Liszt, Thalberg, Heller, and the Practice of Nineteenth-Century Song Arrangement

This study explores the relationship between art song and its recomposition as a solo piano work by three nineteenth-century composers. While Franz Liszt is considered the most well-known arranger of art songs, other contemporaries excelled at the practice as well, such as Sigismond Thalberg and Stephen Heller. Though they lived in close proximity to one another, their arranging style shows significant variety, with each displaying different interpretations of their source material. Chapter 1 explains some of the most important differences between the techniques of paraphrase and transcription, with particular reference to works by Liszt. In Chapter 2, composers as arrangers in the nineteenth century are introduced with their biographical sketches and a survey of their arrangements. Analyzing song arrangements by three composers – Liszt, Thalberg, and Heller – comprises the largest part of the document. In Chapter 3, each composer’s compositional/arranging style is noted in detail, drawing from secondary sources as well as from some of their representative pieces. In the following chapter I compare different approaches to the same songs by pairing two composers at a time. A selected bibliography follows. In exploring the diverse styles of composers-arrangers of the nineteenth century, this document will also suggest that, in their hands, such works could become vehicles for homage to the source composer as well as vehicles for charting the direction of the music of the future