
''Funérailles'' is the 7th and one of the most famous pieces in ''
Harmonies poétiques et religieuses'' (''Poetic and Religious Harmonies''), a collection of piano pieces by
Franz Liszt
Franz Liszt (22 October 1811 – 31 July 1886) was a Hungarian composer, virtuoso pianist, conductor and teacher of the Romantic music, Romantic period. With a diverse List of compositions by Franz Liszt, body of work spanning more than six ...
. It was an elegy written in October 1849 in response to the crushing of the
Hungarian Revolution of 1848
The Hungarian Revolution of 1848, also known in Hungary as Hungarian Revolution and War of Independence of 1848–1849 () was one of many Revolutions of 1848, European Revolutions of 1848 and was closely linked to other revolutions of 1848 in ...
by the
Habsburgs
The House of Habsburg (; ), also known as the House of Austria, was one of the most powerful dynasties in the history of Europe and Western civilization. They were best known for their inbreeding and for ruling vast realms throughout Europe d ...
.
''Funérailles'' has been recorded by pianists such as
György Cziffra
Christian Georges Cziffra (; born Cziffra Krisztián György; 5 November 192115 January 1994) was a Hungarian-French virtuoso pianist and composer. He is considered to be one of the greatest virtuoso pianists of the twentieth century. Among ...
,
Claudio Arrau
Claudio Arrau León (; February 6, 1903June 9, 1991) was a Chilean and American pianist known for his interpretations of a vast repertoire spanning the baroque music, baroque to 20th-century classical music, 20th-century composers, especially B ...
,
Vladimir Horowitz
Vladimir Samoylovich Horowitz (November 5, 1989) was a Russian and American pianist. Considered one of the greatest pianists of all time, he was known for his virtuoso technique, timbre, and the public excitement engendered by his playing.
Life ...
,
Arthur Rubinstein
Arthur Rubinstein Order of the British Empire, KBE OMRI (; 28 January 1887 – 20 December 1982) was a Polish Americans, Polish-American pianist. ,
John Ogdon
John Andrew Howard Ogdon (27 January 1937 – 1 August 1989) was an English pianist and composer.
Biography Career
Ogdon was born in Mansfield Woodhouse, Nottinghamshire; his family moved to Manchester when he was eight. He attended the M ...
,
Martha Argerich
Martha Argerich (; ; born 5 June 1941) is an Argentine classical concert pianist. Born and raised in Buenos Aires, Argerich gave her debut concert at the age of eight before receiving further piano training in Europe. At an early age, she won sev ...
,
Evgeny Kissin
Evgeny Igorevich Kissin (, ; born 10 October 1971) is a Russian-born concert pianist and composer. He became a British citizen in 2002 and an Israeli citizen in 2013. He first came to international fame as a child prodigy. He has a wide reperto ...
,
Sviatoslav Richter
Sviatoslav Teofilovich Richter ( – August 1, 1997) was a Soviet and Russian classical pianist. He is regarded as one of the greatest pianists of all time,Great Pianists of the 20th Century and has been praised for the "depth of his interpreta ...
,
Arnaldo Cohen,
Arcadi Volodos
Arcadi Arcadievich Volodos (born 24 February 1972) is a Russian-born French pianist. One of the world's most acclaimed pianists, he has won such awards as the Echo Klassik, Gramophone Award, Diapason d'Or, and Edison Award for his discography.
...
,
Sergio Fiorentino
Sergio Fiorentino (22 December 1927 – 22 August 1998) was a 20th-century Italian classical pianist whose sporadic performing career spanned five decades.
There is quite a bit of footage of his playing that survives, in addition to audio re ...
,
Awadagin Pratt
Awadagin Pratt (; born March 6, 1966) is an American concert pianist born in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.
Life
Awadagin Pratt began piano lessons at six with Leslie Sompong and after moving to Normal, Illinois, violin lessons at age nine. With ...
and
Krystian Zimerman
Krystian Zimerman (born 5 December 1956) is a Polish concert pianist, conductor and pedagogue who has been described as one of the greatest pianists of his generation. In 1975, he won the IX International Chopin Piano Competition.
Following ...
. The work was recorded on 19th century pianos by
Andrea Bonatta,
Claire Chevallier,
Yves Henry, Ray Dudley, Pascal Mantin, Alexei Orlowetsky and Patrick Scheyder.
Composition
The piece is composed of four distinct sections, with three main themes repeating throughout. The first section, labeled "Introduzione," is a dark and gloomy adagio movement whose opening bars evoke the sound of muffled bells from across a dreary battlefield. Its forlorn right-hand chords are offset by thundering,
sforzando left-hand
tremolo
In music, ''tremolo'' (), or ''tremolando'' (), is a trembling effect. There are multiple types of tremolo: a rapid repetition of a note, an alternation between two different notes, or a variation in volume.
Tremolos may be either ''measured'' ...
s, which are interrupted and calmed into submission by the sudden call of battle trumpets, leading into the piece's next theme.
In its second section, the piece presents a somber F-minor funeral march that modulates into a stunning ''
lagrimoso'' A-major melody, relying heavily on augmented fifths to convey what can be viewed as a sort of dismal sense of hope.
The piece then leads into a heroic, powerful warrior march, whose valiant and triumphant chords are backed by powerful cascades of ''
ostinato
In music, an ostinato (; derived from the Italian word for ''stubborn'', compare English ''obstinate'') is a motif or phrase that persistently repeats in the same musical voice, frequently in the same pitch. Well-known ostinato-based pieces inc ...
'' octaves in the bass. This theme builds in intensity until it reaches a
fortissimo
In music, the dynamics of a piece are the variation in loudness between notes or phrases. Dynamics are indicated by specific musical notation, often in some detail. However, dynamics markings require interpretation by the performer depending on ...
peak, at which point it breaks suddenly into its conclusion.
It is in this conclusion that Liszt reintroduces each theme from the piece, beginning with the funeral march theme, this time more powerful and emphatic. He then briefly reiterates parts of the A-major theme before bringing back the left-hand octave-driven warrior march. However, rather than allowing this theme's intensity to take control again, he limits its duration and ends the piece with a sudden drop into quiet, open
staccatissimo
Staccato (; Italian for "detached") is a form of Articulation (music), musical articulation. In modern notation, it signifies a note of shortened duration, separated from the note that may follow by silence. It has been described by theorists and ...
chords.
History and significance
''Funérailles'' is subtitled "October 1849". This has often been interpreted as a sort of funeral speech for Liszt's friend
Frédéric Chopin
Frédéric François Chopin (born Fryderyk Franciszek Chopin; 1 March 181017 October 1849) was a Polish composer and virtuoso pianist of the Romantic period who wrote primarily for Piano solo, solo piano. He has maintained worldwide renown ...
, who died on 17 October 1849, and also due to fact that the piece's left-hand octaves are closely related to the central section of Chopin's "Heroic"
Polonaise in A-flat major, Op. 53
]
The Polonaise (dance), Polonaise in A♭ major, Op. 53 (, ''Heroic Polonaise''; ) is a solo piano piece composed by Frédéric Chopin in 1842 The piece was published in 1843, and is one of Chopin's most admired compositions and has long been a f ...
, written seven years earlier.
However, Liszt said that it was not written with Chopin in mind, but was instead meant as a tribute to three of his friends who suffered in the failed Hungarian uprising against
Habsburg
The House of Habsburg (; ), also known as the House of Austria, was one of the most powerful dynasties in the history of Europe and Western civilization. They were best known for their inbreeding and for ruling vast realms throughout Europe d ...
rule in 1848.
[Walker (1989) ''Franz Liszt. Volume 2 : The Weimar years 1848-1861'', pp. 68-73] They were Prince
Felix Lichnowsky
Felix (von) Lichnowsky, ''fully'' Felix Maria Vincenz Andreas ''Fürst'' von Lichnowsky, ''Graf'' von Werdenberg (; 5 April 1814 – 19 September 1848) was a son of the historian Eduard Lichnowsky who had written a history of the Habsburg ...
, Count
László Teleki
Count László Teleki IV de Szék (11 February 1811 – 8 May 1861) was a Hungarian writer and statesman. He is remembered as the author of the drama ''Kegyencz'' ("The Favourite", 1841). In older books in English he is given the name "Ladisl ...
and the Hungarian Prime Minister, Count
Lajos Batthyány
Count Lajos Batthyány de Németújvár (; ; 10 February 1807 – 6 October 1849) was the first Prime Minister of Hungary. He was born in Pozsony (modern-day Bratislava) on 10 February 1807, and was executed by firing squad in Pest, Hungary, Pe ...
. Batthyány was executed on 6 October 1849 for his part in the uprising, Lichnowsky was beaten to death by an angry mob, and Teleki was forced to live in exile for more than ten years.
References
External links
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{{Authority control
Compositions by Franz Liszt
Compositions for solo piano
1849 compositions
Funerary and memorial compositions
Compositions in F minor
Hungarian Revolution of 1848