A Study On Liszt's Piano Transcription Of Beethoven's Ninth Smphony

Liszt was one of the most prominent composers in the field of piano arrangement in the 19th century.His innovations in the field of piano arrangement were greatly influenced by the trends of the Romantic era.Of Liszt's nearly 400 piano adaptations,the piano version of Beethoven's ninth is a particularly important one.The piece presented not only a challenge to Liszt,but it also gave Liszt a great opportunity to explore symphonic piano music arrangement as well as demonstrating his admiration of Beethoven and his aesthetic pursuit of creative transcription.Additionally,from Liszt's perspective,it also furthers an understanding of pianist participation on music arrangement,and the incited a phenomenon of large amounts of piano arrangements being produced in line with the emotion and image of the Romantic era.The subject of this thesis is Liszt's piano version of Beethoven's Ninth Symphony.Using music historiography as the basic research method,and combining critical analysis of the music piece and comparative study,this thesis probes into the basic features and creative techniques of Liszt's transcription,and extends the discussion to the significance of music transcription in Liszt's career and impact on the Western music.This thesis consists of three chapters.The first chapter focuses on the discussion of a few factors that greatly impacted and advanced Liszt's piano arrangement in the context of Romantic music;for example,salon culture and improvement in piano manufacturing industry.Being both pianist and composer,Liszt himself was big admirer of Beethoven's music in that era of Beethoven's reverence.With a keen interest in music arrangement,Liszt translated Beethoven's symphony into his most familiar medium,piano.A review of Liszt's transcription of Beethoven's symphonies will be provided in the latter part of this chapter.In Chapter 2,a relationship is established between piano,the"universal instrument",and the rich and powerful sound of orchestra based on the original score.A comparative study was subsequently performed on various adaptations which are different in musical style and trend,beginning with the tone-colors of harmony,the solution,and the texture rearrangement.An in-depth comparison was followed on the fugue in polyphony and the integration degree of vocal instruments,and the reinterpretation of original music idea by the other composers,which greatly helped to understand the starting point of Liszt's transcription and the aesthetic consciousness embodied within it.In Chapter 3,the artistic features and humanistic implications of Liszt's piano arrangement were summarized based on the studies from previous chapters.The author also outlines Liszt's solution to the form problem of the 19th century"Sonata"by evaluation of the impact of the symphony arrangement on the music composition in his later life.Music commentary on Liszt and his music arrangement since the19~thh century will be reviewed and further elaborated upon from a modern point of view.