A newly discovered autographed Franz Liszt transcription for the harp

Authors

  • Lia Lonnert
  • Helen Davies

Abstract

It is well known that Franz Liszt (1811 - 1886) was much inspired by the harp, and his use of the instrument in his orchestral scores was highly innovative. He was friends with, and worked with, harpists such as Elias Parish-Alvars, Wilhelm Posse, Jeanne Pohl and Rosalie Spohr - all of whom were regarded as leading virtuosi of their time. The original transcriptions for harp that Liszt is known to have made from some of his piano pieces have always assumed to have been lost, but a recent discovery has been made in a collection of music once belonging to the internationally renowned harp virtuoso Adolf Sjödén (1843 - 1893). This discovery is a manuscript copy of what seems to be a previously unknown transcription for harp of Liszt's piano composition Ave Maria von Arcadelt (LW A216).

Author Biographies

Lia Lonnert

Lia Lonnert was educated both as a performer and as a teacher at Hogeschool voor de Kunsten in Utrecht, Netherlands, and at Malmö Academy of Music, Sweden. She has a PhD in music education research from Malmö Academy of Music as well as having a masters degree in musicology from Linnaeus University. As a performer she has played in all kinds of venues: from gigs in elevators to performing on national radio and television. As a researcher, her main interests are epistemological issues of music performance and education, and music history.

Helen Davies

Helen Davies’s career as a harpist is diverse. Helen studied harp in Wales with Ann Griffiths and read music at Birmingham University (UK). Her musical life has seen her combine an orchestral solo-harpist career in Ireland and Scandinavia with scholarly research in 18th and 19th century harp music, arranging and performing Irish traditional harp music and the harp music of her native Wales, and since 1989, working in the field of contemporary improvised music and electronics.

Downloads

Published

2016-12-27

How to Cite

Lonnert, L., & Davies, H. (2016). A newly discovered autographed Franz Liszt transcription for the harp. Svensk Tidskrift för Musikforskning Swedish Journal of Music Research, 98, 1–21. Retrieved from https://publicera.kb.se/stm-sjm/article/view/33646

Issue

Vol. 98 (2016)

Section

Articles

License

Authors contributing to STM-SJM retain copyright of their work, with first publication rights granted to Svenska samfundet för musikforskning. Read the journal's full Copyright- and Licensing Policy.