Virtuosic Culture Podcast

This episode of Music, Culture, and Society discusses virtuosity culture in music, focusing on pianist Franz Liszt and his revolutionary techniques. Liszt's upbringing and influences are explored, as well as the evolution of finger techniques in piano playing. Liszt's emphasis on arm movement and body posture, along with powerful finger strength, are highlighted. Two of Liszt's famous pieces, "Un Spiro" and "Noma Regan," are analyzed, discussing the importance of rhythm, pedal usage, and specific techniques in each piece. These pieces showcase Liszt's virtuosity and continue to be popular in the solo piano repertoire. Hello, and welcome to a new episode of Music, Culture, and Society. I am your host, Ai Zhu Li. Thanks for tuning in. Today's episode is about virtuosity culture. What does the word virtuosity mean in music? It describes musicians who demonstrated their instruments with control and command easily, with what seems impossible to any ordinary person. I am sure that we have all heard of Frédéric Chopin and Sergei Rachmaninoff. They all belong in this category. Amongst the many esteemed virtuosos, there is one pianist that stood out to me the most with his expressiveness in style and his revolutionary techniques that reshaped the piano culture until modern days. In the next 15 minutes, we'll be diving into Franz Liszt, and most importantly, his techniques. As a composer and pianist, Liszt's contributions to the music society are numerous and evolutionary. As a fellow pianist, the first words that came to mind when hearing the name Liszt were techniques. While learning his pieces, I always felt inspired by his miraculous mind and dedication, while at the same time being shocked compared to my amateur pianistic knowledge and commitment. Why is it so hard for us? Besides Liszt's unusually large hand span, the pianist pushed what were considered limits in composition and performance. We could grasp the complexity and difficulty simply by taking a glance into his etudes. However, one could not talk about Liszt without mentioning his background. While learning Liszt's pieces, I couldn't help but wonder about his upbringing. What influence he undertook and who shaped him into the virtuoso that he became? It is this question that brought me to further discoveries where I found the two musical prodigies that left a significant mark on Liszt's journey. During the early stages of piano development with the harpsichord and clavichord, finger techniques were introduced and brought to attention for the first time. Because of their unique touch, the proper way to play them is with fingers separately, with little to no arm movement. Following this period, there was a widespread focus on finger strength and isolation. Pianists at that time did whatever was needed to make the fingers stronger, completely ignoring the fact that arm motion plays a major role in playing. Soon after, Beethoven added a significant change in arm movement, which was later enhanced by his student Czerny. As Czerny's top student, Liszt fully embraced what he was taught while incorporating new techniques that changed how pianists approached the instrument until now. Czerny has taught Liszt the techniques for fingers and wrists, with the forearm staying still in a straight line. This was considered the classical method of playing at that time. However, Liszt later found the classical method to be limited and gradually decided to shift away from it since it had caused him wrist pains. Through his process of resolving this technical issue, the techniques slowly started to change as his virtuosity unfolded. In 1833, the encounter with Paganini inspired Liszt remarkably and led him to practice even more extensively. This encounter possibly restructured Liszt's approach to the piano. The barriers built by Baroque and classical finger schools were soon broken when Liszt discovered the way of joining arm weight and wrist movement with fingers. Liszt always stressed the balance of utilizing the whole arm and body. While performing, Liszt would often play with openness in posture by tilting the head, the neck would be strengthened, ultimately allowing the whole body to capture sensory awareness. The freedom that permits Liszt the ability of comprehensive arm rotation allows pianists who play his music to clearly see the heavy use of rotation because of the extreme distance of the leaps. Though arm movement was the fundamental part of Liszt's techniques, it could not be achieved without powerful finger strength. To give you a more comprehensive idea, we will now view how and where these techniques were used in two of his famous pieces. The first piece we will analyze is Un Spiro, a very poetic and spiritual piece that illustrates Liszt's musical and technical abilities. Starting in D-flat major, the soft and simple melody arises in the right hand, accompanied by arpeggios in the left hand. Gradually, the melody becomes more intricate. Liszt achieved this by adding ornamentation and rapid runs to the main melody while the left-hand arpeggios elaborate. The opening of the piece is marked Allegro affettuoso, showing that the tempo is not strictly defined and could be interpreted freely based on the performer's own understanding. Moving on, the tempo changes to Allegro, creating a contrast to the initial section. The piece becomes more challenging with the addition of rapid arpeggios. The technical demand of this section displayed the virtuosity and skills of the pianist and turned into many performers' favorite parts of the piece. I personally studied this piece and highly enjoyed the process. During my first listen, Un Spiro depicted a picture of waves washing the sea. As the melody gets more complex, the waves turn bigger and louder, crashing against the shore and slowly settling down. This piece will always remain special to me because it was the first time I encountered such an intricate yet harmonious etude. To skillfully deliver this piece also marks a growth along my way as a pianist. Before we further break down the piece, let's first listen. Allegro Allegro Allegro Now, we'll discuss the techniques. Personally, I would like to provide some insights that I noted when handling this piece. While practicing, it is important to focus on specific aspects in order. For Un Spiro, I noted that rhythm and pedal are the key elements throughout the piece. Rhythm is the key to music, which reflects the mood, style, and sound effect of the works. Therefore, an accurate grasp of the rhythm in the music is crucial. The melody of Un Spiro is mainly composed in a very regular way, and the accompaniment is more discreet in comparison with septuplets, sextuplets, and triplets. Moving on to pedaling, the famous pianist Rubinstein once said, The pedal is the soul of the piano. The completion of a piece is directly related to the use of a pedal. The use of pedals is a profound art because the existence of pedals can enrich the sound of the piano based on the performer's own imagination. The content of Liszt's music is diverse, the harmony is varied, and the use of pedals creates the expressive force of color in the music. As for the requirements of the pedals, Liszt also strives for fine pedal effects. According to the difference in sound effects, pedals can be divided into full pedal, half pedal, quarter pedal, etc. Such techniques can be seen during the second section. The rapid runs of arpeggios in the right hand act as an ornamentation to the chord progression occurring in the left hand. In order to deliver the left-hand passage, the performer ought to retain the melody clean and clear amongst the constant change of pedals. Let us now listen and spot the pedaling techniques within this section. To fully perform this piece requires a high level of precision and understanding of notes, and the musicality of the performer plays a major role in the process. This piece remains a powerful and iconic representation of Liszt's pieces, and it also continues to be a popular choice in the solo piano repertoire. Next, we'll take a look at the piece Noma Regan. Although the piece is an etude as well, this piece is completely different from Un Suspiro. The title, which translates into The Dance of the Gnomes, sets a humorous, joyful, yet mischievous tone for the piece. This etude distinguishes itself by its non-traditional rondo form, which possesses two main themes. Starting off with theme A, Liszt depicted a picture of gnomes through multiple appoggiaturas in tempo presto. Pianissimo dynamics and staccato articulations were also used to further imitate the light and cheerful pace of the gnomes. Let us now enter this bubbly world of gnomes that Liszt portrayed for us. Moving on to theme B. Compared to the jaunty and bouncing mood in theme A, the second theme creates a more melodic and smooth effect. The leaps of the semiquavers in this part should be carried with a non-legato articulation, even in high tempo, in order to proceed with portraying a dance-like melody. The end of this intricate piece is also the softest part of the piece, ascending from a very low register in arpeggios to a very high register. To show the softness of this ending, pianists are required to enhance the dynamic nuances and create layers. Norman Regan trains one's skills in appoggiatura, chromatic scales, arpeggios, and many others in presto tempo. Besides the basic concern of techniques when raising the tempo, the dance rhythm will require one to be able to handle quick dynamic alternations with flexibility. Now let's break down the piece and discuss the two most important techniques. As mentioned before, the short appoggiaturas in theme A are one of the highlights and also the hardest part of the piece. When approaching this part, one could either perform the grace note on the beat or off the beat. With the grace note playing on the beat, it leads to an accented appoggiatura, while off the beat it leads to an unaccented effect. Theme B, on the other hand, has a lot more basic pianistic skills. The main technique we're focusing on is arpeggios, played with non-legato articulation as well. To make the melody sound more rhythmic, performers should pay attention to the first note of every group of six notes. By adding direction from the first note to the last note in each group, the music will come out more layered and expressive. When practicing this part, one should focus on the flexibility between fingers and combine it with the rotation of the wrist from every bottom note of a group. Now that we have covered the methods, let us now see how it should be carried out. Finally, Franz Liszt's impact as a virtuoso pianist and composer extends beyond technical prowess, representing a period characterized by a devotion of the virtuoso. Liszt's brilliant performances and original compositions not only push the bounds of piano technique, but also symbolize the essence of romanticism and the artist's changing role in society. As we think about Liszt's contributions to the virtuoso culture, we realize the continuing impact of his innovation on following generations of musicians, as well as the long-term influence of his theories on the development of music and performance. Liszt's legacy continues to inspire and delight audiences around the world, serving as an example of the transforming power of music.