The Evolution of Liszt’s Mandatory Mannerisms
Pianists of the late-nineteenth century had two quite noticeable playing habits: to arpeggiate chords that were not marked as arpeggiated (chord-spreading) and to play the left hand slightly before the right (hand-breaking). This expressive asynchrony served to emphasize melodic arrivals in the right hand, thereby strengthening the singing quality of a performance. Gestures of chord-spreading and handbreaking could also be used to express Romantic longing and yearning. These performance mannerisms are quite evident in the recordings of late-Romantic pianists made in the early twentieth century.
Traces of these performance mannerisms can also be found in some instances of notated music. In several of his piano works, Liszt notates what might be called “mandatory” hand-breaking and chordspreading effects, requiring the performer to use specific asynchronous playing techniques. We can see these effects not as an attempt to control the performer, but as an attempt to preserve in the score expressive effects which might have been spontaneously introduced by the performer. These explicit depictions of expressive performance techniques may very well document Liszt’s own practices as a pianist.
We can see the evolution of his notational practices in the three published versions of the Transcendental Etudes. In its earliest incarnation (1826), there are few instances of notated chordspreading or handbreaking. In the second version (1837), notated instances of expressive asynchrony are much more common. In the final publication (1852), these performance mannerisms are most explicitly detailed in Liszt’s notation, thus becoming mandatory for future performers.
Pianists of the late-nineteenth century had two quite noticeable playing habits: to arpeggiate chords that were not marked as arpeggiated (chord-spreading) and to play the left hand slightly before the right (hand-breaking). This expressive asynchrony served to emphasize melodic arrivals in the right hand, thereby strengthening the singing quality of a performance. Gestures of chord-spreading and handbreaking could also be used to express Romantic longing and yearning. These performance mannerisms are quite evident in the recordings of late-Romantic pianists made in the early twentieth century.
Traces of these performance mannerisms can also be found in some instances of notated music. In several of his piano works, Liszt notates what might be called “mandatory” hand-breaking and chordspreading effects, requiring the performer to use specific asynchronous playing techniques. We can see these effects not as an attempt to control the performer, but as an attempt to preserve in the score expressive effects which might have been spontaneously introduced by the performer. These explicit depictions of expressive performance techniques may very well document Liszt’s own practices as a pianist.
We can see the evolution of his notational practices in the three published versions of the Transcendental Etudes. In its earliest incarnation (1826), there are few instances of notated chordspreading or handbreaking. In the second version (1837), notated instances of expressive asynchrony are much more common. In the final publication (1852), these performance mannerisms are most explicitly detailed in Liszt’s notation, thus becoming mandatory for future performers.