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Thematic transformation (also known as thematic metamorphosis) is a technique of music composition invented by Franz Liszt
Franz Liszt

Franz Liszt was a Kingdom of Hungary composer, virtuoso pianist and teacher.Liszt became renowned throughout Europe for his great skill as a performer during the 19th century....
. The technique is essentially one of variation
Variation (music)

In music, variation is a formal technique where material is altered during repetition: reiteration with changes. The changes may involve harmony, melody, counterpoint, rhythm, timbre or orchestration....
. A basic theme is reprised throughout a musical work, but it undergoes constant transformations and disguises and is made to appear in several contrasting roles. The theme may appear in augmentation or diminution
Diminution

Diminution, from Italian diminuimento, is a musical term used to mean different things in the context of interval , scales, chord or note values....
, in a different rhythm
Rhythm

Rhythm is the variation of the length and accentuation of a series of sounds or other events....
 or even with different harmonies
Harmony

In Western music, harmony is the use of different pitches simultaneously, and chord s, actual or implied, in music. The word is related to the word "harmonic" which implies related wavelengths of waves....
.






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Thematic transformation (also known as thematic metamorphosis) is a technique of music composition invented by Franz Liszt
Franz Liszt

Franz Liszt was a Kingdom of Hungary composer, virtuoso pianist and teacher.Liszt became renowned throughout Europe for his great skill as a performer during the 19th century....
. The technique is essentially one of variation
Variation (music)

In music, variation is a formal technique where material is altered during repetition: reiteration with changes. The changes may involve harmony, melody, counterpoint, rhythm, timbre or orchestration....
. A basic theme is reprised throughout a musical work, but it undergoes constant transformations and disguises and is made to appear in several contrasting roles. The theme may appear in augmentation or diminution
Diminution

Diminution, from Italian diminuimento, is a musical term used to mean different things in the context of interval , scales, chord or note values....
, in a different rhythm
Rhythm

Rhythm is the variation of the length and accentuation of a series of sounds or other events....
 or even with different harmonies
Harmony

In Western music, harmony is the use of different pitches simultaneously, and chord s, actual or implied, in music. The word is related to the word "harmonic" which implies related wavelengths of waves....
. However, the transformations of this theme will always serve the purpose of "unity within variety" that was the architectural role of sonata form
Sonata form

Sonata form is a musical form that has been used widely since the early Classical music era. While it is typically used in the first Movement of multimovement pieces, it is sometimes employed in subsequent movements as well....
 in the classical symphony. The difference here is that thematic transformation can accommodate the dramatically charged phrases, highly colored melodies and atmospheric harmonies favored by the Romantic composers, whereas sonata form was geared more toward the more objective characteristics of absolute music
Absolute music

Absolute music is a term used to describe musicthat is not explicitly "about" anything, non-representational ornon-objective. In contrast with program music, absolute music has...
. Also, while thematic transformation is similar to variation, the effect is usually different since the transformed theme has a life of its own and is no longer a sibling to the original theme.

Development

Liszt was not the first composer to metamorphose his themes. Ludwig van Beethoven
Ludwig van Beethoven

Ludwig van Beethoven was a German composer and pianist. He was a crucial figure in the transitional period between the Classical music era and Romantic music eras in classical music, and remains one of the most acclaimed and influential composers of all time....
 had done so in works such as his Ninth Symphony
Symphony No. 9 (Beethoven)

The Symphony No. 9 in D minor, Opus number 125 "Choral" is the last complete symphony composed by Ludwig van Beethoven. Completed in 1824, the choral symphony Ninth Symphony is one of the best known works of the Western repertoire, considered both an icon and a forefather of Romantic music, and one of Beethoven's greatest masterpieces....
, where the "Ode to Joy" theme is transformed at one point into a Turkish march, complete with cymbal
Cymbal

Cymbals are a modern percussion instrument. Cymbals consist of thin, normally round plates of various cymbal alloys; see cymbal making for a discussion of their manufacture....
s and drum
Drum

The drum is a member of the percussion instrument group, technically classified as a membranophone.. Drums consist of at least one membrane, called a drumhead or drum skin, that is stretched over a shell and struck, either directly with parts of a player's body, or with some sort of implement such as a drumstick, to produce sound....
s. Franz Schubert
Franz Schubert

Franz Peter Schubert was an Austrian composer. He wrote some 600 lieder, nine symphonies , liturgy music, operas, and a large body of chamber music and solo piano music....
 used metamorphosis to bind together the four movements of his Wanderer Fantasie, a work which influenced Liszt greatly. However, Liszt perfected the technique by creating entire structures from metamorphosis alone. He may have already had experience in metamorphosizing themes into various shapes in his early operatic fantasies and improvisations and been also led to this practice by the monothematicism
Sonata form

Sonata form is a musical form that has been used widely since the early Classical music era. While it is typically used in the first Movement of multimovement pieces, it is sometimes employed in subsequent movements as well....
 Liszt employed in many of his original works, including most of the Transcendental Etudes
Transcendental Etudes

File:Transcendental.pngThe Transcendental Etudes , List of compositions by Franz Liszt , are a series of twelve compositions written for solo piano by Franz Liszt in 1852....
.

Controversy

Conservative critics in Liszt's time viewed thematic transformation as merely a substitution of repetition for the musical development
Musical development

In European classical music, musical development is a process by which a musical idea is communicated in the course of a piece. It refers to the Transformation and Theme of initial material, and is often contrasted with musical Variation , which is a slightly different means to the same end....
 demanded by sonata form
Sonata form

Sonata form is a musical form that has been used widely since the early Classical music era. While it is typically used in the first Movement of multimovement pieces, it is sometimes employed in subsequent movements as well....
. However, the evocative, atmospheric melodies which Romantic composers such as Liszt tended to prefer left him little choice. These melodies, complete in themselves, already bore all the emotion and musical interest which they could hold; therefore, they could not be developed any further. The only apparent course open was to substitute a form of repetition for true development—in other words, to say in a different way what had already been said and trust the beauty and significance of what are fundamentally variations to supply the place of the development section demanded by sonata form. Moreover, Liszt's own view of repetition was more positive than that of his critics. He wrote, "It is a mistake to regard repetition as a poverty of invention. From the standpoint of the public it is indispensable for the understanding of the thought, while from the standpoint of Art it is almost identical with the demands of clarity, structure, and effectiveness."

Legacy

In perfecting this compositional method, Liszt made what some critics consider a lasting contribution to the history of musical form since thematic transformation became a regular part of later 19th-century music, especially at the hands of Liszt's followers.

See also

Faust Symphony
Faust Symphony

A Faust Symphony in three character pictures , List of compositions by Franz Liszt , or simply the "Faust Symphony", was written by Hungary composer Franz Liszt and was inspired by Johann von Goethe's drama, Goethe's Faust....
Piano Sonata (Liszt)
Piano Sonata (Liszt)

The Piano Sonata in B minor , List of compositions by Franz Liszt , is a musical composition for solo piano by Franz Liszt....
Symphonic Poems (Liszt)
Symphonic Poems (Liszt)

The Symphonic Poems are a series of 13 orchestral works by Hungarian composer Franz Liszt. The first twelve were composed in the decade 1848-58 ; the last, Von der Wiege bis zum Grabe , followed in 1882....


Bibliography

  • ed. Abraham, Gerald, Music of Tchaikovsky (New York: W. W. Norton & Company, 1946). ISBN n/a.
    • Cooper, Martin, "The Symphonies"
  • ed Sadie, Stanley, The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians, First Edition (London: Macmillian, 1980). ISBN 0-333-23111-2
    • MacDonald, Hugh
      Hugh MacDonald

      Hugh MacDonald wmay refer to:* Hugh MacDonald , Canadian poet* Hugh MacDonald , 18th-century Bishop of Aberdeen* Hugh MacDonald , film director, who was nominated for an Academy Award for Animated Short Film...
      , "Symphonic poem"
    • Searle, Humphrey, "Liszt, Franz"
  • ed Sadie, Stanley, The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians, Second Edition (London: Macmillian, 2001). ISBN 0-333-60800-3
    • MacDonald, Hugh, "Transformation, thematic"
  • ed. Walker, Alan, Franz Liszt: The man and His Music (New York: Taplinger Publishing Company, 1970). ISBN 8008-2990-5
    • Searle, Humphrey, "The Orchestral Works"
  • Walker, Alan, Franz Liszt, Volume 2: The Weimar Years, 1848-1861 (New York: Alfred A Knopf, 1989). ISBN 0-394-52540-X