| Franz Liszt (Hungarian: Liszt Ferenc), one of the main representatives of the Romantic period, was born in a small village in western Hungary on October 22, 1811. Since he was a child, he has showed extraordinary musical talent. He can compose when he was 8-year-old, and gave his first performance on the stage when he was nine. After he moved to Vienna, he studied on the piano-playing under the tutelage of famous pianist and music educator Czerny. Meanwhile, he studied music-composition following seventy-year-old composer Salieri. Rigorous training and learning laid a solid foundation for Liszt as a great artist in the future.On March 8, 1824, Liszt for the first time performed on stage in Paris and made great success. This period in Paris is important for the forming of Liszt's thought. He had access to a wide range of artistics romanticism from the writer Victor Hugo and Balzac to musicians Rossini and Chopin, which widened his artistic vision, and greatly inluenced his aesthetics thoughts.Among the more than thousand works of Liszt, the piano works take a major part. Liszt is committed to discover the potential of the piano performance, rather than the mere expressing language of the piano keys. Piano adapted works, as a type of music in Romantic period,abound in thouse of Liszt's. Liszt's adaptation of music mainly reflects the underlying meaning. Through adaptation he benefits a lot by learning the essence of different works of different composers.Liszt's early works have greatly affected by Paganini, an Italian violinist. On one day of August 1831, he came to a sbulime concert of Paganini. After that he was filled with admiration to Paganini's dazzling skills of playing the violine, and determined to apply its wonders to the piano, enriching the piano expressing language. Through repeated practice and exploration, six "Paganini Etudes" came out.Six "Paganini Etudes" is based on the first, fifth, sixth, nineth, seventeenth, the 24th works of Paganini's "24 Caprices", and the third movement in "b canzonet Concerto". The six song imitate playing skills and were faithful to the original ones, extract the essence of the Paganini violin skills and sublime them to a higher level. He successfully migrates such violin skills as jump bow, plucked, overtone to the piano, and ultimately forms the distinctive Liszt's piano-playing style, which musical language is more plentiful, and the sound is more enriched. In these works, such distinctive piano-playing elements as a round of the fingers, vibrato, tremolo, octave, hands alternately quick keystrokes are included. In harmony, musical form and structure, he also makes a lot of innovations. These six Etudes can be described as one of the classic Liszt's adaptions.Liszt's life is full of glory and hardships as well. He enjoys applause and flowers when once he was regarded as a symbol of honor and passion. There are also doubts on the social reality and the resulting conflicts and suffering in his mind. He was tortured and struggling in the fierce collision between Spiritual reality and the ideal world. Liszt took on a historical mission of the Romantic musicians to carry on the past and open a way for future. He applied himself as a romantic worrior and spared no effort on his works.This essay makes a study on the analysis of the music-books, on the playing techniques, and on the revealing of the musical thoughts, which are all based on the Liszt's "Paganini Etudes". It helps provide beneficial referrence for the correct understanding and interpretation of Liszt's great works. |
