Development
Liszt was not the first composer to use thematic transformation. Ludwig van Beethoven had already used thematic transformation in his Fifth Symphony, and Ninth Symphony, where the "Ode to Joy" theme is transformed at one point into a Turkish march, complete with cymbals and drums. Franz Schubert used metamorphosis to bind together the four movements of his Wanderer Fantasy, 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 metamorphosing themes into various shapes in his early operatic fantasies and improvisations and been also led to this practice by the monothematicism Liszt employed in many of his original works, including most of the Transcendental Etudes.
Read more about this topic: Thematic Transformation
Famous quotes containing the word development:
“The work of adult life is not easy. As in childhood, each step presents not only new tasks of development but requires a letting go of the techniques that worked before. With each passage some magic must be given up, some cherished illusion of safety and comfortably familiar sense of self must be cast off, to allow for the greater expansion of our distinctiveness.”
—Gail Sheehy (20th century)
“For the child whose impulsiveness is indulged, who retains his primitive-discharge mechanisms, is not only an ill-behaved child but a child whose intellectual development is slowed down. No matter how well he is endowed intellectually, if direct action and immediate gratification are the guiding principles of his behavior, there will be less incentive to develop the higher mental processes, to reason, to employ the imagination creatively. . . .”
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“I’ve always been impressed by the different paths babies take in their physical development on the way to walking. It’s rare to see a behavior that starts out with such wide natural variation, yet becomes so uniform after only a few months.”
—Lawrence Kutner (20th century)