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Paths through the Lisztian Ossia by Jonathan Kregor is a scholarly article available to read on EtoBox.

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About three-quarters of the way through Vallée d'Obermann, the anchor of the first book of Franz Liszt's Années de pèlerinage, the pianist is confronted with a difficult choice: either play the reading given in normal type at measure 181 and following (ex. 4.1) or select the one above it in slightly smaller print marked "ossia." At first glance, both passages seem to share much in common, including sonorous, open-position right-hand chords and expansive left-hand arpeggios. As each passage develops, however, the differences start to outnumber the similarities. The "ossia" passage introduces accidentals in measure 182 that give the ethereal melody a decidedly melancholic character, while the other remains decidedly in the tonic; only later, at measure 183, does it seem to catch up. Yet, by that point, the ossia has not only moved much further afield harmonically, but it has also returned to interrogating the piece's main motive, which Liszt has already presented in several clever permutations. Above this primal motivic reprise floats a new arpeggiated figure that seems to have developed out of the preceding left-hand accompaniment and is keen to run through chains of characteristic

Author

Jonathan Kregor

Publisher

Boydell and Brewer Limited

Published

2020

Language

EN