12 Tremendous Composers 12 Composers    

Lesson 27: Sonata in B minor, S. 178

by Franz Liszt

Performer: Jean Dubé

Directions

Study the musical selection for one week.

Over the week:

• Listen to the music daily.
• Read the synopsis.
• Review the vocabulary terms.
• Read about the composer.
• Complete the enrichment activities.
• Study the review questions.

Synopsis

Published in 1854, Franz Liszt dedicated 'Sonata in B minor, S. 178' to fellow composer Robert Schumann. However, Schumann's wife, pianist and composer Clara Schumann wasn't a fan and refused to play it. Many others at the time agreed with Clara Schumann, but the popularity of the composition eventually bloomed at the turn of the century.

Vocabulary

Sonata: A musical composition for one or a few instruments, one of which is frequently a piano, in three or four movements that vary in key and tempo.

Composer

1. All good and wonderful things live on forever. Even though Franz Liszt moved from Weimar, spending his last years in Budapest, Rome, and elsewhere, he was not idle. There was always a circle of people about him. And always his full-hearted, generous nature kept him at work for the good of others. He reminds us of Beethoven who once said, 'Composing is a capital thing. For instance, if a friend is in distress and I have no money at hand to help him, I can sit down and compose something which I can sell and so relieve him.' It seems that Franz Liszt thought the same for he was forever helping someone else.
2. We have already seen how Liszt looked as he sat at the piano. This is Liszt at the conductor's stand. Do you see his baton and the score on the desk? And the position of the left hand? When Liszt conducted the orchestra, the players watched every movement of his hands and every look of his eyes so as to play just as he desired.

3. Franz Liszt was kind to all people who came to him. There was one musician, however, for whom he did a great deal. You may know him for he composed many operas. One of them is called 'Parsifal.' Another is 'The Flying Dutchman.' Someday the operas of Richard Wagner will give you great pleasure. At first, they were not liked by the public. Wagner had few friends and his life was very hard. But Franz Liszt believed in him and in his work. And so he helped him. Here is Richard Wagner.

4. At first, Wagner did not like Liszt. He once said, 'I never repeated my first call on Liszt.' By this he meant that he wished the acquaintance to end. When Liszt realized that Wagner did not care to understand him, he tried his best to keep the friendship secure. Liszt never wished to misunderstand another human being. So, it was not long before Wagner's opinion of Liszt changed, for he said, later, 'Through the love of this rarest friend I gained a real home for my art.'
5. There is one thing true for us all. We carry our early thoughts along with us all through life. The friends we make from youth and the thoughts we think from youth are always at hand to bless us if we have done wisely.
6. Once when little Franz was thirteen years old, he played before the English King, George IV. Sixty years later we see him again, once more the guest of the English people.
7. It is pleasant to think of Liszt meeting again and again the friends of his boyhood. When he went to England, on this occasion, he was quite an old man. As he stepped out upon the stage to play, for the last time, everybody, even the people outside of the hall, who could not get in, shouted themselves hoarse. Those within rose to greet him with tears and cheers that are given only to the kings of the earth.

8. While we know of this artist chiefly as a great pianist, we shall learn, as we grow older, that he was a great composer as well. He wrote music for piano, for orchestra, for the voice. There are symphonies, masses, oratorios and cantatas. Once, as a boy, he met Franz Schubert in Vienna. In later years he arranged many of Schubert's songs in a truly beautiful way for the piano,—songs like the 'Erl King,' 'Thou Art My Peace,' 'Hark, Hark the Lark.'
9. So we may end by saying that Franz Liszt was a great man who remained simple and big-hearted all his life, and one whom the world loved for what he did.

Enrichment

Activity 1: Recite the Composition Information

• Recite the name of the composer and the composition.

Activity 2: Study the Music Timeline

Examine the music timeline to answer the following questions.

• What is the year of birth of the lesson composer?
• What is the year of death of the featured composer?
• How old was the composer upon death?
• Which composer (if any) directly precedes the studied composer by date of birth?
• Which composer (if any) directly succeeds the lesson composer by date of birth?
• Which other timeline composers were alive at the same time as the studied composer?

Activity 3: Map the Music

• Franz Liszt was born in Hungary.
• Which countries border Hungary?

Activity 4: Read Aloud Your Paper About Franz Liszt

• Read your one-page story about Franz Liszt to your family.
• Make any corrections, as needed, after reading the paper aloud.

Review

Question 1

What great musician's life was written by Franz Liszt?

1 / 3

Answer 1

Liszt wrote the biography of his friend, composer Frédéric Chopin.

1 / 3

Question 2

Who did Franz Liszt befriend, despite an initially cool reception?

2 / 3

Answer 2

Franz Liszt befriended Richard Wagner, although it took some persistence on Liszt's part.

2 / 3

Question 3

When and where did Franz Liszt die?

3 / 3

Answer 3

Liszt died in 1886, in Rome, Italy.

3 / 3

❮ ❯

1. What great musician's life was written by Franz Liszt? Liszt wrote the biography of his friend, composer Frédéric Chopin.
2. Who did Franz Liszt befriend, despite an initially cool reception? Franz Liszt befriended Richard Wagner, although it took some persistence on Liszt's part.
3. When and where did Franz Liszt die? Liszt died in 1886, in Rome, Italy.

References

Tapper, Thomas. Franz Liszt - The Story of a Boy Who Became a Great Pianist and Teacher. Philadelphia, PA. Theodore Presser Co., 1921.

'Liszt Piano Sonata in B minor, S. 178.' Musopen. https://musopen.org/music/43159-piano-sonata-in-b-minor-s-178/. n.p.