Franz Liszt

This unusual and enthralling piece is one of four forgotten waltzes composed between 1881 and ca. 1885. The fourth was discovered and published in the United States in 1954.

The Johann Strauss-like introduction is an unusual harmonic series of staccato chords (minor sevenths moving into diminished sevenths) and establishes a mood of modernity, sophistication, and of the fantastique. The melody, built around arpeggiated ninth chords in F sharp major, swoops upward and dips downward in ever increasing arcs. The left hand harmonies are based on the upper partials of the chords (like the twentieth century practice of many jazz pianists).

A second motif marked scherzando (jokingly) follows with laughing grace notes and octave skips. The underlying harmonies still reflect the interplay of different kinds of seventh chords that characterized the introduction.

The third section suddenly bursts forth with a fortissimo appassionato theme. Built on a common waltz syncopated rhythm (almost like the accented skips of a Ländler), the chromatic melody and rolling harmony are nevertheless quite different.

The introduction is repeated verbatim as an interlude. The main theme is recapitulated in the new key of G minor. As in Renaissance practice, the form of the melody is kept but the mode is switched, so that, in this case, for example, the major ninth of the original melody becomes a minor ninth.

A series of rotating seconds turns into a trill that introduces the most remarkable section of this piece. The previous appassionato theme is recalled but their previous underlying harmonies are shifted and a low F sharp pedal tone is added. The result is striking, phantasmagoric amoroso music that arises from deep in the subconscious. One can really appreciate the remarkable change in Liszt's aesthetics and "ear" during his later period upon hearing passages like this one.

This full-bodied, resonant conclusion slowly diminishes into dolce (sweet) reflections from the theme in the form of slow melodic fragments played in unaccompanied unison lines. The composition ends with the unresolved dominant step tone hanging in the air.