National Spirit In Piano Music Of The Romantics

Chopin and Liszt are both outstanding pianists and composers of the 19th century's Romantics in the history of European music. They created so many famous fantastic music compositions to have won people's respect and they are known as "piano poet" and "the king of piano" respectively. In their piano music pieces, we can find a deep passion and love for their nation and people. In fact those elements of their nation's various folk music styles are fully and perfectly expressed in their compositions.The essay is oriented to analyze the folk music elements in the two great musicians' works and performances, and so help studiers understand their piano music better. Such a study is of much importance for us to absorb the essence of the world piano music to develop China's piano music as well as the whole Chinese folk music.The essay is divided into three chapters. Chapter One is to make a comparison between Chopin's and Liszt's piano music generally. It begins with the friendship between the two musicians and then makes a comparison of their music in view of the style, structure, personality and spiritual kinship,etc.Chapter Two is the key part of this essay. The exploration in this part focuses on: the background of their music style, the way of absorbing their own folk music elements, the characters of their nations brought to us by their and the best structure to convey national characters in piano music.Chapter Three severs as the conclusion, which summarizes the differences and similarities between Chopin's and Liszt's national flavor in their music, explains how the development of European music, and appreciates their showing a way for China to flourish its own music.