Name	Cello
Names	Violoncello
Image capt	Cello, front and side view
Background	String
Hornbostel sachs	321.322-71
Hornbostel sachs desc	Composite chordophone sounded by a bow
Developed	about 1660 from the bass violin
Range
Related	*Violin family (violin, viola) Viol family (includes double bass)
Musicians	*List of Cellists
Articles	}}

The cello (pronounced ; plural cellos or celli) is a bowed string instrument with four strings tuned in perfect fifths. It is a member of the violin family of musical instruments, which also includes the violin and viola. Old forms of the instrument in the Baroque era are baryton and viol (viola da gamba).

A person who plays a cello is called a cellist. The cello is used as a solo instrument, in chamber music, in a string orchestra and as a member of the string section of an orchestra. It is the second largest bowed string instrument in the modern symphony orchestra, the double bass being the largest.

Cellos were derived from other mid- to large-sized bowed instruments in the 16th century, such as the viola da gamba, and the generally smaller and squarer viola da braccio, and such instruments made by members of the Amati family of luthiers. The invention of wire-wrapped strings in Bologna gave the cello greater versatility. By the 18th century the cello had largely replaced other mid-sized bowed instruments.

Etymology

The name ''cello'' is an abbreviation of the Italian ''violoncello'', which means "little violone", or referring to the violone ("big viol"), the lowest-pitched instrument of the viol family, the group of string instruments that went out of fashion around the end of the 17th century in most countries except France, where they survived another half-century or so before the louder violin family came into greater favour in that country too. Thus, the name carries both an augmentative ''"-one"'' ("big") and a diminutive ''"-cello"'' ("little"). By the turn of the 20th century, it had grown customary to abbreviate the name violoncello to 'cello, with the apostrophe indicating the six missing prefix letters. It is now customary to use the name "cello" without the apostrophe and as a full designation. The word derives ultimately from ''vitula'', meaning a stringed instrument.

Description

Cellos are tuned in fifths, starting with C2 (two octaves below middle C) as the lowest string, followed by G2, D3, and A3. It is tuned in same intervals as the viola, but an octave lower. Unlike the violin or viola but similar to the double bass, the cello has a endpin resting on the floor in order to support its heavy weight. The cellist Paul Tortelier is credited with inventing a bent pin, enabling the instrument to lie more horizontally than vertically.

The cello is most closely associated with European classical music, and has been described as the closest sounding instrument to the male human voice. The instrument is a part of the standard orchestra and is the bass voice of the string quartet, as well as being part of many other chamber groups. A large number of concertos and sonatas have been written for the cello.

Among the most well-known Baroque works for the cello are Johann Sebastian Bach's six unaccompanied Suites. The ''Prelude'' from the ''First Suite'' is particularly famous. From the Classical era, the two concertos by Joseph Haydn in C major and D major stand out, as do the five sonatas for cello and pianoforte of Ludwig van Beethoven, which span the important three periods of his compositional evolution. Romantic era repertoire includes the Robert Schumann Concerto, the Antonín Dvořák Concerto as well as the two sonatas and the Double Concerto by Johannes Brahms. Compositions from the early 20th century include Edward Elgar's Cello Concerto in E minor, Claude Debussy's Sonata for Cello and Piano and unaccompanied cello sonatas by Zoltán Kodály and Paul Hindemith. The cello's versatility made it popular with composers in the mid- to late 20th century such as Sergei Prokofiev, Dmitri Shostakovich, Benjamin Britten, György Ligeti and Henri Dutilleux, encouraged by soloists who specialized in contemporary music (such as Siegfried Palm and Mstislav Rostropovich) commissioning from and collaborating with composers.

Today the instrument is less common in popular music, but was commonly used in 1970's pop and disco music. Today it is still sometimes featured in pop and rock recordings, examples of which are noted later in this article. The cello has also recently appeared in major hip-hop and R & B performances, such as singers Rihanna and Ne-Yo's performance at the American Music Awards. The instrument has also been modified for Indian classical music by Nancy Lesh and Saskia Rao-de Haas.

History

The history of bowed string musical instruments in Europe dates back to the 9th century with the ''lira'' (''Greek: λύρα, Latin: lūrā''), the bowed instrument of the Byzantine Empire, equivalent to the rabāb of the Islamic Empires. The Persian geographer Ibn Khurradadhbih (d. 911) of the 9th century, in his lexicographical discussion of instruments, cited the Byzantine lira as a typical instrument of the Byzantines along with the ''urghun'' (organ), ''shilyani'' (probably a type of harp or lyre) and the ''salandj''. The Byzantine lira spread through Europe westward and in the 11th and 12th centuries European writers use the terms ''fiddle'' and ''lira'' interchangeably when referring to bowed instruments (Encyclopædia Britannica. 2009). In the meantime the Arab rabāb was introduced to the Western Europe possibly through the Iberian Peninsula and both bowed instruments spread widely throughout Europe giving birth to various European bowed instruments.

Over the centuries that followed, Europe continued to have two distinct types of bowed instruments: one, relatively square-shaped, held in the arms, known with the Italian term Lira da braccio (or ''Viola da braccio'', meaning ''viol for the arm''), family of the modern violin; the other, with sloping shoulders and held between the knees, known with the Italian term Lira da gamba (or ''viola da gamba'', meaning ''viol for the leg''), family of the Byzantine lyra and the modern Cello. During the Renaissance, the gambas were important and elegant instruments; they eventually lost ground to the louder (and originally less aristocratic) ''lira da braccio''. However, the ''a gamba'' playing position remained popular to larger instruments that could not be played with ''a braccio'' position.

The violoncello da spalla (sometimes "violoncello piccolo da spalla" or "violoncello da span") was the first cello referred to in print (by Jambe de Fer in 1556). "Violone" means a larger "viola" (viol), while "-cello" in Italian is a diminutive and spalla means "shoulder" in Italian so that violoncello da spalla suggest a "little big violin" that may be held on the shoulder so that the player could perform while walking or that the early, short-necked instrument was hung across the shoulder by a strap.

Monteverdi referred to the instrument as "basso de viola da braccio" in ''Orfeo'' (1607). Although the first bass violin, possibly invented by Amati as early as 1538, was most likely inspired by the viol, it was created to be used in consorts with the violin. The bass violin was actually often referred to as a ''"violone,"'' or "large viola," as were the viols of the same period. Instruments that share features with both the bass violin and the ''viola de gamba'' appear in Italian art of the early 16th century.

The invention of wire-wound strings (fine wire around a thin gut core), around 1660 in Bologna, allowed for a finer bass sound than was possible with purely gut strings on such a short body. Bolognese makers exploited this new technology to create the cello, a somewhat smaller instrument suitable for solo repertoire due to both the timbre of the instrument and the fact that the smaller size made it easier to play virtuosic passages. This instrument had disadvantages as well, however. The cello's light sound was not as suitable for church and ensemble playing, so it had to be doubled by basses or violones.

Around 1700, Italian players popularized the cello in northern Europe, although the bass violin (basse de violon) continued to be used for another two decades in France. Many existing bass violins were literally cut down in size to convert them into cellos according to the smaller pattern developed by Stradivarius, who also made a number of old pattern large cellos (the 'Servais'). The bass violin remained the "most used" instrument in England as late as 1740, where the violoncello was still "not common." The sizes, names, and tunings of the cello varied widely by geography and time. The size was not standardized until around 1750.

Despite similarities to the viola da gamba, the cello is actually part of the viola da braccio family, meaning "viol of the arm," which includes, among others, the violin and viola. Though paintings like Bruegel's "The Rustic Wedding" and de Fer in his ''Epitome Musical'' suggest that the bass violin had alternate playing positions, these were short-lived and the more practical and ergonomic ''a gamba'' position eventually replaced them entirely.

Baroque era cellos differed from the modern instrument in several ways. The neck has a different form and angle, which matches the baroque bass-bar and stringing. Modern cellos have an endpin at the bottom to support the instrument (and transmit some of the sound through the floor), while Baroque cellos are held only by the calves of the player. Modern bows curve in and are held at the frog; Baroque bows curve out and are held closer to the bow's point of balance. Modern strings normally have a metal core, although some use a synthetic core; Baroque strings are made of gut, with the G and C strings wire-wound. Modern cellos often have fine-tuners connecting the strings to the tailpiece, which make it much easier to tune the instrument, but such pins are rendered ineffective by the flexibility of the gut strings used on Baroque cellos. Overall, the modern instrument has much higher string tension than the Baroque cello, resulting in a louder, more projecting tone, with fewer overtones.

No educational works specifically devoted to the cello existed before the 18th century, and those that do exist contain little value to the performer beyond simple accounts of instrumental technique. The earliest cello manual is Michel Corrette's ''Méthode, thèorique et pratique pour apprendre en peu de temps le violoncelle dans sa perfection'' (Paris, 1741).

Current use

Orchestral

Cellos are part of the standard symphony orchestra, which usually includes eight to twelve players. The cello section, in standard orchestral seating, is located on stage left (the audience's right) in the front, opposite the first violin section. However, some orchestras and conductors prefer switching the positioning of the viola and cello sections. The ''principal'' cellist is the section leader, determining bowings for the section in conjunction with other string principals, and playing solos. Principal players always sit closest to the audience.

The cellos are a critical part of orchestral music; all symphonic works involve the cello section, and many pieces require cello soli or solos. Much of the time, cellos provide part of the harmony for the orchestra. On many occasions, the cello section will play the melody for a brief period of time, before returning to the harmony. There are also cello concertos, which are orchestral pieces in which a featured, solo cellist is accompanied by an entire orchestra.

Solo

There are numerous cello concertos - where a solo cello is accompanied by an orchestra - notably 25 by Vivaldi, 12 by Boccherini, 2 by Haydn, 3 by C.P.E. Bach, 2 by Saint-Saëns, 1 by Dvořák, and one each by Schumann, Lalo, and Elgar. Beethoven's Triple Concerto for Cello, Violin and Piano and Brahms' Double Concerto for Cello and Violin are also part of the concertante repertoire although in both cases the cello shares solo duties with at least one other instrument. Moreover, several composers wrote large-scale pieces for cello and orchestra, which are concertos in all but name. Some familiar "concertos" are Strauss' tone poem Don Quixote, Tchaikovsky's Variations on a Rococo Theme, Bloch's Schelomo and Bruch's Kol Nidrei.

In the 20th century, the cello repertoire grew immensely. This was partly due to the influence of virtuoso cellist Mstislav Rostropovich who inspired, commissioned and/or premiered dozens of new works. Among these, Prokofiev's ''Symphonia Concertante'', Britten's ''Cello Symphony'' and the concertos of Shostakovich, Lutosławski and Dutilleux have already become part of the standard repertoire. Other major composers who wrote concertante works for him include Messiaen, Berio and Penderecki. In addition, Hindemith, Barber, Honegger, Villa-Lobos, Myaskovsky, Walton, Glass, Rodrigo, Arnold, Penderecki and Ligeti also wrote major concertos for other cellists, notably for Gregor Piatigorsky, Siegfried Palm and Julian Lloyd Webber.

There are also many sonatas for cello and piano. Those written by Beethoven, Mendelssohn, Chopin, Brahms, Grieg, Rachmaninoff, Debussy, Fauré, Shostakovich, Prokofiev, Poulenc, Carter, and Britten are the most famous. Other important pieces for cello and piano include Schumann's five ''Stücke im Volkston'' and transcriptions like Schubert's sonata in a minor (originally for arpeggione and piano), Stravinsky's ''Suite Italienne'' (transcribed by the composer from his ballet ''Pulcinella'') and Bartók's first rhapsody (also transcribed by the composer, originally for violin and piano)

Finally, there are several pieces for cello solo, most importantly J.S. Bach's six Suites for Cello (arguably the most important cello pieces), Kodály's ''Sonata for Solo Cello'' and Britten's three Cello Suites. Other notable examples include Hindemith's and Ysaÿe's ''Sonatas for Solo Cello'', Dutilleux' ''Trois Strophes sur le Nom de Sacher'', Berio's ''Les Mots Sont Allés'' (both part of a series of twelve compositions for solo cello commissioned by Rostropovich for Swiss conductor Paul Sacher's 70th birthday), Cassado's "Suite for Solo Cello", Ligeti's ''Sonata'', Carter's two ''Figment''s and Xenakis' ''Nomos Alpha'' and ''Kottos''.

Quartets and other ensembles

The cello is a member of the traditional string quartet as well as string quintets, sextet or trios and other mixed ensembles. There are also pieces written for two, three, four or more cellos; this type of ensemble is also called a "cello choir" and its sound is familiar from the introduction to Rossini's William Tell Overture as well as Zaccharias' prayer scene in Verdi's Nabucco. As a self-sufficient ensemble, its most famous repertoire is Villa-Lobos' first of his Bachianas Brasileiras for cello ensemble (the fifth is for soprano and 8 cellos). Other examples are Offenbach's cello duets, quartet, and sextet, Pärt's Fratres for 8 cellos and Boulez' ''Messagesquisse'' for 7 cellos, or even Villa-Lobos' rarely played ''Fantasia Concertante'' (1958) for 32 cellos. The Twelve Cellists of the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra (or "the Twelve" as they have since taken to being called) specialize in this repertoire and have commissioned many works, including arrangements of well-known popular songs.

Popular music, jazz and neoclassical

Though the cello is less common in popular music than in classical music, it is sometimes featured in pop and rock recordings. The cello is rarely part of a group's standard lineup but like its cousin the violin it is becoming more common in mainstream pop (e.g. the baroque rock band Arcade Fire uses the cello in their songs).

In the 1960s, artists such as the Beatles and Cher used the cello in popular music, in songs such as "Bang Bang (My Baby Shot Me Down)", "Eleanor Rigby" and "Strawberry Fields Forever". Bass guitarist Jack Bruce, who had originally studied music on a performance scholarship for cello, played a prominent cello part in "As You Said" on Cream's ''Wheels of Fire'' studio album (1968). In the 1970s, the Electric Light Orchestra enjoyed great commercial success taking inspiration from so-called "Beatlesque" arrangements, adding the cello (and violin) to the standard rock combo line-up and in 1978 the UK based rock band, Colosseum II, collaborated with cellist Julian Lloyd Webber on the recording ''Variations''. Most notably, Pink Floyd included a cello solo in their 1970 epic instrumental "Atom Heart Mother". Bass guitarist Mike Rutherford of Genesis was originally a cellist and included some cello parts in their ''Foxtrot'' album.

Established non-traditional cello groups include Apocalyptica, a group of Finnish cellists best known for their versions of Metallica songs, Rasputina, a group of cellists committed to an intricate cello style intermingled with Gothic music, Von Cello, a cello fronted rock power trio, Break of Reality who mix elements of classical music with the more modern rock and metal genre, and Jelloslave () a Minneapolis based Cello duo with two percussionists. These groups are examples of a style that has become known as cello rock. The crossover string quartet bond also includes a cellist. Silenzium and Vivacello are Russian (Novosibirsk) groups playing rock and metal and having more and more popularity in Siberia. Cold Fairyland from Shanghai China is using a cello along a Pipa as the main solo instrument to create East meets West progressive (folk) rock.

More recent bands using the cello are Aerosmith, Nirvana, Oasis, Murder by Death, Cursive, A Genuine Freakshow, Smashing Pumpkins, James, and OneRepublic. An Atlanta-based trio, King Richard's Sunday Best, also uses a cellist in their lineup. So-called "chamber pop" artists like Kronos Quartet, The Vitamin String Quartet and Margot and the Nuclear So and So's have also recently made cello common in modern alternative rock. Heavy metal band System of a Down has also made use of the cello's rich sound. The indie rock band The Stiletto Formal are known for using a cello as a major staple of their sound, similarly, the indie rock band Canada employs two cello players in their lineup. The orch-rock group, The Polyphonic Spree, which has pioneered the use of stringed and symphonic instruments, employs the cello in very creative ways for many of their "psychedelic-esque" melodies. The first wave screamo band I Would Set Myself On Fire For You featured a cello as well as a viola to create a more folk-oriented sound. The band, Panic! At the Disco uses a cello in their song, "Build God, Then We'll Talk." The lead vocalist of the band, Brendon Urie, also did the recording of the cello solo.

In jazz, bassists Oscar Pettiford and Harry Babasin were among the first to use the cello as a solo instrument; both tuned their instrument in fourths, an octave above the double bass. Fred Katz (who was not a bassist) was one of the first notable jazz cellists to use the instrument's standard tuning and arco technique. Contemporary jazz cellists include Abdul Wadud, Diedre Murray, Ron Carter, Dave Holland, David Darling, Lucio Amanti, Akua Dixon, Ernst Reijseger, Fred Lonberg-Holm, Tom Cora, Vincent Courtois, Jean-Charles Capon, Erik Friedlander, and James Hinkley of jazz combo ''Billet-Deux''.

Modern musical theatre pieces like Jason Robert Brown's The Last Five Years, Duncan Sheik's Spring Awakening, Adam Guettel's Floyd Collins, and Ricky Ian Gordon's My Life with Albertine use small string ensembles (including solo cellos) to a prominent extent.

The cello can also be used in bluegrass and folk music, with notable players including Ben Sollee of the Sparrow Quartet and the "Cajun cellist" Sean Grissom as well as Damien Rice. Lindsay Mac is becoming well known for playing the cello like a guitar, with her cover of The Beatles Blackbird a big hit on The Bob & Tom Show.

Construction

The cello is typically made from wood, although other materials such as carbon fibre or aluminum may be used. A traditional cello has a spruce top, with maple for the back, sides, and neck. Other woods, such as poplar or willow, are sometimes used for the back and sides. Less expensive cellos frequently have tops and backs made of laminated wood.

The top and back are traditionally hand-carved, though less expensive cellos are often machine-produced. The sides, or ribs, are made by heating the wood and bending it around forms. The cello body has a wide top bout, narrow middle formed by two C-bouts, and wide bottom bout, with the bridge and F holes just below the middle.

The top and back of the cello has decorative border inlay known as purfling. While purfling is attractive, it is also functional: if the instrument is struck, the purfling can prevent cracking of the wood. A crack may form at the rim of the instrument, but will spread no further. Without purfling, cracks can spread up or down the top or back. Playing, traveling and the weather all affect the cello and can increase a crack if purfling is not in place. Less expensive instruments typically have painted purfling.

Alternative materials

Cello manufacturer Luis & Clark constructs cellos from carbon fibre. Carbon fibre instruments are particularly suitable for outdoor playing because of the strength of the material and its resistance to humidity and temperature fluctuations. Luis & Clark has produced over 600 such cellos, some of which are owned by cellists such as Yo-Yo Ma and Josephine van Lier.

In the late 1920s and early 1930s, the Aluminum Company of America (Alcoa) as well as German luthier G.A. Pfretzschner produced an unknown number of aluminum cellos (in addition to aluminum double basses and violins). An advertisement published in N.Y. Music Service catalogue (1930) reads: "...made entirely of aluminum with the exception of the fingerboard. They have many advantages over the wood basses and violoncellos, as they cannot crack, split or warp and are made to last forever ... possessing a tone quality that is deep, resonant and responsive to the utmost degree. Violoncello $150." Only a handful of aluminum cellos exist today including a Pfretzschner played by modern classical cellist Frances-Marie Uitti, another played by bluegrass cellist Stan Young.

Neck, pegbox, and scroll

Above the main body is the carved neck, which leads to a pegbox and the scroll. The neck, pegbox, and scroll are normally carved out of a single piece of wood. Attached to the neck and extending over the body of the instrument is the fingerboard. The nut is a raised piece of wood, where the fingerboard meets the pegbox, which the strings rest on. The pegbox houses four tuning pegs, one for each string. The pegs are used to tune the cello by either tightening or loosening the string. The scroll is a traditional part of the cello and all other members of the violin family. Ebony is usually used for the tuning pegs, fingerboard, and nut, but other hard woods, such as boxwood or rosewood, can be used.

Strings

Strings on a cello have cores made out of gut (sheep or goat), metal, or synthetic materials, such as Perlon. Most modern strings used today are also wound with metallic materials like aluminum, titanium and chromium. Cellists may mix different types of strings on their instruments. The pitches of the open strings are C, G, D, and A (black note heads in the playing range figure above), unless alternative tuning (scordatura) is used.

Tailpiece and endpin

The tailpiece and endpin are found in the lower part of the cello. The tailpiece is traditionally made of ebony or another hard wood, but can also be made of plastic or steel. It attaches the strings to the lower end of the cello, and can have one or more fine tuners. The endpin or spike is made of wood, metal or rigid carbon fibre and supports the cello in playing position. In the Baroque period the cello was held between the calves. Around the 1830s, the Belgian cellist Auguste Adrien Servais introduced the endpin and propagated its use. Modern endpins are retractable and adjustable; older ones were removed when not in use. (The word "endpin" sometimes also refers to the button of wood located at this place in all instruments in the violin family, but this is usually called "tailpin".) The sharp tip of the cello's endpin is sometimes capped with a rubber tip that protects the tip from dulling and prevents the cello from slipping on the floor.

Bridge and f-holes

The bridge holds the strings above the cello and transfers their vibrations to the top of the instrument and the soundpost inside (see below). The bridge is not glued, but rather held in place by the tension of the strings. The f-holes, named for their shape, are located on either side of the bridge, and allow air to move in and out of the instrument as part of the sound-production process. The f-holes also act as access points to the interior of the cello for repairs or maintenance. Sometimes a small hose containing a water-soaked sponge, called a Dampit, is inserted through the f-holes, and serves as a humidifier.

Internal features

Internally, the cello has two important features: a bass bar, which is glued to the underside of the top of the instrument, and a round wooden sound post, which is wedged between the top and bottom plates. The bass bar, found under the bass foot of the bridge, serves to support the cello's top and distribute the vibrations. The sound post, found under the treble side of the bridge, connects the back and front of the cello. Like the bridge, the sound post is not glued, but is kept in place by the tensions of the bridge and strings. Together, the bass bar and sound post transfer the strings' vibrations to the top (front) of the instrument (and to a lesser extent the back), acting as a diaphragm to produce the instrument's sound.

Glue

Cellos are constructed and repaired using hide glue, which is strong but reversible, allowing for disassembly when needed. Tops may be glued on with diluted glue, since some repairs call for the removal of the top. Theoretically, hide glue is weaker than the body's wood, so as the top or back shrinks side-to-side, the glue holding it will let go, avoiding a crack in the plate.

Bow

Traditionally, bows are made from pernambuco or brazilwood. Both come from the same species of tree (''Caesalpina echinata''), but pernambuco, used for higher-quality bows, is the heartwood of the tree and is darker in color than brazilwood (which is sometimes stained to compensate). Pernambuco is a heavy, resinous wood with great elasticity, which makes it an ideal wood for instrument bows.

Bows are also made from other materials, such as carbon-fibre—stronger than wood—and fiberglass (often used to make inexpensive, low-quality student bows). An average cello bow is 73 cm long (shorter than a violin or viola bow) 3 cm high (from the frog to the stick) and 1.5 cm wide. The frog of a cello bow typically has a rounded corner like that of a viola bow, but is wider. A cello bow is roughly 10 grams heavier than a viola bow, which in turn is roughly 10 grams heavier than a violin bow.

Bow hair is traditionally horsehair, though synthetic hair, in varying colors, is also used. Prior to playing, the musician tightens the bow by turning a screw to pull the frog (the part of the bow under the hand) back, and increase the tension of the hair. Rosin is applied by the player to make the hairs sticky. Bows need to be re-haired periodically.

Baroque style (1600–1750) cello bows were much thicker and were formed with a larger outward arch when compared to modern cello bows. The inward arch of a modern cello bow produces greater tension, which in turn gives off a louder sound.

The cello bow, though not made conventionally for the use, has also been used to play guitars. The post-rock Icelandic band Sigur Rós' lead singer often plays a guitar using a cello bow, as did Jimmy Page on tracks such as "Dazed and Confused".

Physics

Physical Aspects

When a string is bowed or plucked, it vibrates, or moves the air around it, producing sound waves. Because the string is quite thin, not as much air is moved, and consequently the sound is weak. In acoustic stringed instruments such as the cello, this lack of volume is solved by mounting the vibrating string on a larger body. The vibrations are transmitted to the larger body, which can move more air and produce a louder sound. The design of the instrument produces variations in the instrument’s vibrational patterns and thus changes the character of the sound produced.

A string’s fundamental pitch can be adjusted by changing its stiffness, which depends on tension and length. Tightening a string stiffens it by increasing both the outward forces along its length and the net forces it experiences during a distortion. A cello can be tuned by adjusting the tension in its strings using pegs in its neck and tension adjusters (fine tuners) on the tail piece.

A string’s length also affects its fundamental pitch. Shortening a string stiffens it by increasing its curvature during a distortion and subjecting it to larger net forces. Shortening the string also reduces its mass. Since a stiffer string with a smaller mass vibrates faster, shortening a string increases the pitch. Because of this effect, you can raise and change the pitch of a string by pressing it against the fingerboard in the cello’s neck and effectively shortening it.

For the cello, the main wood resonance generally appears very close to the note F#₂, often with serious consequences. When the cellist plays the note F#₂, the main wood resonance vibrates at its frequency as the cello sounds the frequency of the note F#₂. A loud beating sound results between these nearby frequencies; this is known as the “wolf tone” because it is an unpleasant growling sound. The wood resonance appears to be split into two frequencies by the driving force of the sounding string. These two periodic resonances beat with each other. This wolf tone must be eliminated or significantly reduced for the cello to play the nearby notes with a pleasant tone. This can be accomplished by modifying the cello front plate, attaching a wolf eliminator, or moving the sound post.

Harmonics

A vibrating string subdivides itself into many parts vibrating at the same time. Each part produces a pitch of its own, called a partial. A vibrating string has one fundamental and a series of partials. The most pure combination of two pitches is when one is double the frequency of the other.

Playing technique

Body position

The cello is played while seated. Its weight is supported mainly by its endpin or spike, which rests on the floor. The cello is steadied on the lower bout between the knees of the seated player, and on the upper bout against the upper chest. The neck of the cello is above the player's left shoulder, and the C-String tuning peg is just behind the left ear. The bow is drawn horizontally across the strings. In early times, female cellists sometimes played side-saddle, since it was considered improper for a lady to part her knees in public. A player's handedness does not alter the way the cello is held or used. In rare cases, a player has used a mirror-image posture—usually because of a physical disability of the arm or hand that makes the required technique impossible for that side of the body. In such a situation, the player must decide whether or not to reverse the set-up of the cello (the string positions, bass-bar, sound post, fingerboard shape, and bridge carving are all asymmetrical).

Left hand technique

The left hand fingertips stop the strings along their length, determining the pitch of each fingered note. Stopping the string closer to the bridge results in higher-pitched sound, because the vibrating string length has been shortened. In the ''neck'' positions (which use just less than half of the fingerboard, nearest the top of the instrument), the thumb rests on the back of the neck; in ''thumb position'' (a general name for notes on the remainder of the fingerboard) the thumb usually rests alongside the fingers on the string and the side of the thumb is used to play notes. The fingers are normally held curved with each knuckle bent, with the fingertips in contact with the string. If a finger is required on two (or more) strings at once to play perfect fifths (in double stops or chords) it is used flat. In slower, or more expressive playing, the contact point can move slightly away from the nail to the pad of the finger, allowing a fuller vibrato.

Vibrato

Vibrato is a small oscillation in the pitch of a note, usually considered expressive. It is not created by an upper arm motion; rather, it is more of forearm motion. The fixed point of contact of the fingertip on the string absorbs this motion by rocking back and forth. This change in the attitude of the fingertip to the string varies the pitch. Since vibrato is usually considered a key expressive device, a well-developed vibrato technique is an essential element of a modern cellist's skill. In some styles of music, such as that of the Romantic period, vibrato may be used on almost every note. However, in other styles, such as Baroque repertoire, vibrato is used only rarely, as an ornament. In any case, the choice of whether to use vibrato, and how much, is normally a stylistic decision on the part of the player. Typically, the lower the pitch of the note played, the wider and slower the vibrato.

Harmonics

Harmonics played on the cello fall into two classes; natural and artificial. Natural harmonics are produced by lightly touching (but not depressing) the string with the finger at certain places, and then bowing (or, rarely, plucking) the string. For example, the halfway point of the string will produce a harmonic that is one octave above the unfingered (open) string. Natural harmonics only produce notes that are part of the harmonic series on a particular string. Artificial harmonics (also called false harmonics or stopped harmonics), in which the player depresses the string fully with one finger while touching the same string lightly with another finger, can produce any note above middle C. They usually appear with the touching note a perfect fourth above the stopped note, which produces a sound two octaves above the stopped note, although other intervals are available. All harmonics produce a distinctive flute-like sound, and are usually performed without vibrato.

Glissando

Glissando (Italian for "sliding") is an effect played by sliding the finger up or down the fingerboard without releasing the string. This causes the pitch to rise and fall smoothly, without separate, discernible steps.

Right hand technique

In cello playing, the bow is much like the breath of a wind instrument player. Arguably, it is the major determinant in the expressiveness of the playing. The right hand holds the bow and controls the duration and character of the notes. The bow is drawn across the strings roughly halfway between the end of the fingerboard and the bridge, in a direction perpendicular to the strings. The bow is held with all five fingers of the right hand, the thumb opposite the fingers and closer to the cellist's body. The shape of the hand should resemble that of its relaxed state, with all fingers curved, including the thumb. The transmission of weight from the arm to the bow happens through the pronation (inward rotation) of the forearm, which pushes the index finger and to a lesser degree the middle finger onto the bow. The necessary counterforce is provided by the thumb. Depending upon the school of training, the other two fingers are used in various degrees to help maintain the angle of the bow to the string and are critical to controlling the bow when it is off the string. (See also spiccato).

In English, the terminology for bow direction (''up'' and ''down'') can be misleading. A downbow is drawn to the right of the player, and an upbow to the left. A downbow is drawn by first using the upper arm, then the forearm, then the wrist (turning slightly inward) to maintain a straight stroke. An upbow is drawn by moving first the forearm, then the upper arm, then the wrist (pushing slightly upward). The bow is mostly used perpendicular to the strings. To perform string changes the whole arm is either lowered or lifted, with as little wrist movement as possible to maintain the angle to the string. However, flexibility of the wrist is necessary when changing the bow direction from up-bow to down-bow and vice versa. For very fast bow movements, the wrist is used to accomplish the horizontal movement of the bow. For longer strokes, the arm is used as well as the wrist.

Tone production and volume of sound depend on a combination of several factors. The three most important ones are: bow speed, weight applied to the string, and point of contact of the bow hair with the string. A good player will be capable of a very even tone, and will counter the natural tendency to play with the most force with the part of the bow nearest to the frog or heel, and the least force near the tip. The closer to the bridge the string is bowed, the more projecting and brighter the tone, with the extreme (''sul ponticello'') producing a metallic, shimmery sound. If bowing closer to the fingerboard (''sul tasto''), the sound produced will be softer, more mellow, and less defined.

Double stops

Double stops involve the playing of two notes at the same time. Two strings are fingered simultaneously, and the bow is drawn so as to sound them both at once. Triple and quadruple stops may also be played (in a "broken" fashion), but are difficult to sustain because of the change in slope of the bridge. To extend the technique in this area, Frances-Marie Uitti has invented a two-bow system: one bow plays above the strings and one below, allowing for sustained triple and quadruple stops. However, this technique is very rarely seen or used.

Pizzicato

In pizzicato playing, the string is plucked directly with the fingers or thumb. Position of the hand is slightly over the finger board and away from the bridge. Usually this is done with the right hand, while the bow is held away from the strings by the rest of the hand or (for extended passages) set down. A single string can be played ''pizzicato,'' or double, triple, or quadruple stops can be played. Occasionally, a player must bow one string with the right hand and simultaneously pluck another with the left. This is marked by a "+" above the note. Strumming of chords is also possible, in guitar fashion.

Col legno

A player using the Col legno technique rubs the strings with the wood of the bow rather than the hair. There are two forms, ''col legno battuto'' and ''col legno tratto''. ''Col legno battuto'' is performed as a percussive technique with no sustaining of the sound. The much less common alternative is ''col legno tratto'', wherein the wood is drawn across the string as the hair is in a normal bow stroke. Some players refuse to use this technique because of potential damage to the bow.

Spiccato

In spiccato playing, the strings are not "drawn" by the bow hair but struck by it, while still retaining some horizontal motion, to generate a more percussive, crisp sound. It may be performed by using the wrist to "dip" the bow into the strings. Spiccato is usually associated with lively playing. On a violin, ''spiccato'' bowing comes off the string, but on a cello, the wood of the bow may rise briskly up without the hair actually leaving the string. While playing spiccato, the bow is literally bouncing off the string. Cello players simply "dip" the bow into the string, and touch it very fast, and then lift the bow off the string.

Staccato

In staccato, the player moves the bow a small distance and stops it on the string, making a short sound, the rest of the written duration being taken up by silence.

Legato

Legato is a technique where the notes are smoothly connected without accents or breaks.

Sul ponticello/sul tasto

''Sul ponticello'' ("on the bridge") refers to bowing closer to the bridge, while ''sul tasto'' ("on the fingerboard") calls for bowing nearer the end of the fingerboard. (While reading music, "tasto" can also mean to play with the bow in normal postiton when having been playing "ponticello") Ponticello calls for more bow weight and slower bow speed, and produces a "harder" sound, with strong overtone content. Sul tasto, in extreme cases called "flautando," produces a more flute-like sound, with more emphasis on the fundamental frequency of the note, and softer overtones.

Con/Senza sord.

This refers to using a mute, or sordino, which is placed on the bridge to mellow or soften the tone, or to take it off.

Sizes

Standard-sized cellos are referred to as "full-size". However, cellos come in smaller (fractional) sizes, from "7/8" and "3/4" down to "1/16" sized cellos (e.g. 7/8, 3/4, 1/2, 1/4, 1/8, 1/10, 1/16). The smaller-sized cellos are identical to standard cellos in construction, range, and usage, but are simply 'scaled-down' for the benefit of children and shorter adults. Note that a "half-size" cello is half the volume of a full-size, not half the length (i.e., the 1/8-size cello would be "half-size" in terms of length). A 1/10-size cello, for example, which is meant to be used by small children, is only slightly larger than a violin (and as such can be played by an adult player like one), but about twice as thick, and the C string tends to be quite slack due to the difficulty for such a small string to produce a sound that low. Many smaller cellists prefer to play a "7/8" cello as the hand stretches in the lower positions are less demanding. Although rare, cellos in sizes larger than 4/4 do exist. Cellists with unusually large hands may play a slightly larger than full-sized cello. Cellos made before approximately 1700 tended to be considerably larger than those made and commonly played today.

Around 1680, string-making technology made lower pitches on shorter strings possible. The cellos of Stradivari, for example, can be clearly divided into two models, the style made before 1702 characterized by larger instruments (of which only three exist in their original size and configuration), and the style made during and after 1702, when Stradivari, presumably in response to the "new" strings, began making smaller cellos. This later model is the one most commonly used by modern luthiers.

! Approximate dimensions for 4/4 size cello	! Average size (cm)	! Average size (in)
Approximate width horizontally from A peg to C peg ends	16	6 - 5/16
Back length excluding half round where neck joins	75.5	29 - 3/4
Upper bouts (shoulders)	34	13 - 3/8
Lower bouts (hips)	44	17 - 3/8
Bridge height	9	3 - 9/16
Rib depth at shoulders including edges of front and back	12.5	4 - 15/16
Rib depth at hips including edges	12.8	5 - 1/16
Distance beneath fingerboard to surface of belly at neck join	2.2	7/8
Bridge to back total depth	26.7	10 - 1/2
Overall height excluding end pin	121	47 - 10/16
End pin unit and spike	5.5	2 - 5/8

Accessories

There are many accessories for the cello.

Cases are used to protect the cello and bow (or multiple bows) when traveling and for safe storage. They are often made of carbon fiber, fiber-glass, and less commonly wood.

Rosin, made from conifer resin, is applied to the bow hairs to increase the effectiveness of the friction, grip or bite, and allow proper sound production. Rosin may have additives to modify the friction such as beeswax, gold, silver or tin. Commonly, rosins are classified as either Dark or Light. Dark rosins increase the friction more than Light rosins.

Endpin stops or straps (tradenames include Rockstop and Black Hole) keep the cello from sliding if the end pin does not have a rubber piece on the end (used on wood floors) though in many cases a rubber piece will not suffice on even a wood floor. Many Cellists often use a square or rectangle of carpet that can be secured under the front two legs of the chair as an endpin stop. This is however less likely to be seen in a professional arena and more used in rehearsal or in private.

Wolf tone eliminators are often placed on cello strings between the tailpiece and the bridge to eliminate acoustic anomalies known as wolf tones or "wolfs".

Mutes are used to change the sound of the cello by reducing overtones. Practice mutes (made of metal) significantly reduce the instrument's volume (they are also referred to as "hotel mutes"). The most common mute is a rubber disc with two holes to fit the two middle strings. It sits just after the bridge and has a flap that can be placed over the top of the bridge to mute the vibrations travelling down it to the sound post inside the cello. These are especially used due to their simplicity and can be taken off or put on very quickly because they can be stored on the strings past the bridge.

Metronomes provide a steady tempo by sounding out a certain number of beats per minute. They are adjustable to fit the tempo of the piece. Many models can also produce a tuning pitch of A4 (440 Hz), among others. These can, of course, be used for all instruments.

Humidifiers are used to control and stabilize the humidity around and inside the cello and are popular with traveling cellists. Often, these are placed inside the cello itself or inside the case. Some players will not use humidifiers inside their cellos because they have the potential to drip, which may cause damage to the cello.

Electronic tuners are sometimes used to tune the instrument. A tuner indicates if a played note is sharp or flat.

Instrument makers

Cellos are made by luthiers, specialists in building and repairing stringed instruments, ranging from guitars to violins. The following luthiers are notable for the cellos they have produced:

Nicolò Amati and others in the Amati family

William Forster

Nicolò Gagliano

Matteo Goffriller

Giovanni Battista Guadagnini

Giuseppe Guarneri

Domenico Montagnana

Giovanni Battista Rogeri

Francesco Ruggieri

Stefano Scarampella

Antonio Stradivari

David Tecchler

Carlo Giuseppe Testore

Jean Baptiste Vuillaume

Cellists

A person who plays the cello is called a ''cellist''. For a list of notable cellists, see the list of cellists and :Category:Cellists.

Famous cellos

Specific instruments are, or become, famous, for a variety of reasons. An instrument's notability may arise from its age, the fame of its maker, its physical appearance, its acoustic properties, and its use by notable performers. The most famous instruments are generally known for all of these things. The most highly prized instruments are now collector's items, and are priced beyond the reach of most musicians. These instruments are typically owned by some kind of organization or investment group, which loans the instrument to a performer. (For example, the Davidov Stradivarius, which is currently in the possession of one of the most widely known living cellists, Yo-Yo Ma, is actually owned by the Vuitton Foundation.)

Some notable cellos: the "King", by Andrea Amati, is one of the oldest known cellos, built between 1538 and 1560. It is in the collection of the National Music Museum in South Dakota.

Servais Stradivarius is in the collection of the Smithsonian Institution, Washington DC

Davidov Stradivarius, played by Jacqueline du Pré, currently played by Yo-Yo Ma

Barjansky Stradivarius, played by Julian Lloyd Webber

Bonjour Stradivarius, played by Soo Bae

Paganini-Ladenburg Stradivarius, played by Clive Greensmith of the Tokyo String Quartet

Duport Stradivarius, until recently played by the late Mstislav Rostropovich

Piatti Stradivarius, 1720, played by Carlos Prieto

Media

See also

:Category:Composers for cello

Apocalyptica

Brahms guitar

Cello Rock

Double Concerto for Violin and Cello

Electric cello

List of compositions for cello and orchestra

List of compositions for cello and organ

List of compositions for cello and piano

List of solo cello pieces

Rasputina

String Instrument Repertoire

Triple concerto for violin, cello, and piano

Notes

References

Stephen Bonta. "Violoncello", ''Grove Music Online'', ed. L. Macy (accessed January 28, 2006), grovemusic.com (subscription access).

Marcella Ghigi, "Il violoncello. Conoscere la tecnica per esprimere la musica", Milano, Casa Musicale Sonzogno, 1999. ISBN 88-87318-08-5 with a preface by Mario Brunello.

Further reading

Machover, Tod, "My Cello" in Turkle, Sherry (editor), ''Evocative objects : things we think with'', Cambridge, Mass. : MIT Press, 2007. ISBN 978-0-262-20168-1

External links

CelloBello - Online Cello Resource Center (Educational)

The Internet Cello Society

Sources for the prescribed sheet music for the ABRSM practical Cello exams

cellist.nl: An international register of professional cellists, teachers, and students.

Cello History: A brief history of the cello

Category:Cellos Category:Bowed instruments Category:Continuous pitch instruments Category:String instruments

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name	Yo-Yo Ma馬友友
background	non_vocal_instrumentalist
born	October 07, 1955Paris, France
instrument	Cello, Piano, Viola, Violin
genre	Classical
occupation	Cellist, composer, pedagogue
years active	''fl. ca.'' 1961–''present''
label	CBS, RCA, Sony Classical
associated acts	Silk Road Ensemble
website	yo-yoma.com
notable instruments	Violoncello''Davydov 1712'' StradivariusDomenico Montagnana 1733Luis and Clark }}

)}} Yo-Yo Ma (born October 7, 1955) is a French-born American cellist, virtuoso, orchestral composer of Chinese descent, and winner of multiple Grammy Awards, the National Medal of Arts in 2001 and the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 2011. He is one of the most famous cellists of the modern age.

Early life

Yo-Yo Ma was born in Paris on October 7, 1955, to Chinese parents and had a musical upbringing. His mother, Marina Lu, was a singer, and his father, Hiao-Tsiun Ma, was a violinist and professor of music. His family moved to New York when he was five years old.

At a very young age, Ma began studying violin, and later viola, before finding his true calling by taking up the cello in 1960 at age four. According to Ma, his first choice was the double bass due to its large size, but he compromised and took up cello instead. The child prodigy began performing before audiences at age five, and performed for Presidents John F. Kennedy and Dwight D. Eisenhower when he was seven. At age eight, he appeared on American television with his sister, Yeou-Cheng Ma, in a concert conducted by Leonard Bernstein. By fifteen years of age, Ma had graduated from Trinity School in New York and appeared as a soloist with the Harvard Radcliffe Orchestra in a performance of the Tchaikovsky ''Rococo Variations''.

Ma studied at the Juilliard School with Leonard Rose and briefly attended Columbia University before ultimately enrolling at Harvard University. Prior to entering Harvard, Ma played in the Marlboro Festival Orchestra under the direction of nonagenarian cellist and conductor Pablo Casals. Ma would ultimately spend four summers at the Marlboro Music Festival after meeting and falling in love with Mount Holyoke College sophomore and festival administrator Jill Hornor his first summer there in 1972.

However, even before that time, Ma had steadily gained fame and had performed with most of the world's major orchestras. His recordings and performances of Johann Sebastian Bach's Cello Suites recorded in 1983 and again in 1994–1997 are particularly acclaimed. He has also played a good deal of chamber music, often with the pianist Emanuel Ax, with whom he has a close friendship back from their days together at the Juilliard School of Music in New York.

Ma received his bachelor's degree from Harvard in 1976. In 1991, he received an honorary doctorate from Harvard.

Career

Ma currently plays with his own Silk Road Ensemble, which has the goal of bringing together musicians from diverse countries all of which are historically linked via the Silk Road, and records on the Sony Classical label. Ma's primary performance instrument is the cello nicknamed ''Petunia'', built by Domenico Montagnana in 1733. It was named this by a female student that approached him after one of his classes in Salt Lake City asking if he had a nickname for his cello. He said, "No, but if I play for you, will you name it?" She chose Petunia, and it stuck. This cello, more than 270 years old and valued at US$2.5 million, was lost in the fall of 1999 when Ma accidentally left the instrument in a taxicab in New York City. It was later recovered undamaged. Another of Ma's cellos, the ''Davidov Stradivarius'', was previously owned by Jacqueline du Pré who passed it to him upon her death, and owned by the Vuitton Foundation. Though Du Pré previously voiced her frustration with the "unpredictability" of this cello, Ma attributed the comment to du Pré's impassioned style of playing, adding that the Stradivarius cello must be "coaxed" by the player. It was until recently set up in a Baroque manner, since Ma exclusively played Baroque music on it. He also owns a cello made of carbon fiber by the Luis and Clark company of Boston.

In 1997 he was featured on John Williams' soundtrack to the Hollywood film, ''Seven Years in Tibet''. In 2000, he was heard on the soundtrack of ''Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon'', and in 2003 on that of ''Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World''. He collaborated with Williams again on the original score for the 2005 film ''Memoirs of a Geisha''. Yo-Yo Ma has also worked with world-renowned Italian composer Ennio Morricone and has recorded Morricone's compositions of the Dollars Trilogy including ''The Good, the Bad and the Ugly''. He also has over 75 albums, 15 of which are Grammy Award winners. Ma is a recipient of the International Center in New York's Award of Excellence.

Ma was named Peace Ambassador by UN then Secretary-General Kofi Annan in January 2006.

On November 3, 2009, President Obama appointed Ma to serve on the President's Committee on the Arts and Humanities. His music was featured in the 2010 documentary ''Jews and Baseball: An American Love Story'', narrated by Academy Award winner Dustin Hoffman.

Playing style

thumb|right|Ma with Condoleezza Rice after performing a duet at the presentation of the 2001 National Medal of Arts and National Humanities Medal Awards.Ma has been referred to as "omnivorous" by critics, and possesses a more eclectic repertoire than is typical for classical musicians. A sampling of his versatility in addition to numerous recordings of the standard classical repertoire would include his recordings of Baroque pieces using period instruments; American bluegrass music; traditional Chinese melodies including the soundtrack to the film ''Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon''; the tangos of Argentinian composer Ástor Piazzolla; an eclectic and unusual collaboration with Bobby McFerrin (where Ma admitted to being terrified of the improvisation McFerrin pushed him toward); as well as the music of modern minimalist Philip Glass in such works as the 2002 piece ''Naqoyqatsi''. He is known for his smooth, rich tone as well as his considerable virtuosity, including a cello recording of Niccolò Paganini's 24th Caprice for solo violin, Zoltán Kodály's cello sonata, and other demanding works.

Notable live performances

Ma performed a duet with Condoleezza Rice at the presentation of the 2001 National Medal of Arts and National Humanities Medal Awards. Ma was the first performer on September 11, 2002, at the site of the World Trade Center, while the first of the names of the dead were read in remembrance on the first anniversary of the attack on the WTC. He played the Sarabande from Bach's ''Suite in C minor (#5)''. He performed a special arrangement of Sting's "Fragile" with Sting and the Mormon Tabernacle Choir during the opening ceremonies of the 2002 Winter Olympics in Salt Lake City, Utah.

He performed John Williams' "Air and Simple Gifts" at the inauguration ceremony for Barack Obama on January 20, 2009, along with Itzhak Perlman (violin), Gabriela Montero (piano) and Anthony McGill (clarinet). While the quartet did play live, the music played simultaneously over speakers and on television was a recording made two days prior due to concerns over the cold weather damaging the instruments. Ma was quoted as saying "A broken string was not an option. It was wicked cold."

On August 29, 2009, Ma performed at the funeral mass for Senator Edward M. Kennedy. Pieces he performed included the Sarabande movement from Bach's ''Cello Suite No. 6'', and Franck's ''Panis Angelicus'' with Placido Domingo.

On October 3, 2009, Ma appeared alongside Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper at the National Arts Centre gala in Ottawa. Harper, a noted Beatles fan, played the piano and sang a rendition of "With A Little Help From My Friends" while Ma accompanied him on his cello.

Media appearances

Ma has appeared in an episode of the animated children's television series, ''Arthur'', as well as on ''The West Wing'' (episode "Noël", in which he performed the prelude to the Bach Cello Suite No.1 at a Christmas dinner at the White House), ''Sesame Street'' and ''Mister Rogers' Neighborhood''. In ''The Simpsons'' episode "Missionary: Impossible", Ma, (voiced by Hank Azaria) runs after Homer Simpson along with many other frequent guests of PBS.

He also starred in the visual accompaniment to his recordings of Bach's ''Six Suites for Unaccompanied Cello''.

Ma has also been seen with Apple Inc. and former Pixar CEO Steve Jobs. Ma is often invited to press events for Jobs's companies, and has performed on stage during event keynote presentations, as well as appearing in a commercial for the Macintosh computer.

Ma was a guest on the Not My Job segment of ''Wait Wait... Don't Tell Me!'' on April 7, 2007, where he won for listener Thad Moore.

On October 27, 2008, Ma appeared as a guest and performer on ''The Colbert Report''.

According to research done by Professor Henry Louis Gates, Jr., of Harvard University, in 2010 for the PBS series ''Faces of America'', in which Ma made an appearance, a relative had hidden the Ma family genealogy in his home in China to save it from destruction during the Cultural Revolution. Ma's paternal ancestry can be traced back eighteen generations to the year 1217. This genealogy had been compiled in the 18th century by an ancestor, tracing everyone with the surname Ma, through the paternal line, back to one common ancestor in the 3rd century BC. Ma's generation name, "Yo", had been decided by his fourth great grand-uncle, Ma Ji Cang, in 1755.

Personal life

Ma married his long-time girlfriend Jill Hornor, a German language professor, in 1977. He proposed outside her apartment. They have two children, Nicholas and Emily, and reside in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Ma's elder sister, Yeou-Cheng Ma, who was also born in Paris, is a violinist married to Michael Dadap, a New York–based guitarist from the Philippines.

Discography

Awards and recognitions

Avery Fisher Prize

1978

Presidential Medal of Freedom

2011

Award of Distinction (International Cello Festival)

2007

Dan David Prize

2006

Doctor of Musical Arts (D.M.A.) (''honoris causa'')

2005 Princeton University

Grammy Award for Best Chamber Music Performance:

1996 ''Brahms/Beethoven/Mozart: Clarinet Trios'' (Sony 57499)

1993 ''Brahms: Sonatas for Cello & Piano'' (Sony 48191)

1992 ''Brahms: Piano Quartets Op. 25, Op. 26'' (Sony 45846)

1987 ''Beethoven: Cello and Piano Sonata No. 4 in C & Variations'' (CBS 42121)

1986 ''Brahms: Cello and Piano Sonatas in E Minor Op. 38, and F Op. 99'' (RCA 17022)

Grammy Award for Best Instrumental Soloist(s) Performance:

1998 ''Yo-Yo Ma Premieres – Danielpour, Kirchner, Rouse'' (Sony Classical 66299)

1995 ''The New York Album – Works of Albert, Bartók & Bloch'' (Sony 57961)

1993 ''Prokofiev: Sinfonia Concertante/Tchaikovsky: Variations on a Rococo Theme'' (Sony 48382)

1990 ''Barber: Cello Concerto, Op. 22/Britten: Symphony for Cello and Orchestra, Op. 68'' (CBS 44900)

Grammy Award for Best Instrumental Soloist Performance:

1985 ''Bach: The Unaccompanied Cello Suites'' (CBS 37867)

Grammy Award for Best Classical Contemporary Composition:

1995 ''The New York Album'', ''Stephen Albert: Cello Concerto'' (Sony 57961)

Grammy Award for Best Classical Album:

1998 ''Yo-Yo Ma Premieres – Danielpour, Kirchner, Rouse'' (Sony Classical 66299)

Grammy Award for Best Classical Crossover Album:

2010 ''Songs of Joy & Peace'' (Sony Classical B001BN1V8U)

2004 ''Obrigado Brazil'' (Sony 89935)

2001 ''Appalachian Journey'' (Sony 66782)

1999 ''Soul of the Tango – The Music of Ástor Piazzolla'' (Sony Classical 63122)

Glenn Gould Prize

1999

Latin Grammy for Best Instrumental Album

2004 ''Obrigado Brazil'' (Sony 89935)

National Medal of Arts 2001 Presidential Medal of Freedom

·Nominated: November 17, 2010

·Awarded: February 15, 2011

Cultural references

In the movie ''School of Rock'', Jack Black’s character tells the other teachers that he competed in a cello audition--and lost—to Yo-Yo Ma's cousin, who he describes as “Little Nepotiz”, a reference to the audition being on the same orchestral instrument as Yo-Yo Ma plays, and implying that Yo-yo Ma’s cousin won the audition simply by virtue of being related to Yo-Yo Ma. In the sitcom ''Seinfeld'', Kramer exclaims "Yo-Yo Ma!" in two episodes. When Kramer cries out "Yo-Yo Ma!" in The Ticket (Seinfeld), it is attributed to a suspected head injury caused by a kick from "Crazy" Joe Davola. In The Hamptons (Seinfeld), Kramer calls out "Yo-Yo Ma!" when he sees George Costanza's girlfriend, Jane, walking topless on the beach.

References

External links

Official Website

''About Us'', The Children's Orchestra Society, ChildrensOrch.org, 2007

Yo-Yo Ma in Conversation from WGBH Radio Boston

Yo-Yo Ma Interview on Time.com, October 2008

Yo-Yo Ma Podcast Series produced by Sony BMG Masterworks

Yo-Yo Ma TV Interview with Ennio Morricone from C Music TV

2006 Dan David Prize laureate

Category:American classical cellists Category:American musicians of Chinese descent Category:Contemporary classical music performers Category:Child classical musicians Category:Columbia University alumni Category:United States National Medal of Arts recipients Category:Emmy Award winners Category:French emigrants to the United States Category:Gemini Award winners Category:Grammy Award winners Category:Harvard University alumni Category:Juilliard School alumni Category:Musicians from Massachusetts Category:Naturalized citizens of the United States Category:People from Paris Category:Members of Committee of 100 Category:Honorary Members of the Royal Academy of Music Category:1955 births Category:Living people Category:United Nations Messengers of Peace Category:Presidential Medal of Freedom recipients Category:People from Belmont, Massachusetts Category:Child classical musicians

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country	England
fullname	Steven Sharp
living	true
dayofbirth	22
monthofbirth	9
yearofbirth	1962
placeofbirth	Barrow-in-Furness, Lancashire
countryofbirth	England
batting	Right-handed
club1	Minor Counties
year1	1990
club2	Cumberland
year2	1982–2002
deliveries	balls
columns	1
column1	List A
matches1	8
runs1	212
bat avg1	35.33
100s/50s1	–/1
top score1	75
deliveries1	18
wickets1	–
bowl avg1	–
fivefor1	–
tenfor1	–
best bowling1	–
catches/stumpings1	1/–
date	1 April
year	2011
source	http://www.espncricinfo.com/ci/content/player/20527.html Cricinfo }}

Steven Sharp (born 22 September 1962) is a former English cricketer. Sharp was a right-handed batsman. He was born in Barrow-in-Furness, Lancashire.

Sharp made his debut for Cumberland in the 1982 Minor Counties Championship against Durham. Sharp played Minor counties cricket for Cumberland from 1982 to 2002, including 65 Minor Counties Championship matches and 19 MCCA Knockout Trophy matches. In 1986, he made his List A debut against Lancashire in the NatWest Trophy. He played five further List A matches for Cumberland, the last of which came against Leicestershire in the 1994 NatWest Trophy. He also played two List A matches for the Minor Counties cricket team in the 1990 Benson and Hedges Cup against Sussex and Derbyshire. In his eight List A matches, he scored 212 runs at a batting average of 35.33, with a high score of 75. His only half century for Cumberland came against Essex in the 1992 NatWest Trophy.

He also played Second XI cricket for the Lancashire Second XI.

References

External links

Steven Sharp at ESPNcricinfo

Steven Sharp at CricketArchive

Category:1962 births Category:Living people Category:People from Barrow-in-Furness Category:People from Lancashire Category:English cricketers Category:Cumberland cricketers Category:Minor Counties cricketers

Alex Boyé is a British-born Latter-day Saint singer and actor of Nigerian descent.

Boyé was born in London, England. He joined The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS Church) at age 16. He served as a missionary in the England Bristol Mission. He was then the lead singer in the boy band Awesome, which sold over 500,000 CDs while on contract with Universal Records Europe. In 1999 Boye left the band to begin a solo career, releasing his first solo album in 2000 which made it to number 12 on the European charts. In 2000 Boyé moved to Utah. He has since been involved in many musical and theatrical productions.

Boyé has been an actor for the Hale Center Theatre in multiple productions and has played the role of Frederick Douglass in Frank Wildhorn's ''Civil War'' both at Hale Center and at Rogers Memorial Theatre in Centerville, Utah. He played the role of Aminadab in Lightsone Films' production of ''David and Goliath''. He was a member of the Mormon Tabernacle Choir for about five years, but appears to have now gone to a solo career. Recently he participated as a featured soloist in a concert connected with the rededication of the St. George Catholic Church. In 2005 Boye received an award from the LDS Booksellers Association for his album "Testimony".

Boyé married his wife Julie in the Salt Lake Temple.

Boyé's hit single "Crazy For You" has been played by radio stations nationwide. His recent ''Be Still My Soul: Classic Hymns and Folksongs'' has also been a major success.

He also sang "Born To Be A Scout", the feature song from the B-movie "Scout Camp". Songs by Boye have also appeared in other movies such as ''Baptists at Our Barbecue'' and ''Church Ball''.

Notes

Sources

''Mormon Times'' Dec. 11, 2009

''Denver Post'' article on Boye

Bio from Boyé's website

LDS Musicworld entry on Boyé

''St. Louis American'', July 26, 2008

Article on Boyé from 2006

discogs entry for Boye

''Mormons in Music'' bio of Boye

External links

Official website

The Boye Family Jewels (blog)

Category:20th-century Mormon missionaries Category:Actors from Utah Category:British people of Nigerian descent Category:Converts to Mormonism Category:English emigrants to the United States Category:English Latter Day Saints Category:English Mormon missionaries Category:English male singers Category:English musical theatre actors Category:Latter Day Saint music Category:Living people Category:Members of the Mormon Tabernacle Choir Category:Musicians from Utah Category:Mormon missionaries in England

Franz Liszt (October 22, 1811 – July 31, 1886) was a 19th-century Hungarian composer, virtuoso pianist, conductor, and teacher.

Liszt became renowned throughout Europe during the nineteenth century for his great, virtuosic skill as a performer. He was said by his contemporaries to have been the most technically-advanced pianist of his age and perhaps the greatest pianist of all time. He was also an important and influential composer, a notable piano teacher, a conductor who contributed significantly to the modern development of the art, and a benefactor to other composers and performers, notably Richard Wagner, Hector Berlioz, Camille Saint-Saëns, Edvard Grieg and Alexander Borodin.

As a composer, Liszt was one of the most prominent representatives of the "Neudeutsche Schule" ("New German School"). He left behind an extensive and diverse body of work, in which he influenced his forward-looking contemporaries and anticipated some 20th-century ideas and trends. Some of his most notable contributions were the invention of the symphonic poem, developing the concept of thematic transformation as part of his experiments in musical form and making radical departures in harmony.

Life

Early life

The earliest known ancestor of Franz Liszt is his great-grandfather, Sebastian List, who as one of the thousands of German migrant serfs locally migrating within the Austrian Empire's territories (around the area nowadays constituting Lower Austria and Hungary), in the first half of the 18th century, and died in 1793 in Rajka, Moson County, Kingdom of Hungary. Liszt's grandfather was an overseer on several Esterházy estates; he could play the piano, violin and organ. The Liszt clan dispersed throughout Austria and Hungary and gradually lost touch with one another.

Franz Liszt was born to Marie Anna Lager and Adam Liszt on October 22, 1811, in the village of Doborján () in Sopron County, in the Kingdom of Hungary. His father would use only the Hungarian language when dealing, as steward, with the folk of the village in which the family settled.

Liszt's father played the piano, violin, cello, and guitar. He had been in the service of Prince Nikolaus II Esterházy and knew Haydn, Hummel and Beethoven personally. At age six, Franz began listening attentively to his father's piano playing and showed an interest in both sacred and Romani music. Adam began teaching him the piano at age seven, and Franz began composing in an elementary manner when he was eight. He appeared in concerts at Sopron and Pozsony (; ) in October and November 1820 at age 9. After the concerts, a group of wealthy sponsors offered to finance Franz's musical education abroad.

In Vienna, Liszt received piano lessons from Carl Czerny, who in his own youth had been a student of Beethoven and Hummel. He also received lessons in composition from Antonio Salieri, who was then music director of the Viennese court. His public debut in Vienna on December 1, 1822, at a concert at the "Landständischer Saal," was a great success. He was greeted in Austrian and Hungarian aristocratic circles and also met Beethoven and Schubert. In spring 1823, when the one year leave of absence came to an end, Adam Liszt asked Prince Esterházy in vain for two more years. Adam Liszt therefore took his leave of the Prince's services. At the end of April 1823, the family returned to Hungary for the last time. At end of May 1823, the family went to Vienna again.

Towards the end of 1823 or early 1824, Liszt's first published composition appeared in print, a Variation on a Waltz by Diabelli (now S. 147), which was Variation 24 in Part II of ''Vaterländischer Künstlerverein''. This anthology, commissioned by Diabelli, included 50 variations on his waltz by 50 different composers (Part II), Part I being taken up by Beethoven's 33 variations on the same theme, which are now better known as the ''Diabelli Variations'', Op. 120.

Adolescence in Paris

After his father's death Liszt moved to Paris; for the next five years he was to live with his mother in a small apartment. He gave up touring. To earn money, Liszt gave lessons in piano playing and composition, often from early morning until late at night. His students were scattered across the city and he often had to cover long distances. Because of this, he kept uncertain hours and also took up smoking and drinking—all habits he would continue throughout his life.

The following year he fell in love with one of his pupils, Caroline de Saint-Cricq, the daughter of Charles X's minister of commerce. However, her father insisted that the affair be broken off. Liszt fell very ill, to the extent that an obituary notice was printed in a Paris newspaper, and he underwent a long period of religious doubts and pessimism. He again stated a wish to join the Church but was dissuaded this time by his mother. He had many discussions with the Abbé de Lamennais, who acted as his spiritual father, and also with Chrétien Urhan, a German-born violinist who introduced him to the Saint-Simonists. Urhan also wrote music that was anti-classical and highly subjective, with titles such as ''Elle et moi, La Salvation angélique'' and ''Les Regrets'', and may have whetted the young Liszt's taste for musical romanticism. Equally important for Liszt was Urhan's earnest championship of Schubert, which may have stimulated his own lifelong devotion to that composer's music.

During this period Liszt read widely to overcome his lack of a general education, and he soon came into contact with many of the leading authors and artists of his day, including Victor Hugo, Alphonse de Lamartine and Heinrich Heine. He composed practically nothing in these years. Nevertheless, the July Revolution of 1830 inspired him to sketch a Revolutionary Symphony based on the events of the "three glorious days," and he took a greater interest in events surrounding him. He met Hector Berlioz on December 4, 1830, the day before the premiere of the ''Symphonie fantastique''. Berlioz's music made a strong impression on Liszt, especially later when he was writing for orchestra. He also inherited from Berlioz the diabolic quality of many of his works.

Paganini

After attending an April 20, 1832 concert for charity, for the victims of a Parisian cholera epidemic, by Niccolò Paganini, Liszt became determined to become as great a virtuoso on the piano as Paganini was on the violin. Paris in the 1830s had become the nexus for pianistic activities, with dozens of pianists dedicated to perfection at the keyboard. Some, such as Sigismond Thalberg and Alexander Dreyschock, focused on specific aspects of technique (e.g. the "three-hand effect" and octaves, respectively). While it was called the "flying trapeze" school of piano playing, this generation also solved some of the most intractable problems of piano technique, raising the general level of performance to previously unimagined heights. Liszt's strength and ability to stand out in this company was in mastering all the aspects of piano technique cultivated singly and assiduously by his rivals.

In 1833 he made transcriptions of several works by Berlioz, including the ''Symphonie fantastique''. His chief motive in doing so, especially with the ''Symphonie'', was to help the poverty-stricken Berlioz, whose symphony remained unknown and unpublished. Liszt bore the expense of publishing the transcription himself and played it many times to help popularise the original score. He was also forming a friendship with a third composer who influenced him, Frédéric Chopin; under his influence Liszt's poetic and romantic side began to develop.

With Countess Marie d'Agoult

In 1833, Liszt began his relationship with the Countess Marie d'Agoult. In addition to this, at the end of April 1834 he made the acquaintance of Felicité de Lamennais. Under the influence of both, Liszt's creative output exploded. In 1834 Liszt debuted as a mature and original composer with his piano compositions ''Harmonies poétiques et religieuses'' and the set of three ''Apparitions''. These were all poetic works which contrasted strongly with the fantasies he had written earlier. In 1835 the countess left her husband and family to join Liszt in Geneva; their daughter Blandine was born there on December 18. Liszt taught at the newly founded Geneva Conservatory, wrote a manual of piano technique (later lost) and contributed essays for the Paris ''Revue et gazette musicale''. In these essays, he argued for the raising of the artist from the status of a servant to a respected member of the community.

For the next four years Liszt and the countess lived together, mainly in Switzerland and Italy, where their daughter, Cosima, was born in Como, with occasional visits to Paris. On May 9, 1839 Liszt's and the countess's only son, Daniel, was born, but that autumn relations between them became strained. Liszt heard that plans for a Beethoven monument in Bonn were in danger of collapse for lack of funds, and pledged his support. Doing so meant returning to the life of a touring virtuoso. The countess returned to Paris with the children, while Liszt gave six concerts in Vienna, then toured Hungary.

Touring virtuoso

For the next eight years Liszt continued to tour Europe, spending holidays with the countess and their children on the island of Nonnenwerth on the Rhine in summers 1841 and 1843. In spring 1844 the couple finally separated. This was Liszt's most brilliant period as a concert pianist. Honours were showered on him and he was adulated everywhere he went. Since Liszt often appeared three or four times a week in concert, it could be safe to assume that he appeared in public well over a thousand times during this eight-year period. Moreover, his great fame as a pianist, which he would continue to enjoy long after he had officially retired from the concert stage, was based mainly on his accomplishments during this time.

After 1842 "Lisztomania" swept across Europe. The reception Liszt enjoyed as a result can only be described as hysterical. Women fought over his silk handkerchiefs and velvet gloves, which they ripped to shreds as souvenirs. Helping fuel this atmosphere was the artist's mesmeric personality and stage presence. Many witnesses later testified that Liszt's playing raised the mood of audiences to a level of mystical ecstasy.

Adding to his reputation was the fact that Liszt gave away much of his proceeds to charity and humanitarian causes. In fact, Liszt had made so much money by his mid-forties that virtually all his performing fees after 1857 went to charity. While his work for the Beethoven monument and the Hungarian National School of Music are well known, he also gave generously to the building fund of Cologne Cathedral, the establishment of a ''Gymnasium'' at Dortmund, and the construction of the Leopold Church in Pest. There were also private donations to hospitals, schools and charitable organizations such as the Leipzig Musicians Pension Fund. When he found out about the Great Fire of Hamburg, which raged for three weeks during May 1842 and destroyed much of the city, he gave concerts in aid of the thousands of homeless there.

Liszt in Weimar

In February 1847, Liszt played in Kiev. There he met the Princess Carolyne zu Sayn-Wittgenstein, who dominated most of the rest of his life. She persuaded him to concentrate on composition, which meant giving up his career as a travelling virtuoso. After a tour of the Balkans, Turkey and Russia that summer, Liszt gave his final concert for pay at Elisavetgrad in September. He spent the winter with the princess at her estate in Woronince. By retiring from the concert platform at 35, while still at the height of his powers, Liszt succeeded in keeping the legend of his playing untarnished.

The following year, Liszt took up a long-standing invitation of Grand Duchess Maria Pavlovna of Russia to settle at Weimar, where he had been appointed ''Kapellmeister Extraordinaire'' in 1842, remaining there until 1861. During this period he acted as conductor at court concerts and on special occasions at the theatre. He gave lessons to a number of pianists, including the great virtuoso Hans von Bülow, who married Liszt's daughter Cosima in 1857 (years later, she would marry Richard Wagner). He also wrote articles championing Berlioz and Wagner. Finally, Liszt had ample time to compose and during the next 12 years revised or produced those orchestral and choral pieces upon which his reputation as a composer mainly rests. His efforts on behalf of Wagner, who was then an exile in Switzerland, culminated in the first performance of ''Lohengrin'' in 1850.

Princess Carolyne lived with Liszt during his years in Weimar. She eventually wished to marry Liszt, but since she had been previously married and her husband, Russian military officer Prince Nikolaus zu Sayn-Wittgenstein-Ludwigsburg (1812–1864), was still alive, she had to convince the Roman Catholic authorities that her marriage to him had been invalid. After huge efforts and a monstrously intricate process, she was temporarily successful (September 1860). It was planned that the couple would marry in Rome, on October 22, 1861, Liszt's 50th birthday. Liszt having arrived in Rome on October 21, 1861, the Princess nevertheless declined, by the late evening, to marry him. It appears that both her husband and the Tsar of Russia had managed to quash permission for the marriage at the Vatican. The Russian government also impounded her several estates in the Polish Ukraine, which made her later marriage to anybody unfeasible.

Liszt in Rome

The 1860s were a period of great sadness in Liszt's private life. On December 13, 1859, he lost his son Daniel, and on September 11, 1862, his daughter Blandine also died. In letters to friends, Liszt afterwards announced that he would retreat to a solitary living. He found it at the monastery ''Madonna del Rosario'', just outside Rome, where on June 20, 1863, he took up quarters in a small, Spartan apartment. He had on June 23, 1857, already joined a Franciscan order.

On April 25, 1865, he received the tonsure at the hands of Cardinal Hohenlohe. Following this he was sometimes called the ''Abbé'' Liszt. On July 31, 1865 he received the four minor orders of porter, lector, exorcist, and acolyte. On August 14, 1879 he was made an honorary canon of Albano. The title 'Abbé', the French equivalent of 'Father', is a courtesy title often given in the 18th Century to men in minor orders; Liszt was never a priest. (''Abbé'' can also mean abbot, but that definition does not apply here at all.)

On some occasions, Liszt took part in Rome's musical life. On March 26, 1863, at a concert at the ''Palazzo Altieri'', he directed a programme of sacred music. The "Seligkeiten" of his "Christus-Oratorio" and his "Cantico del Sol di Francesco d'Assisi", as well as Haydn's "Die Schöpfung" and works by J. S. Bach, Beethoven, Jommelli, Mendelssohn and Palestrina were performed. On January 4, 1866, Liszt directed the "Stabat mater" of his "Christus-Oratorio", and on February 26, 1866, his "Dante Symphony". There were several further occasions of similar kind, but in comparison with the duration of Liszt's stay in Rome, they were exceptions. Bódog Pichler, who visited Liszt in 1864 and asked him for his future plans, had the impression that Rome's musical life was not satisfying for Liszt.

Threefold life

Liszt was invited back to Weimar in 1869 to give master classes in piano playing. Two years later he was asked to do the same in Budapest at the Hungarian Music Academy. From then until the end of his life he made regular journeys between Rome, Weimar and Budapest, continuing what he called his "vie trifurquée" or threefold existence. It is estimated that Liszt travelled at least 4000 miles a year during this period in his life—an exceptional figure given his advancing age and the rigours of road and rail in the 1870s.

Last years

On July 2, 1881, Liszt fell down the stairs of the Hotel in Weimar. Though friends and colleagues had noted swelling in Liszt's feet and legs when he had arrived in Weimar the previous month, Liszt had up to this point been in reasonably good health, and his body had retained the slimness and suppleness of earlier years. The accident, which immobilised him for eight weeks, changed this. A number of ailments manifested—dropsy, asthma, insomnia, a cataract of the left eye and chronic heart disease. The last-mentioned eventually contributed to Liszt's death. He became increasingly plagued by feelings of desolation, despair and preoccupation with death—feelings which he expressed in his works from this period. As he told Lina Ramann, "I carry a deep sadness of the heart which must now and then break out in sound."

He died in Bayreuth, Germany, on July 31, 1886, at age 74, officially as a result of pneumonia which he may have contracted during the Bayreuth Festival hosted by his daughter Cosima. Questions have been posed as to whether medical malpractice played a direct part in Liszt's demise.

Composer Camille Saint-Saëns, an old friend, whom Liszt had once called "the greatest organist in the world" dedicated his Symphony No. 3 "Organ Symphony" to Liszt; it had premiered in London only a few weeks before his death.

Liszt as pianist

Performing style

There are few, if any, good sources that give an impression of how Liszt really sounded from the 1820s. Carl Czerny claimed Liszt was a natural who played according to feeling, and reviews of his concerts especially praise the brilliance, strength and precision in his playing. At least one also mentions his ability to keep absolute tempo, which may be due to his father's insistence that he practice with a metronome. His repertoire at this time consisted primarily of pieces in the style of the brilliant Viennese school, such as concertos by Hummel and works by his former teacher Czerny, and his concerts often included a chance for the boy to display his prowess in improvisation.

Following the death of Liszt's father in 1827 and his hiatus from the life as a touring virtuoso, it is likely Liszt's playing gradually developed a more personal style. One of the most detailed descriptions of his playing from this time comes from the winter of 1831/1832, during which he was earning a living primarily as a teacher in Paris. Among his pupils were Valerie Boissier, whose mother Caroline kept a careful diary of the lessons. From her we learn that:

"M. Liszt's playing contains abandonment, a liberated feeling, but even when it becomes impetuous and energetic in his fortissimo, it is still without harshness and dryness. [...] [He] draws from the piano tones that are purer, mellower and stronger than anyone has been able to do; his touch has an indescribable charm. [...] He is the enemy of affected, stilted, contorted expressions. Most of all, he wants truth in musical sentiment, and so he makes a psychological study of his emotions to convey them as they are. Thus, a strong expression is often followed by a sense of fatigue and dejection, a kind of coldness, because this is the way nature works."

Possibly influenced by Paganini's showmanship, once Liszt began focusing on his career as a pianist again his emotionally vivid presentations of the music were rarely limited to mere sound. His facial expression and gestures at the piano would reflect what he played, for which he was sometimes mocked in the press. Also noted was the extravagant liberties he could take with the text of a score at this time. Berlioz tells us how Liszt would add cadenzas, tremolos and trills when playing the first movement of Beethoven's Moonlight Sonata, and created a dramatic scene by changing the tempo between Largo and Presto. In his ''Baccalaureus letter'' to George Sand from the beginning of 1837, Liszt admitted that he had done so for the purpose of gaining applause, and promised to follow both the letter and the spirit of a score from then on. It has been debated to what extent he realized his promise, however. By July 1840 the British newspaper ''The Times'' could still report

"His performance commenced with Händel's Fugue in E minor, which was played by Liszt with an avoidance of everything approaching to meretricious ornament, and indeed scarcely any additions, except a multitude of ingeniously contrived and appropriate harmonies, casting a glow of colour over the beauties of the composition, and infusing into it a spirit which from no other hand it ever received."

Repertoire

During his years as a travelling virtuoso Liszt performed an enormous amount of music throughout Europe, but his core repertoire always centered around his own compositions, paraphrases and transcriptions. Studying Liszt's German concerts between 1840 and 1845, the five most frequently played pieces were the ''Grand galop chromatique'', Schubert's ''Erlkönig'' (in Liszt's transcription), ''Réminiscences de Don Juan'', ''Réminiscences de Robert le Diable'', and ''Réminiscences de Lucia de Lammermoor''. Among the works by other composers we find compositions like Weber's ''Invitation to the Dance'', Chopin mazurkas, études by composers like Ignaz Moscheles, Chopin and Ferdinand Hiller, but also major works by Beethoven, Weber and Hummel, and from time to time even selections from Bach, Handel and Scarlatti.

Most of the concerts at this time were shared with other artists, and as a result Liszt also often accompanied singers, participated in chamber music, or performed works with an orchestra in addition to his own solo part. Frequently played works include Weber's Konzertstück, Beethoven's Emperor Concerto and Choral Fantasy, and Liszt's reworking of the Hexameron for piano and orchestra. His chamber music repertoire included Hummel's Septet, Beethoven's Archduke Trio and Kreutzer Sonata, and a large selection of songs by composers like Rossini, Donizetti, Beethoven and especially Schubert. At some concerts Liszt could not find musicians to share the program with, and consequently was among the first to give solo piano recitals in the modern sense of the word. The term was coined by the publisher Frederick Beale, who suggested it for Liszt's concert at the Hanover Square Rooms in London on June 9, 1840, even though Liszt had given concerts all by himself already by March 1839.

Musical works

Liszt was a prolific composer. His composition career has a clear arch that follows his changing professional and personal life. Liszt is best known for his piano music, but he wrote extensively for many media. Because of his background as a forefront technical piano virtuoso, Liszt's piano works are often marked by their difficulty. Liszt is very well known as a programmatic composer, or an individual who bases his compositional ideas in extra-musical things such as a poetry or painting. Liszt is credited with the creation of the Symphonic Poem which is a programmatic orchestral work that generally consists of a single movement.

Liszt's compositional style delved deeply into issues of unity both within and across movements. For this reason, in his most famous and virtuosic works, he is an archetypal Romantic composer. Liszt pioneered the technique of thematic transformation, a method of development which was related to both the existing variation technique and to the new use of the Leitmotif by Richard Wagner.

Piano music

The largest and best-known portion of Liszt's music is his original piano work. His thoroughly revised masterwork, "Années de pèlerinage" ("Years of Pilgrimage") includes arguably his most provocative and stirring pieces. This set of three suites ranges from the virtuosity of the Suisse Orage (Storm) to the subtle and imaginative visualizations of artworks by Michelangelo and Raphael in the second set. Années contains some pieces which are loose transcriptions of Liszt's own earlier compositions; the first "year" recreates his early pieces of "Album d'un voyageur", while the second book includes a resetting of his own song transcriptions once separately published as "Tre sonetti di Petrarca" ("Three sonnets of Petrarch"). The relative obscurity of the vast majority of his works may be explained by the immense number of pieces he composed, and the level of technical difficulty which was present in much of his composition.

Liszt's piano works are usually divided into two categories. On the one hand, there are "original works", and on the other hand "transcriptions", "paraphrases" or "fantasies" on works by other composers. Examples for the first category are works such as the piece ''Harmonies poétiques et religieuses'' of May 1833 and the ''Piano Sonata in B minor'' (1853). Liszt's transcriptions of Schubert songs, his fantasies on operatic melodies, and his piano arrangements of symphonies by Berlioz and Beethoven are examples from the second category. As special case, Liszt also made piano arrangements of his own instrumental and vocal works. Examples of this kind are the arrangement of the second movement "Gretchen" of his ''Faust Symphony'' and the first "Mephisto Waltz" as well as the "Liebesträume No. 3" and the two volumes of his "Buch der Lieder".

Transcriptions

When Liszt wrote transcriptions of works by other composers, he invested a lot of creativity in doing so. Instead of just overtaking original melodies and harmonies, he ameliorated them. In the case of his fantasies and transcriptions in the Italian style, composers such as Bellini and Donizetti knew that certain forms, usually periods of eight measures, were to be filled with music. Occasionally, while the first half of a period was composed with inspiration, the second half was added with mechanical routine. Liszt changed this by modifying the melody, bass and occasionally the harmonies.

Liszt's transcriptions yielded results that were often more inventive than what Liszt or the original composer could have achieved alone. Some notable examples are the ''Sonnambula-fantasy'' (Bellini), the ''Rigoletto-Paraphrase'' (Verdi), the ''Faust-Walzer'' (Gounod), and "Réminiscences de Don Juan" (Mozart). Hans von Bülow admitted that Liszt's transcription of his ''Dante Sonett'' "Tanto gentile" was much more refined than the original he himself had composed. Liszt's transcriptions of Schubert songs, his fantasies on operatic melodies, and his piano arrangements of symphonies by Berlioz and Beethoven are other well known examples of piano transcriptions.

Liszt was the second pianist (after Kalkbrenner) to transcribe Beethoven's symphonies for the piano. He usually performed them for audiences that would probably never have an opportunity to hear the orchestral version.

Original songs

Franz Liszt composed about six dozen original songs with piano accompaniment. In most cases the lyrics were in German or French, but there are also some songs in Italian and Hungarian and one song in English. Liszt began with the song "Angiolin dal biondo crin" in 1839, and by 1844 had composed about two dozen songs. Some of them had been published as single pieces. In addition, there was an 1843–1844 series "Buch der Lieder". The series had been projected for three volumes, consisting of six songs each, but only two volumes appeared.

Although Liszt's early songs are seldom sung, they show him in much better light than works such as the paraphrase "Gaudeamus igitur" and the ''Galop'' after Bulhakow, both composed in 1843. The transcriptions of the two volumes of the "Buch der Lieder" can be counted among Liszt's finest piano works. However, the contemporaries had much to criticise with regard to the style of the songs. Further critical remarks can be found in Peter Raabe's ''Liszts Schaffen''.

Today, Liszt's songs are nearly entirely forgotten. As an exception, most frequently the song "Ich möchte hingehen" is cited. It is because of a single bar, most resembling the opening motif of Wagner's ''Tristan und Isolde''. While it is commonly claimed that Liszt wrote that motif ten years before Wagner started work on his masterpiece, it has turned out that this is not true: the original version of "Ich möchte hingehn" was composed in 1844 or 1845. There are four manuscripts, and only a single one, a copy by August Conradi, contains the said bar with the ''Tristan'' motif. It is on a paste-over in Liszt's hand. Since in the second half of 1858 Liszt was preparing his songs for publication, and he just at that time received the first act of Wagner's ''Tristan'', it is most likely that the version on the paste-over was a quotation from Wagner. This is not to say, the motif was originally invented by Wagner. An earlier example can be found in bar 100 of Liszt's Ballade No. 2 in B minor for piano, composed in 1853.

Programme music

Liszt, in some of his works, supported the idea of programme music – that is, music intended to evoke extra-musical ideas. By contrast, absolute music (a radical new idea in the 19th century world of music) stands for itself and is intended to be appreciated without any particular reference to the outside world.

Liszt's own point of view regarding programme music can for the time of his youth be taken from the preface of the ''Album d'un voyageur'' (1837). According to this, a landscape could evoke a certain kind of mood. Since a piece of music could also evoke a mood, a mysterious resemblance with the landscape could be imagined. In this sense the music would not paint the landscape, but it would match the landscape in a third category, the mood.

In July 1854 Liszt wrote his essay about Berlioz and ''Harold in Italy'' that stated that not all music was programme music. If, in the heat of a debate, a person would go so far as to claim the contrary, it would be better to put all ideas of programme music aside. But it would be possible to take means like harmony, modulation, rhythm, instrumentation and others to let a musical motif endure a fate. In any case, a programme should only be added to a piece of music if it was necessarily needed for an adequate understanding of that piece.

Still later, in a letter to Marie d'Agoult of November 15, 1864, Liszt wrote: :"Without any reserve I completely subscribe to the rule of which you so kindly want to remind me, that those musical works which are in a general sense following a programme must take effect on imagination and emotion, independent of any programme. In other words: All beautiful music must be first rate and always satisfy the absolute rules of music which are not to be violated or prescribed".

Symphonic poems

A symphonic poem or tone poem is a piece of orchestral music in one movement in which some extramusical program provides a narrative or illustrative element. This program may come from a poem, a story or novel, a painting, or another source. The term was first applied by Liszt to his 13 one-movement orchestral works in this vein. They were not pure symphonic movements in the classical sense because they dealt with descriptive subjects taken from mythology, Romantic literature, recent history or imaginative fantasy. In other words, these works were programmatic rather than abstract. The form was a direct product of Romanticism which encouraged literary, pictorial and dramatic associations in music. It developed into an important form of program music in the second half of the 19th century.

The first 12 symphonic poems were composed in the decade 1848–58 (though some use material conceived earlier); one other, ''Von der Wiege bis zum Grabe'' (''From the Cradle to the Grave''), followed in 1882. Liszt's intent, according to Hugh MacDonald in the ''New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians (1980)'', was for these single-movement works "to display the traditional logic of symphonic thought." That logic, embodied in sonata form as musical development, was traditionally the unfolding of latent possibilities in given themes in rhythm, melody and harmony, either in part or in their entirety, as they were allowed to combine, separate and contrast with one another. To the resulting sense of struggle Beethoven had added an intensity of feeling and the involvement of his audiences in that feeling, beginning from the ''Eroica'' Symphony to use the elements of the craft of music—melody, bass, counterpoint, rhythm and harmony—in a new synthesis of elements toward this end.

Liszt attempted in the symphonic poem to extend this revitalization of the nature of musical discourse and add to it the Romantic ideal of reconciling classical formal principles to external literary concepts. To this end, he combined elements of overture and symphony with descriptive elements, approaching symphonic first movements in form and scale. While showing extremely creative amendments to sonata form, Liszt used compositional devices such as cyclic form, motifs and thematic transformation to lend these works added coherence. Their composition proved daunting, requiring a continual process of creative experimentation that included many stages of composition, rehearsal and revision to reach a version where different parts of the musical form seemed balanced.

Late works

With some works from the end of the Weimar years Liszt drifted more and more away from the musical taste of his time. An early example is the melodrama "Der traurige Mönch" ("The sad monk") after a poem by Nikolaus Lenau, composed in the beginning of October 1860. While in the 19th century harmonies were usually considered as major or minor triads to which dissonances could be added, Liszt took the augmented triad as central chord.

More examples can be found in the third volume of Liszt's ''Années de Pèlerinage''. "Les Jeux d'Eaux à la Villa d'Este" ("The Fountains of the Villa d'Este"), composed in September 1877, foreshadows the impressionism of pieces on similar subjects by Debussy and Ravel. However, other pieces such as the "Marche funèbre, En mémoire de Maximilian I, Empereur du Mexique" ("Funeral march, In memory of Maximilian I, Emperor of Mexico") composed in 1867 are without stylistic parallel in the 19th and 20th centuries.

At a later stage Liszt experimented with "forbidden" things such as parallel 5ths in the "Csárdás macabre" and atonality in the ''Bagatelle sans tonalité'' ("Bagatelle without Tonality"). In the last part of his "2de Valse oubliée" ("2nd Forgotten waltz") Liszt composed that he could not find a lyrical melody. Pieces like the "2nd Mephisto-Waltz" are shocking with nearly endless repetitions of short motives. Also characteristic are the "Via crucis" of 1878, as well as ''Unstern!'', ''Nuages gris'', and the two works entitled ''La lugubre gondola'' of the 1880s.

Literary works

Besides his musical works, Liszt wrote essays about many subjects. Most important for an understanding of his development is the article series "De la situation des artistes" ("On the situation of the artists") which was published in the Parisian ''Gazette musicale'' in 1835. In winter 1835–36, during Liszt's stay in Geneva, about half a dozen further essays followed. One of them was slated to be published under the pseudonym, "Emm Prym", was about Liszt's own works. It was sent to Maurice Schlesinger, editor of the ''Gazette musicale''. Schlesinger, however, following the advice of Berlioz, did not publish it. In the beginning of 1837, Liszt published a review of some piano works of Sigismond Thalberg. The review provoked a huge scandal. Liszt also published a series of writings titled "Baccalaureus letters", ending in 1841.

During the Weimar years, Liszt wrote a series of essays about operas, leading from Gluck to Wagner. Liszt also wrote essays about Berlioz and the symphony ''Harold in Italy'', Robert and Clara Schumann, John Field's nocturnes, songs of Robert Franz, a planned Goethe foundation at Weimar, and other subjects. In addition to essays, Liszt wrote a book about Chopin as well as a book about the Romanis (Gypsies) and their music in Hungary.

While all of those literary works were published under Liszt's name, it is not quite clear which parts of them he had written himself. It is known from his letters that during the time of his youth there had been collaboration with Marie d'Agoult. During the Weimar years it was the Princess Wittgenstein who helped him. In most cases the manuscripts have disappeared so that it is difficult to determine which of Liszt's literary works actually were works of his own. However, until the end of his life it was Liszt's point of view that it was he who was responsible for the contents of those literary works.

Liszt also worked until at least 1885 on a treatise for modern harmony. Pianist Arthur Friedheim, who also served as Liszt's personal secretary, remembered seeing it among Liszt's papers at Weimar. Liszt told Friedheim that the time was not yet ripe to publish the manuscript, titled ''Sketches for a Harmony of the Future''. Unfortunately, this treatise has been lost.

Liszt also wrote a biography of his friend and fellow composer Frederic Chopin, "Life of Chopin".

Legacy

Although there was a period in which many considered Liszt's works "flashy" or superficial, it is now held that many of Liszt's compositions such as ''Nuages gris'', ''Les jeux d'eaux a la vill d'Este'', etc., which contain parallel fifths, the whole-tone scale, parallel diminished and augmented triads, and unresolved dissonances, anticipated and influenced twentieth century music like that of Debussy, Ravel and Bartok.

Liszt's students

Early students

Liszt was one of the most noted teachers of the 19th century. This part of his career commenced after his father's death in August 1827. For the purpose of earning his own and his mother's living, Liszt gave lessons in composition and piano playing. According to a letter to Monsieur de Mancy on December 23, 1829, he was so full of lessons that each day, from half-past eight in the morning till 10 at night, he had scarcely breathing time. Most of Liszt's students of this period were amateurs, but there were also some who made a professional career. An example of the first kind is Valérie Boissier, the later Comtesse de Gasparin. Examples of the second kind are Julius Eichberg, Pierre Wolff, and Hermann Cohen. During winter 1835–36 they were Liszt's colleagues at the Conservatoire at Geneva. Wolff then went to Saint Petersburg.

Cohen, who from George Sand received the nickname "Puzzi", developed into a very successful pianist. Of Jewish origin, he was baptized on August 28, 1847. On this day he experienced what he called an "apparition" of Christ, Mary and the saints in an "ecstasy of love". A year later he became novice of a Carmelite convent. When on October 7, 1850, he was professed, he took the name Père Augstin–Marie du Très Saint Sacrament ("Pater Augustin–Mary of the Holiest Sacrament"). On April 19, 1851, he was ordained as priest. In spring 1862 he met Liszt in Rome. After colloquies with Pater Augustin, Liszt decided that he would himself become ecclesiastic.

During the years of his tours Liszt gave only few lessons. Examples of students from this period are Johann Nepumuk Dunkl and Wilhelm von Lenz. Dunkl received lessons from Liszt during winter 1839–40. He had introduced himself by playing Thalberg's Fantasy Op. 6 on melodies from Meyerbeer's opera "Robert le diable". Liszt later called him a "Halbschüler" ("half-student"). Lenz, from St. Petersburg, had met Liszt already at the end of 1828. In summer 1842 he was in Paris again where he received further lessons from Liszt. He was merely an amateur with a repertoire of pieces such as Chopin's Nocturne Op. 9/2. In spring 1844, in Dresden, Liszt met the young Hans von Bülow, his later son in law. Bülow's repertoire included Thalberg's Fantasy "La Donna del Lago" Op. 40 and Liszt's ''Sonnambula-Fantasy''.

Later students

Since Liszt had settled in Weimar, the number of those who received lessons from him was steadily increasing. Until his death in 1886 there would have been several hundred people who in some sense may have been regarded as his students. August Göllerich published a voluminous catalogue of them. In a note he added the remark that he had taken the connotation "student" in its widest sense. As consequence, his catalogue includes names of pianists, violinists, cellists, harpists, organists, composers, conductors, singers and even writers. Another catalogue was prepared by Carl Lachmund. In Lachmund's catalogue his own wife's name, missing in Göllerich's catalogue, is included. She had successfully persuaded Liszt to listen to her playing the harp. After she had played a single piece, without Liszt saying a word about it, she was nominated as Liszt's student by her husband.

The following catalogue by Ludwig Nohl, headed with "Die Hauptschüler Liszts" ("Liszt's main students"), was approved in September 1881 and, with regard to the order of the names, corrected, by Liszt. {|cellpadding="3" |- |Hans von Bülow||Carl Tausig||Franz Bendel|| |- |Hans von Bronsart||Karl Klindworth||Alexander Winterberger |- |Julius Reubke||Theodor Ratzenberger||Robert Pflughaupt |- |Friedrich Altschul||Nicolaus Neilissoff||Carl Baermann|| |- |Dionys Pruckner||Ferdinand Schreiber||Louis Rothfeld |- |Antal Sipos||Julius Eichberg||Josef Wieniawsk |- |Louis Jungmann||William Mason||Max Pinner |- |Juliusz Zarębski||Giovanni Sgambati||Carlo Lippi |- |Siegfried Langgaard||Karl Pohlig||Arthur Friedheim |- |Louis Marek||Eduard Reuss||Bertrand Roth |- |Berthold Kellermann||Carl Stasny||Julius Richter |- |Ingeborg Starck-Bronsart||Sophie Menter-Popper||Sophie Pflughaupt |- |Aline Hundt||Pauline Fichtner-Erdmannsdörfer||Ahrenda Blume |- |Anna Mehlig||Vera Timanova||Martha Remmert |- |Sara Magnus-Heinze||Dora Petersen||Ilonka Ravacz |- |Cäcilia Gaul||Marie Breidenstein||George Leitert |}

In 1886 a similar catalogue would have been much longer, including names such as Eugen d'Albert, Walter Bache, Carl Lachmund, Moriz Rosenthal, Emil Sauer, Alexander Siloti, Conrad Ansorge, William Dayas, August Göllerich, Bernhard Stavenhagen, August Stradal, István Thomán and others.

Nohl's catalogue was by far not complete, and this even when the restriction to the period since the Weimar years is neglected. Of Liszt's Hungarian students, for example, only Antal Sipos and Ilonka Ravasz were mentioned. Sipos had become Liszt's student in 1858 in Weimar, after Liszt had heard him playing at a concert and invited him. In 1861 Sipos returned to Budapest, where in 1875 he founded a music school. Ilonka Ravasz was since winter 1875–76 one of Liszt's most gifted students at the newly founded Royal Academy for Music at Budapest. Astonishingly, the names of Aladár Juhász and Károly Aggházy are missing in Nohl's catalogue, although both had been among Liszt's favourite students at the Hungarian Academy.

Also missing are the names of Agnes Street-Klindworth and Olga Janina. Agnes Street-Klindworth had in 1853 arrived in Weimar, where she received lessons in piano playing from Liszt and lessons in composition from Peter Cornelius. Until 1861 she was Liszt's secret mistress. Olga Janina had joined the circle around Liszt in 1869 in Rome. According to Liszt's impression, she had rare and admirable musical talents. In his presence, she performed his piano concertos in E-flat and A Major as well as further examples of his works.

Unfortunately, Olga Janina fell in love with Liszt. They had a short affair, until in spring 1871—on Liszt's initiative—they separated. Olga went to America, but in spring 1873 returned to Budapest. In a telegram to Liszt she had announced that she would kill him. After three adventurous days together with Liszt in an apartment in Budapest she left. Together with Liszt's student Franz Servais she first went to Belgium where she gave concerts which were brilliant successes. She then, together with Servais, went to Italy.

During the 1870s Olga Janina wrote several scandalous books about Liszt, among them the novel ''Souvenirs d'une Cosaque'', published under the pseudonym "Robert Franz". In Göllerich's catalogue of Liszt's students she is registered as "Janina, Olga, Gräfin (Marquise Cezano) (Genf)". Thus she may have changed her name and moved to Geneva. Taking the preface of her ''Souvenirs d'une Cosaque'' literally, she had first moved from Italy to Paris where she had lived in poverty. The last paragraph of the preface can be read as a dedication to Liszt.

Besides Liszt's master students there was a crowd of those who could at best reach only moderate abilities. In such cases, Liszt's lessons changed nothing. However, also several of Liszt's master students were disappointed about him. An example is Eugen d'Albert, who in the end was on nearly hostile terms with Liszt. The same must be said of Felix Draeseke who had joined the circle around Liszt at Weimar in 1857, and who during the first half of the 1860s had been one of the most prominent representatives of the New German School. In Nohl's catalogue he is not even mentioned. Also Hans von Bülow, since the 1860s, had more and more drifted towards a direction which was not only different from Liszt's, but opposite to it

According to August Stradal, some of Liszt's master students had claimed that Anton Rubinstein was a better teacher than Liszt. It might have been meant as allusion to Emil Sauer, who had in Moscow studied with Nikolai Rubinstein. During a couple of months in summers 1884 and 1885 he studied with Liszt at Weimar. When he arrived for the first time, he already was a virtuoso of strongest calibre who shortly before had made a concert tour through Spain. The question of whether there was any change in his playing after he had studied with Liszt remains open. According to his autobiography ''Meine Welt'', he had found it imposing when Arthur Friedheim was thundering Liszt's ''Lucrezia-Fantasy''. Regarding Liszt's playing a Beethoven Sonata, however, he wrote, Liszt had at least given a good performance as actor. As his opinion, Sauer had told his fellow students that Anton Rubinstein was a greater composer than Liszt. In Sauer's own compositions, a piano concerto, two sonatas, about two and a half dozen Etudes and several concert pieces, no influence of Liszt as composer of the 1880s can be recognized.

Liszt's teaching approach

Liszt offered his students little technical advice, expecting them to "wash their dirty linen at home," as he phrased it. Instead, he focused on musical interpretation with a combination of anecdote, metaphor and wit. He advised one student tapping out the opening chords of Beethoven's ''Waldstein'' Sonata, "Do not chop beefsteak for us." To another who blurred the rhythm in Liszt's ''Gnomenreigen'' (usually done by playing the piece too fast in the composer's presence): "There you go, mixing salad again." Liszt also wanted to avoid creating carbon copies of himself; rather, he believed in preserving artistic individuality.

There were some pieces which Liszt famously refused to hear at his masterclasses. Among them were Carl Tausig's transcription of J. S. Bach's organ Toccata and Fugue in D minor, and Chopin's Scherzo No. 2 in B-flat minor. Liszt also did not like to hear his own Polonaise No. 2 in E Major, as it was overplayed and frequently badly played.

Liszt did not charge for lessons. He was troubled when German newspapers published details of pedagogue Theodor Kullak's will, revealing that Kullak had generated more than one million marks from teaching. "As an artist, you do not rake in a million marks without performing some sacrifice on the altar of Art," Liszt told his biographer Lina Ramann. However, Carl Czerny charged an expensive fee for lessons and even dismissed Stephen Heller when he was unable to afford to pay for his lessons. Interestingly, Liszt spoke very fondly of his former teacher, to whom he dedicated his Transcendental Etudes. He wrote the ''Allgemeine musikalische Zeitung'', urging Kullak's sons to create an endowment for needy musicians, as Liszt himself frequently did.

In the summer of 1936, Hungarian-French music critic Emil Haraszti published a two-part essay on Liszt, entitled ''Liszt á Paris'' in the publication ''La Revue musicale''. In 1937 he published ''Deux Franciscians: Adam et Franz Liszt'' and in December of that year published ''La Probleme Liszt''. The essay, which is a deep exploration of the musicality of Liszt, established Haraszti as one of the foremost Liszt scholars of his generation.

Royal Academy of Music at Budapest

Since the early 1860s there were attempts of some of Liszt's Hungarian contemporaries to have him settled with a position in Hungary. In January 1862, in Rome, Liszt received a letter by Baron Gábor Prónay, since 1850 President of a Conservatory in Pest. Baron Prónay offered Liszt the position as President. When in 1867 the Conservatory became "Ungarisches National Konservatorium" ("Hungarian National Conservatory"), Baron Prónay still tried to persuade Liszt to take the leadership. Liszt, however, in letters to Baron Prónay and further ones of his Hungarian contemporaries explained that his career as virtuoso and as conductor had finally ended. If he took a position in Hungary, it would be solely for the purpose of spreading his own compositions, his Oratorios and his symphonic works. Besides, as soon as he left Rome, it was his duty to spend some months of the year in Weimar. The Grand Duc had for several times asked for it.

In 1871 the Hungarian Prime Minister Gyula Andrássy made a new attempt. In a writing of June 4, 1871, to the Hungarian King he demanded an annual rent of 4,000 Gulden and the rank of a "Königlicher Rat" ("Councellor of the King") for Liszt, who in return would permanently settle in Budapest, directing the orchestra of the National Theatre as well as music schools and further musical institutions. With decision of June 13, 1871, the King agreed. By that time there were also plans of the foundation of a Royal Academy for Music at Budapest, of which the Hungarian state should be in charge. The Royal Academy is not to be confused with the National Conservatory which still existed. The National Conservatory, of which the city Budapest was in charge, was until his death in 1875 directed by Baron Prónay. His successor was Count Géza Zichy.

The plan of the foundation of the Royal Academy was in 1871 refused by the Hungarian Parliament, but a year later the Parliament agreed. Liszt was ordered to take part in the foundation. In March 1875 he was nominated as President. According to his wishes, the Academy should have been opened not earlier than in late autumn 1876. However, the Academy was officially opened already on November 14, 1875. Since it was Liszt's opinion that his colleagues Franz Erkel, the director, Kornél Ábrányi and Robert Volkmann could quite well do this job without him, he was absent. He arrived on February 15, 1876, in Budapest. On March 2 he started giving lessons, and on March 30 he left. The main purpose of his coming to Budapest had been a charity concert on March 20 in favour of the victims of a flood.

In November 1875, 38 students had passed the entrance examinations. 21 of them wanted to study piano playing, the others composition. Details of the entrance examinations are known from an account by Károly Swoboda (Szabados), one of Liszt's first students at the Royal Academy. According to this, candidates for a piano class had to play a single piano piece of their own choice. It could be a sonata movement by Mozart, Clementi or Beethoven. The candidates then had to sight read an easy further piece. Candidates for a composition class had to reproduce and continue a given melody of 4, 5 or 8 bars, after Volkmann had played it for about half a dozen times to them. Besides, they had to put harmonies to a given bass which was written on a table.

After Liszt had arrived, he selected 8 students for his class for advanced piano playing. To these came Áladár Juhász as the most outstanding one. As exception, he was to study piano playing only with Liszt. The others were matriculated as students of Erkel, since it was him from whom they would receive their lessons during Liszt's absence. Erkel also gave lessons in specific matters of Hungarian music. Volkmann gave lessons in composition and instrumentation. Ábrányi gave lessons in music aesthetics and harmony theory. Liszt had wished that there should have been a class for sacral music, led by Franz Xaver Witt. He had also wished that Hans von Bülow should take a position as piano professor. However, neither Witt nor Bülow agreed.

In spite of the conditions under which Liszt had in June 1871 been appointed as "Königlicher Rat", he neither directed the orchestra of the National Theatre, nor did he permanently settle in Hungary. As usual case, he arrived in mid-winter in Budapest. After one or two concerts of his students by the beginning of spring he left. He never took part in the final examinations, which were in summer of every year. Most of his students were still matriculated as students of either Erkel or later Henrik Gobbi. Some of them joined the lessons which he gave in summer in Weimar. In winter, when he was in Budapest, some students of his Weimar circle joined him there.

Judging from the concert programs of Liszt's students at Budapest, the standard resembled that of an advanced masterclass of our days. There was a difference, however, with regard to the repertoire. Most works as played at the concerts were works of composers of the 19th century, and many of the composers are now forgotten. As rare exceptions, occasionally a piece of J. S. Bach or Händel was played. Mozart and Haydn, but also Schubert and Weber, were missing. Of Beethoven only a comparatively small selection of his works was played. In typical cases Liszt himself was merely represented with his transcriptions.

The actual abilities Liszt's students at Budapest and the standard of their playing can only be guessed. Liszt's lessons of winter 1877–78 were in letters to Lina Ramann described by Auguste Rennebaum, herself Liszt's student at the Royal Academy. According to this, there had been some great talents in Liszt's class. However, the abilities of the majority had been very poor. August Stradal, who visited Budapest in 1885 and 1886, took the same point of view. In contrast to this, Deszö Legány claimed, much in Stradal's book was nonsense, taken from Stradal's own fantasy. Legány's own reliability, however, is not beyond doubt since many of his attempts of whitewashing Liszt and—even more—the Hungarian contemporaries are too obvious. Margit Prahács shared and supported Stradal's view. Her quotations from the contemporary Hungarian press show that much of Stradal's critique had been true. Concerning Liszt's relation with his Hungarian contemporaries at the end of his life, for example, in spring 1886 the journal ''Zenelap'' wrote: :"It is solely in Budapest, where musicians are wandering on such high clouds that they hardly take notice when Liszt is among them."

In 1873, at the occasion of Liszt's 50th anniversary as performing artist, the city Budapest had installed a "Franz Liszt Stiftung" ("Franz Liszt Foundation"). The foundation was destined to provide stipends of 200 Gulden for three students of the Academy who had shown excellent abilities and especially had achieved progress with regard to Hungarian music. Every year it was Liszt alone who could decide which one of the students should receive the money. He gave the total sum of 600 Gulden either to a single student or to a group of three or more of them, not asking whether they were actually matriculated at the Academy.

It was also Liszt's habit to declare all students who took part in his lessons as his private students. As consequence, nearly none of them paid any charge at the Academy. Since the Academy needed the money, there was a ministerial order of February 13, 1884, according to which all those who took part in Liszt's lessons had to pay an annual charge of 30 Gulden. However, Liszt did not respect this, and in the end the Minister resigned. In fact, the Academy was still the winner, since Liszt gave much money from his taking part in charity concerts.

The lessons in specific matters of Hungarian music turned out as problematic enterprise, since there were different opinions, exactly what Hungarian music actually was. In 1881 a new edition of Liszt's book about the Romanis and their music in Hungary appeared. According to this, Hungarian music was identical with the music as played by the Hungarian Romanis. Liszt had also claimed, Semitic people, among them the Romanis, had no genuine creativity. For this reason, according to Liszt's book, they only adopted melodies from the country where they lived. After the book had appeared, Liszt was in Budapest accused for a presumed spreading of anti-Semitic ideas. In the following year no students at all wanted to be matriculated for lessons in Hungarian music. According to the issue of July 1, 1886, of the journal ''Zenelap'', this subject at the Hungarian Academy had already a long time ago been dropped.

In 1886 there was still no class for sacral music, but there were classes for solo and chorus singing, piano, violin, cello, organ and composition. The number of students had grown to 91 and the number of professors to 14. Since the winter of 1879–80, the Academy had its own building. On the first floor there was an apartment where since the winter of 1880–81 Liszt lived during his stays in Budapest. His last stay was from January 30 to March 12, 1886. After Liszt's death Janós Végh, since 1881 vice-president, became president. No earlier than 40 years later the Academy was renamed to "Franz Liszt Akademie". Until then, due to world war I, Liszt's Europe and also his Hungary had died. Mainly, the only connection between Franz Liszt and the "Franz Liszt Akademie" was the name.

Liszt School of Music Weimar

On June 24, 1872, the composer and conductor Karl Müller-Hartung founded an "Orchesterschule" ("Orchestra School") at Weimar. Although Liszt and Müller-Hartung were on friendly terms, Liszt took no active part in that foundation. The "Orchesterschule" later developed to a conservatory which still exists and is now called "Hochschule für Musik "Franz Liszt", Weimar".

See also

Compositions by Franz Liszt

War of the Romantics

Cross motif

Notes

References

Bibliography

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Legány, Dezső: ''Ferenc Liszt and His Country, 1869–1873'', Occidental Press, Budapest 1983.

Legány, Dezső: ''Ferenc Liszt and His Country, 1874–1886'', Occidental Press, Budapest 1992.

Liszt, Franz: ''Briefwechsel mit seiner Mutter'', edited and annotated by Klara Hamburger, Eisenstadt 2000.

Liszt, Franz and d'Agoult, Marie: ''Correspondence'', ed. Daniel Ollivier, ''Tome I: 1833–1840'', Paris 1933, ''Tome II: 1840–1864'', Paris 1934.

Motta, Cesare Simeone: Liszt Viaggiatore Europeo, Moncalieri, 2000 (ISBN 8877600586)

Nohl, Ludwig: ''Musikerbiographien, Vierter Band, Liszt, Erster Theil'', Reclam, Leipzig, without date (1881–82).

Ollivier, Daniel: ''Autour de Mme d'Agoult et de Liszt'', Paris 1941.

Prahács, Margit (ed.): ''Franz Liszt, Briefe aus ungarischen Sammlungen, 1835–1886'', Budapest 1966.

Prahács, Margit: ''Franz Liszt und die Budapester Musikakademie'', in: Hamburger (ed.): ''Franz Liszt, Beiträge von ungarischen Autoren'', pp. 49ff.

Raabe, Peter: ''Liszts Schaffen'', Cotta, Stuttgart und Berlin 1931.

Ramann, Lina: ''Lisztiana, Erinnerungen an Franz Liszt in Tagebuchblättern, Briefen und Dokumenten aus den Jahren 1873–1886/87'', ed. Arthur Seidl, text revision by Friedrich Schnapp, Mainz 1983.

Rellstab, Ludwig: ''Franz Liszt'', Berlin 1842.

Rosen, Charles. The Romantic Generation. Cambridge, Mass., Harvard University Press, 1995.

ed Sadie, Stanley, ''The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians, First Edition'' (London: Macmillian, 1980). ISBN 0-333-23111-2

* MacDonald, Hugh, "Symphonic poem," "Transformation, thematic"

* Searle, Humphrey, "Liszt, Franz"

* Temperley, Nicholas, "Symphony: II. 19th century"

Saffle, Michael: ''Liszt in Germany, 1840–1845'', ''Franz Liszt Studies Series No.2'', Pendragon Press, Stuyvesant, NY, 1994.

Sauer, Emil: ''Meine Welt'', Stuttgart 1901.

Steinbeck, Arne: ''Franz Liszt's approach to piano playing'', PhD dissertation, University of Maryland, College Park 1971.

Stradal, August: ''Erinnerungen an Franz Liszt'', Bern, Leipzig 1929.

Walker, Alan: ''Franz Liszt, The Virtuoso Years (1811–1847)'', revised edition, Cornell University Press 1987.

Walker, Alan: ''Franz Liszt, The Final Years (1861–1886)'', Cornell University Press 1997.

Walker, Alan: Article ''Liszt, Franz'', in: Sadie, Stanley (ed.), ''The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians, Second Edition'', London 2001).

Walker, Alan et al. "Liszt, Franz." Grove Music Online. Oxford Music Online. November 20, 2009.

Watson, Derek: ''Liszt'', Schirmer Books, 1989, ISBN 0-02-872705-3

External links

Printable scores by Franz Liszt

Lina Ramann's classical Liszt biography (in German) at Zeno.org

The Students of Liszt on Record and Reproducing Piano Roll by Mark Arnest

Franz Liszt, written and directed by James a. Fitzpatrick; fictional 11-minute 1925 film short about Franz Liszt; Liszt's music performed by Nathaniel Shilkret's Orchestra.

Complete recordings of Studies, Années de Pelerinage, Valses oubliées on klassik-resampled

Category:Romantic composers Category:Hungarian people of Austrian descent Category:Hungarian classical organists Category:Hungarian classical pianists Category:Hungarian composers Category:Child classical musicians Category:Hungarian Germans Category:Composers for pipe organ Category:Organ improvisers Category:Hungarian Roman Catholics Category:Franciscans Category:Recipients of the Pour le Mérite (civil class) Category:People from Oberpullendorf District Category:1811 births Category:1886 deaths Category:19th-century Hungarian people Category:Honorary Members of the Royal Philharmonic Society

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