The late keyboard works of Franz Liszt

Includes bibliographical references (pages 66-68)Musical experiments of all kinds are evident in the compositions of Liszt's last years. New musical directions include explorations in tonality, chord construction, melody, rhytyms, and texture. During Liszt's lifetime there was very little understanding as to the importance of\ud these experiments, and it was not realized that these works\ud contained fresh ideas which would provide material for exploration by future generations. Probably the most important development in Liszt's late years was the obscuring and dissolution of tonality as it had been understood up until that time. The devices Liszt used to obscure or avoid an established key center include non-functional use of seventh chords and augmented triads whole-tone, modal and chromatic scales, melodic motives which span the tritone, bitonality, and non-functional cadences. Harmonic structures used in the late works vary. In addition to the traditional triads and seventh chords, Liszt also used ninth and eleventh chords, augmented triads; and chords built in fourths. The melodic style shows increasing use of wide skips of fourths and fifths and repeated notes. Liszt's extensive\ud use of motivic melodies are opposed to the long, flowing, cantabile melodies found in his earlier works. This\ud points to the future when a singable melody in a serious\ud composition is the exception, rather than the rule. The\ud melodic contour occasionally seems to follow a natural??\ud speech inflection. Rhythmic continuity is often interrupted or stopped\ud completely. Indications for recitative-like interruptions\ud appear. There is much use of the Hungarian dotted rhythm\ud also known as the Scotch snap or Lombard rhythm, a rhythm\ud associated with Hungarian folk music and frequently encountered in the music of Bela Bartok. Musical texture tends to be increasingly sparse,\ud often fading into a bare melodic line. Additional characteristics\ud also found include extensive use of ostinato,\ud tremolo, and pedal point