A Pedagogical approach to Liszt's Second Ballade

by Lee, Jaejin.

Franz Liszt’s second ballade was composed in 1853 and published by Kistner in Leipzig. It was dedicated to Count Charles de Linange, who was the half-brother of Queen Victoria. It was written in B-minor, the same tonality as his piano sonata. The sonata and the ballade were composed and published in the same year. Liszt’s B-minor sonata has drawn an enormous amount of scholarly attention and has become standard repertoire. Yet, the B-minor ballade has been somewhat neglected. Most pianists are familiar with the four ballades by Chopin, but few know that Liszt wrote two. This document is intended to guide students, teachers, and performers toward preparation and performance of Liszt’s second ballade. Therefore, I have decided to write this document from the viewpoint of a pianist who is learning this piece by him- or herself. With that idea, pertinent questions needed to be answered such as: What background information do I need to know? What is the overall structure of the work? What details do I need to pay attention to in order to understand Liszt’s intentions? How should I overcome technical difficulties in certain passages? Each chapter is designed to answer these questions, respectively. In chapter I, the historical background of the composer and overview of the genre aids in understanding the origin of the work. In chapter II, a formal analysis provides the performer with an overall picture of the work through the realization of the whole structure. A stylistic analysis assists in understanding the composer’s unique use of melodic, harmonic, and rhythmic elements, thus giving details on the foreground level. There are also more elements to consider such as phrasing, articulation, dynamics, pedaling, and fingering, which are all included in the interpretative analysis, given in chapter III. In the last chapter, three representative technically difficult passages are cited to provide practical, step-by-step solutions using various practice techniques and Gyorgy Sandor’s methodology to identify and apply basic physical motions. i