The Romantic piano assumed the role of jack of all trades and master of all: home entertainment, accompaniment for songs, soloist and composer's tool.
Steinway Grand Piano (1868) | An early 88-key piano with cast iron frame, aliquot stringing and Brazilian rosewood case. | Metropolitan Museum of Art
Piano Technology
Romantic era technical innovations gave pianos greater resonance, dynamics, and note range. These improvements allowed a solo pianist to fill a theatre with sound or perform a concerto with a large orchestra.
Aliquot Stringing
Sympathetic strings—called aliquot (L-ah-quit) stringing—were added to pianos during the nineteenth century. Aliquot strings are not played but enrich the tone and resonance of the piano via sympathetic vibration. Additional strings increase string tension, necessitating the use of a stronger frame; hence, cast iron replaced the wood frames of earlier designs. The range expanded from five to seven octaves, yielding more tonal possibilities than the pianos of Mozart and Beethoven.
During the nineteenth century, the piano was the family entertainment center and played a similar role to music streaming today or vinyl records of the twentieth century. When people wished to hear the latest hit song, they bought the sheet music and played it on the piano. Music publishing was booming, churning out piano sheet music of the latest hits.
The Music Room | Mihály Munkácsy, 1844-1900 | Nineteenth century home with family gathered around the piano. | Metropolitan Museum of Art
With the immense popularity of the piano, it’s understandable that pianist-composers held the spotlight during that era. Let’s delve into the lives and contributions of two of the most prominent pianist-composers of their time: Frédéric Chopin and Franz Liszt.
Nineteenth-century Hungarian pianist, Franz Liszt (1811-86), was a prolific composer, virtuoso performer, conductor, and cleric. After he heard Paganini play the violin in 1831, Liszt withdrew from the stage for years and practiced eight to twelve hours daily, planning to become the "Paganini of the piano." Paganini’s style and success also made Liszt aware of the value of showmanship, and he henceforth cultivated a stage persona worthy of any modern pop performer.
Liszt was a man of contradictions: irresistible to women, dazzling on stage, and yet he took holy orders and became a Franciscan tertiary. Liszt made so much money by his mid-forties that he gave his performing fees to charity and taught for free.
Portrait de Franz Liszt | Henri Lehmann, 1814-1882 | Musée Carnavalet
Touring Virtuoso
Up to age thirty-six, Liszt was a touring pianist and teacher. He played his piano works, the music of friends, and transcriptions of orchestra pieces. During this time, Liszt gained renown across Europe and befriended composers during tours, including Chopin, Wagner, Berlioz, Schumann, Saint-Saëns, Glinka, and Borodin. Liszt championed their music, often performing their pieces in his concerts.
Love Intervenes and Fumbles...
A Polish princess, Carolyne Sayn-Wittgenstein, convinced Liszt to settle down. At age thirty-six, Liszt stopped touring and took a job as music director for the Duke of Weimar. With stability and an orchestra at his whim, Liszt honed his orchestral writing. Initially, his orchestral works were written as piano duets and orchestrated by a local musician. Liszt was a fast study and soon became a skilled orchestrator.
Carolyne and Franz, aspiring to marry, embarked on a meticulous journey to invalidate Carolyne's prior marriage. Their wedding in Rome in 1861 was abruptly canceled at the eleventh hour. The catalyst for this calamity was the intervention of her ex-husband and the Tsar of Russia, who exerted immense pressure on the Vatican to rescind the marriage license. Consequently, the Russian government seized her estates in the Polish Ukraine, leaving her utterly destitute and devoid of any financial resources.
Research and Cross-Cultural Currents
At Weimar, Liszt pioneered the symphonic poem, a one-movement programmatic work for orchestra. He also engaged in music scholarship, researching Roma and Hungarian folk music, and publishing articles on folk music and contemporary composers such as Chopin and Berlioz. Eventually, he incorporated elements of Roma and Hungarian folk music into his compositions, bringing to audiences a cross-cultural fusion of Gypsy and Germanic music cultures in this Hungarian Rhapsodies and other works.
Liszt's life was in shambles: Carolyne deserted him, and two of his children died. He left Weimar in 1861 to pursue Catholic studies at Rome and took minor holy orders, earning the titles of porter, lector, exorcist, and acolyte. As Abbé Liszt, he wrote oratorios and masses for the Church and composed innovative piano solos foreshadowing twentieth-century techniques. The remainder of his life was spent teaching, conducting, and performing in Rome, Weimar, and Budapest.
Liszt had a generous heart, promoting and financing promising composers such as Berlioz and Wagner. He gave free piano lessons to hundreds of gifted students. Some of the best pianist-composers of the next generation studied with Liszt, including Isaac Albeniz and Hans von Bülow.
Side Notes
In the United States, we usually name airports after dead politicians or neighboring cities. However, some cultures celebrate culture and art in public works: the main airport in Hungary is called the Budapest Liszt Ferenc (Hungarian spelling of Franz) International Airport, named in honor of Franz Liszt.
Transcendental Étude No.10
Liszt's Transcendental Étude No.10 in F Minor is one of the most performed études in piano competitions and graduate recitals. Liszt was fond of it, so he created three versions: a light 1824 version when he was thirteen years old, an 1838 version with an Appassionata-inspired coda, and a reworked 1851 edition.
The Étude is in A B A' coda form. Passage work for the left hand is extremely demanding, with fast skips and position changes, while the right hand hammers the melody in octaves. It ends with a fast and furious coda with syncopated octaves raining down to massive final chords.
Listen to Natalia Kartashova play the final 1851 version of Liszt's Transcendental Étude No.10 in F Minor, dedicated to his piano teacher, Carl Czerny.
Transcendental Étude No. 10 in F Minor | Franz Liszt (4:55)
Fréderic Chopin
Fréderic Chopin (1810-49) was born near Warsaw to a French father and Polish mother. A child virtuoso, he performed and composed from the age of seven. At sixteen, he entered the Warsaw Conservatory to study composition. After a few years of success as a composer and performer in Warsaw, Chopin moved to Paris in 1831, where he mingled with Berlioz, Liszt, Mendelssohn, and other Romantic composers. Chopin and Liszt were friends, occasionally playing together and performing one another's compositions.
Chopin knew his intimate keyboard style was not ideal for large concert halls and preferred smaller venues. He developed a following among the aristocracy and artistic elite of Paris, performing for them in salons. By 1832, he was earning a good income from publishing piano pieces and teaching wealthy students. This income released him from the stress of regular public concerts, and he focused on writing, practicing, and playing in private salons.
Chopin, a pianist par excellence, composed primarily for the piano and excelled at short and perfectly proportioned solos. His style diverged significantly from the composers of his era, manifesting as a kaleidoscope of three distinct musical cultures: German classicism, lyrical Italian bel canto melodies, and Polish folk music idioms. He was fond of obscure Polish folk dances, especially the mazurka and polonaise, bringing their distinctive rhythms along with a fusion of cultures to the world through his piano solos.
Chopin Autograph (1835) | Dabrowski's Mazurka chorus with harmony, a souvenir autograph for Konstanty Mlokosiewicz. | Fryderyk Chopin Institute
Chopin's Lover
The renowned novelist, Amantine Lucile Aurore Dupin de Francueil, famously known as George Sand, was Chopin’s lover from 1838 to 1847. Six years older than Chopin, she devoted herself to caring for him as a devoted mother, nurturing his talent and helping him overcome his personal demons. However, this period marked his least productive time, possibly due to the demands of domestic life and his deteriorating health. After quarrels over his lover's children, the relationship fizzled, and Chopin and Sand parted ways. As a result, his health and finances deteriorated, and he succumbed to tuberculosis in 1849.
Nocturne Op. 9 No. 2
Nocturne (notturno, Italian) literally means night music. The nocturne was popular as a single-movement character piece for solo piano during the nineteenth century. Chopin composed his Nocturne in E-flat Major Op. 9 No. 2 when he was in his early twenties. It's in a rounded binary form (A A B A B A) with coda. Rounded binary form differs from simple binary form insomuch as the B section ends with a return of the opening material from the A section.
The A section begins with a beautiful bel canto style melody filled with graceful upward leaps, jumping higher as the line unfolds:
Each time A repeats, the melody is varied with embellishments. The waltz feel accompaniment gently spanks the 12/8 meter into four groups of three pulses.
The nocturne is reflective and melancholy until the end where it takes a passionate turn. After the excitement subsides, it ends peacefully and all is well.
Nocturne in E Flat Major, Op. 9 No. 2 | Fréderic Chopin (4:23)
Étude in C Minor, Op. 10 No.12
Étude is the French term for study. Pieces so designated are normally written for students to practice and develop a particular technique: rapid scales, balance running bass against melody, etc. However, the études of Chopin and Liszt are demanding concert pieces focused on advanced techniques.
The Étude in C Minor, Op. 10 No.12 "Revolutionary" was inspired by the 1831 Russian attack on Warsaw. Since this Étude is short, the simple A A' Coda form is effective. The technique used initially features fast descending runs in the left hand. The scales build up to the main theme, a trumpet call like melody played in octaves by the right hand. Although the greatest challenge lies with the continuous left-hand sixteenth notes, the right hand is challenged by increasingly difficult cross-rhythms (layering of differing rhythms) and embellishment of the octave melody in A'. The coda ensues by recalling the opening in a final two-hand descending sweep and landing hard on a fat C major chord.
Étude in C Minor, Op. 10 No.12 "Revolutionary" | Fréderic Chopin (2:34)
Chopin Bucks | 5000 zloty banknote from Poland's communist era. The flip side has a facsimile of the theme from Chopin's Polonaise in F minor, Op. 71 No. 3 | Fryderyk Chopin Institute
Vocabulary
aliquot stringing, nocturne, rounded binary form, étude, Franz Liszt, Fréderic Chopin, mazurka, polonaise
Piano's Role
Piano Technology
Aliquot Stringing
Hungary
Franz Liszt
Love Intervenes and Fumbles...
Holy Orders
Side Notes
