The Dynamics of Fidelity and Creativity: Liszt’s Reworkings of Orchestral and Gypsy-Band Music

Abstract

This dissertation investigates Liszt’s use of borrowed music and his reworking methods when rendering instrumental music for the piano. By examining selected examples in detail, the study demonstrates a dynamic interaction of fidelity and creativity as a significant aesthetic underlying the compositional strategies that Liszt deployed. Part I examines Liszt’s solo-piano arrangements of orchestral music by others — the majority of which were written during his early virtuoso years of the 1830s and 1840s. These arrangements were specifically designated “partitions de piano” by the composer himself. Liszt’s partitions represent his scrupulous approach to the original compositions, validating his unremitting fidelity to the original. At the same time his reworkings illustrate his reinterpretation underneath the surface to offer effective pianistic solutions. His radical transformations of the model may seem contradictory to his overall faithfulness, yet they stem from his conscientious attempts to capture the essence of the original. Part II continues the fidelity – creativity dynamic by delving into another group of partitur-type arrangements, those of Liszt’s own symphonic poems for two pianos during his Weimar years 1848–61. By shifting the medium of solo piano to two pianos, the interaction of fidelity and creativity becomes reinvigorated in accordance with new reworking methods for the new medium. Liszt’s deep understanding of the original often motivated him to experiment with a distinctive use of the two pianos in physical, visual,and acoustic dimensions. Part III moves into a completely different realm of music, his reworkings of Hungarian Gypsy-band music in his Hungarian Rhapsodies, focusing on Liszt’s evocations of cimbalom playing. Whereas his orchestral arrangements represent the pinnacle of his faithful approach to the models on the surface and his artistic creativity underneath, his renderings of cimbalom playing immediately convey his overt novelty in layout, texture, and sound, yet his scrupulousness underneath. Throughout his reworkings considered in this dissertation, certain types of compositional techniques recur in Liszt’s reworking methods. This recurrence permits comparison and contrast among different realms of music studied, ultimately converging on the ever-present theme that fidelity and creativity are not separate phenomena, but mutually motivating and interacting in a dynamic way