years Liszt's problems with health, both physical and mental, affected his ability to complete compositions. By the early 1880s, Liszt was often ravaged by a universal sadness, descending without warning and threatening to overwhelm everything he did.  He told Lina Ramann, "I carry with me a deep sadness of the heart which must now and then break out in sound." In addition, the deaths of his son Daniel in 1859 and daughter Blandine in 1862 brought a phase of deep personal anguish that impacted greatly on his creative life. As he grew older, he was also deeply affected by the deaths of certain political figures, artists and personal acquaintances. These events, among others, triggered elegiac outpourings ranging from the unusual to the bizarre. Liszt was already known for drinking considerable amounts of alcohol with no detectable effects on his speech or piano playing; however, beginning in 1882, friends became concerned with the quality of the alcohol he consumed, which now included absinthe. It is very possible that alcohol both fed his depressive moods and limited his powers of concentration.
  One point not normally discussed with Liszt but not unfamiliar to late-19th-century composers was his consciousness of working in the shadow of composers he considered giants. In Liszt's case, the shadows were those of Beethoven and Wagner. He professed to find consolation and inspiration in their works. However, it is also possible their greatness may have had an effect on his own ability to compose. While he blamed his inability to complete compositions on his busy social calendar as late as the early 1870s, by the late 1870s he began to express fears of failing creativity on his part. However, most critically, Liszt was not entirely deterred by his insecurities or growing awareness of waning powers. He continued working until a year before his death, by which time cataracts made composition virtually impossible.
  Liszt wrestled daily with the demons of desolation, despair and death, bringing forth music that utterly failed to find its audience.  We now know, in retrospect, that Liszt's contemporaries were offered a glimpse into a mind on the verge of catastrophe.  They formed what Bence Szabolcsi calls "a conspiracy of silence" on the late pieces — one not lifted until modern times.
  Liszt's works from this period fall into three categories:
  Music of retrospection
  Music of despair
  Music of death
  The first category contains pieces in which a troubled spirit seeks consolation in memories of the past.  Liszt referred to this music as his "forgotten" pieces — sardonically referring to compositions forgotten before even played, with titles such as Valse oubliée, Polka oubliée and Romance oubliée.
  The second category, music of despair, can appear much more important since the titles of the pieces in this category would seem to point to a troubled mind.  These titles include:
  Schlaflos!  Frage und Antwort
  Unstern!  Sinistre, Disastro
  Nuages gris
  Ossa arida
  Csárdás macabre
  Abschied
  These pieces, as well as others in this category, can be best understood as fragments broken off from a greater whole, each offering a glimpse of a pathology of despair.  Though they do not share any overtly musical connections, they seem to fit with one another like members
caption: Photograph  of Liszt in the 1880s.
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