Recorded on 04/21/1997, uploaded on 08/25/2011

Musician's or Publisher's Notes

Resignazione I    Franz Liszt

In his final years, many of the pieces Liszt composed were written solely for himself and experimentation. Gone was the flashy virtuosity of his early compositions that had brought him fame and what remained was a searching exploration of the boundless possibilities of music. Many of these pieces were pensive or even eerie, reflecting the pervasive mood of the composer in his last years. Written on the final page of his Salve regina was one such work known as Resignazione. Catalogued as a work for organ since no new instrument is specified after the closing bars of the Salve regina, most experts, however, believe that certain passages reveal its intended place as a piano work. Nevertheless, it is a haunting piece and one of many to exhibit Liszt’s experimentation with silence.

Solemn and hymn-like, Resignazione appears at first glance to be a straightforward exercise in four-part writing—only one phrase departs from the typical four-bar pattern and the writing is simple and unadorned. However, harmonies emerge out of the independent movement of the individual voices and the beautiful, simple chords that begin each phrase are disturbed by the poignant discords into which they inevitably flow. In the final four-bar phrase, the lower three voices fade away while the melody in the top voice continues on, weightless and pensive, as it floats upward towards the dominant. Reaching this apex, the melody trails off in reflective thought.     Joseph DuBose

courtesy of the Liszt-Kodaly Society of Spain