Dictionary of Music - Birding America

Liszt, Franz 217pitch, especially raising it but also lowering it, byadjusting the embouchure. Also, to lip up/down.lira (lē′rä) Italian. 1 A shortening of LIRA DABRACCIO. 2 A shortening of LIRA DA GAMBA.lira da braccio (lē′rä dä brät′chô) Italian. Aforerunner of the violin that was developed in Italylate in the fifteenth century. The lira da braccio wasabout twenty-eight inches long and looked muchlike a large violin. However, it had seven strings,two of which ran to one side of the finger-board andsounded a single pitch, without being stopped. Thefive melody strings were tuned G, g, d, a, d′ (seethe accompanying example). The head (top) of theinstrument also differed from the violin’s, beingleaf- or heart-shaped, with the tuning pegs set into itvertically like those of a guitar. The instrument washeld against the shoulder (braccio means “arm”) andwas bowed. See also VIELLE.lira da gamba (lē′rä dä gäm′bä) Italian. Alarger, lower-pitched version of the LIRA DA BRAC-CIO, used mainly in France and Italy c. 1550–c.1650. The lira da gamba was about forty-threeinches long, and was rested between the player’sknees (gamba means “leg”). It had two drone strings(sounding only one pitch each) running to one sideof the fingerboard, and anywhere from nine to fourteenmelody strings. Its fingerboard was fretted (tomark the stopping positions) like that of the viola dagamba.liscio (lē′shyô) Italian.smoothly, flowingly.A direction to performl’istesso tempo (lē stes′sô tem′pô) Italian.ISTESSO TEMPO.fig. 145 p/ufrom p. 223SeeLiszt (list), Franz (fränts), 1811–1886. A Hungariancomposer and pianist who was one of thegreat figures of nineteenth-century romantic music.Famous in his day as a masterful piano virtuoso andfor the brilliant compositions he wrote for thisinstrument, Liszt today is also remembered as theinventor of the program symphony and symphonicpoem. Liszt began to give piano concerts at the ageof nine. In his twenties he had a love affair with amarried countess, and one of their three children,Cosima, later married Richard Wagner. In 1848Liszt settled in Weimar, Germany, as court musicdirector, and he made Weimar a great cultural center(it was here that Wagner’s opera Lohengrin was firstproduced and Berlioz’s music was given its first performancesin Germany). Liszt now began to devotehimself to composition. His early piano music wastechnically dazzling, with its scale passages inoctaves and tenths, chains of trills and arpeggios,and chromatic chord changes, but now he becamemore interested in the piano’s expressive qualities.Breaking with the forms of the classical period, suchas the sonata, he wrote pieces in free form, with suchtitles as “Rhapsody,” “Fantasia,” “Nocturne,”“Elégie,” and “Ballade.” Usually in a single movement,these pieces are held together by a system ofshort motifs that are repeated and varied andrepeated again. In his use of this structural device, aswell as in his experiments with chromatic harmoniesand unconventional melodies, Liszt foreshadowedthe innovations of Wagner and, some think, perhapseven the atonal melodies and polytonal harmonies ofthe twentieth century. In addition to original pianocompositions, Liszt also wrote dozens of piano transcriptionsof orchestral and vocal works, amongthem all of Beethoven’s symphonies, Berlioz’s Symphoniefantastique, and many songs by Chopin,Schubert, and Schumann.It was in Weimar, too, that Liszt turned to a neworchestral form, the symphonic poem. Of his programmusic, the best-known works are the symphonicpoems Tasso, Les Préludes, Prometheus,Mazeppa, and Die Hunnenschlacht (“The Battle ofthe Huns”), and the program symphonies Faust Symphonyand Dante Symphony. After eleven years atWeimar, Liszt went to Rome, where he took religiousorders (acquiring the title Abbé). He also produceda number of large choral works, including theoratorios Die Legende der heiligen Elisabeth (“TheLegend of St. Elizabeth”), Christus, and the HungarianCoronation Mass.