| Description: | Franz Liszt (October 22, 1811 – July 31, 1886) was a 19th-century Hungarian composer, virtuoso pianist, conductor, teacher and Franciscan tertiary.
As a composer, Liszt was one of the most prominent representatives of the New German School (Neudeutsche Schule). 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.
Liszt wrote his two largest organ works between 1850 and 1855 while he was living in Weimar, a city with a long tradition of organ music, namely "Ad nos, ad salutarem undam" and the "Prelude and Fugue on B-A-C-H". Liszt also wrote some smaller organ works, including a prelude (1854) and set of variations on the first section of movement 2 chorus from Bach's cantata Weinen, Klagen, Sorgen, Zagen, BWV 12 (which Bach later reworked as the Crucifixus in the Mass in B minor), which he composed after the death of his daughter in 1862. He also wrote a Requiem for organ solo, intended to be performed liturgically, along with the spoken Requiem Mass. This remarkable "little" piece was first performed in Rome on June 17, 1887.
Although it is a "small" piece, I think you will find it massive in style and feel. Intended to be used liturgically, it is not a complete Requiem Mass, but the sections chosen by Liszt make a wonderful "concert suite". The effect in the endless echoes of Esztergom, combined with huge full organ, appear to make the very heavens open before the listener.
The score is attached. |
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