Analytical Study Of Liszt's Fountain Of The Este Manor

The Fountains of the Villa d’Este(hereunder referred to as the Fountains) is the piano work created by Liszt in his twilight years and included in the third volume of Years of Pilgrimage- Troisieme Annee. As an exquisite, elegant, delicate and evocative music, the Foundations depicts the scene of the fountains in the Villa d’Este in Roman suburbs. Despite the lack of focus and studies, this exquisite work still shows great charm compared with other popular works of Liszt. While learning this work, the author develops strong interest in its creation background, creation prototype and religious implications, and therefore performs an in-depth study on it.In this paper, the Fountains is regarded as the research object to make a discussion in four chapters. The first chapter gives an introduction to music composition and religious belief. The second chapter introduces the work’s creation background in combination with the composer’s experience in his twilight years, as well as summarizes and analyzes the sound material sources of the Fountains in combination with the creation prototype- the Fountains of the Villa d’Este. The third chapter performs an analysis on the musical structure, texture material and performance essentials and meanwhile unscrambles the theme’s religious implications from a new perspective. The fourth chapter carries out a comparative analysis on the versions played by three pianists as well as generalizes the characteristics, similarities and inspirations of these three versions.In combination with independent reflections and instructor’s guidance, the author endeavors to demonstrate and restore the charm of this musical work from a more in-depth perspective according to the study and analysis of these four chapters with a view to providing a detailed reference for future studies and performance.