6 Transcendental Studies

An extraordinary thing about the Etudes d’exécution transcendante that Liszt completed in 1851 is that, extravagantly difficult though they seem to be, they are actually a simplification of the Grandes Etudes published twelve years earlier. An even more extraordinary thing is that the Grandes Etudes are themselves a fantastically transformed version of twelve comparatively simple Etudes written in the manner of a Cramer or a Czerny when Liszt was no more than fifteen years old. How he developed a piece like Feux follets out of the conventional figuration of the fifth of the early Etudes, which betrays not a hint of a will-o’-the-wisp, it is impossible to imagine.

Bearing in mind the history of these Transcendental Studies, it seems likely that the individual titles, which appear only in the 1851 version, are intended as a guide to the interpretation of the ten pieces that carry them rather than as an indication of their sources of inspiration. The Preludio title attached to the first study in the set is fairly obvious, it is true, but it is also a confirmation that it is no more than an introductory flourish, a virtuso improvisation leading to nowhere except the next piece. While the second Study in A minor has no descriptive title, its diabolic character is clear enough from its clattering seconds, the violent extremes of its colouring, its sustained restlessness and its bizarre ending. With the third Study in F major, having cut the Presto agitato middle section present in the earlier version, Liszt clearly wished to secure the preservation of its sunlit and relaxed if not always tranquil atmosphere by calling it Paysage (“Landscape”).

Feux follets, the fifth Study in the complete set of twelve, derives its fluttering will-o’-the-wisp motion from the alternating major and minor seconds of the melodic line, its elusive personality from harmonies shifting between the eerie and the innocent, its effects of changing light from the variety of articulation applied to its fragmentary, fleeting material. The eleventh of the Transcendental Studies anticipates Debussy not only in its Baudelairean title, Harmonies du soir (“Evening harmonies”) but also in its actual sound. It is true that trionfante, the direction applied by Liszt to the heroic middle section of the piece, is a term quite foreign to Debussy. On the other hand, the nocturnal framework in which these stirring events are set, particularly the atmospheric pedal-sustained harmonies and chiaroscuro colouring at the beginning, has a poetry not very far from his. If the untitled tenth study in the collection (and the last in today’s selection) calls another composer to mind it is Chopin, even thoughthe driving force behind this tempestuous ballade is a demonic inspiration that is not only characteristic of Liszt but exclusive to him.