The Text And Interpretation Of Liszt's Sonata In B Minor

Liszt's sonata in B minor, is one of the crowning piece among the nineteenth-century piano composition. The Sonata's most important achievement is one-movement sonata form. Its thematic metamorphosis and "double function", complex structure and rich content, also its harmonic speciality, give people a broad space to read and understand.It is no surprise to see a lot of analysis and articles about this great sonata. After a close observation to the facsimile of the autograph and a series of compare between dominant theories about this piece, the author of this dissertation has raised three main questions about the Sonata:1. What is the programmatic interpretation of the sonata in B minor?2. How many parts the sonata in B minor should be divided into?3. Which attitude the pianist should take when he plays the sonata in B minor?This dissertation focuses on these three questions and consists of five chapters. The first chapter focuses on the formal origin of the Sonata; the second chapter focuses on the autograph of the Sonata; the third chapter focuses on the programmatic interpretation of the Sonata; the fourth chapter focuses on the division and the numbers of divided parts of the Sonata; the final chapter focuses on the attitude of different pianists when they play the Sonata.The conclusion of this dissertation is: the sonata was influenced by the "mixed form" of other former compositions. The Sonata rolled four movements into one and itself contained a full-scale sonata form-exposition, development and recapitulation-which has been called "double function" . The Sonata is divided into three main parts. The Andante sostenuto, as an episode, is the center part of the whole composition. Before and after the Andante sostenuto, there are two symmetric parts. Among those programmatic interpretations, Liszt used three main figures of 《Faust》 to indicate his own character, to express his thoughts of life and thoughts of human nature. According to the main idea of the Sonata, the author of this dissertation believes that pianists should not play this sonata as an emotional affectation. The true idea of how to play the Sonata lies in the music itself.