Il tardo Liszt: Historische ungarische Bildnisse, S. 205

This paper focuses on Franz Liszt’s late piano production. The period investigated is between 1877 and 1885, the years devoted to the episodic writing of the Historische ungarische Bildnisse, S. 205. Firstly, the genesis of the musical text is examined through the epistolary, contemporary contacts with publishers, copyists and the Hungarian nobility, then the cycle is analyzed from a harmonic-compositional perspective under the investigative lens of the ‘popular’ and the ‘non-Western’, in search of indigenous Hungarian national inflections together with the possible presence in the score of non-European elements of an exotic nature, specifically in the harmonic and melodic fabric.

Keywords: Franz Liszt, Historische ungarische Bildnisse, exoticism, Hungarian music, patriotism, nationalism