MUSI3041 Assignment#5 —— Su Yifan

 Au lac de Wallenstadt

In the 1830s, Liszt composed Années de pèlerinage, a collection of three suites for solo piano. It stands in stark contrast to Liszt's other ostentatious pieces. During his travels with Marie Daguerre, Liszt strove to capture some of his greatest emotions and most vivid impressions in music. The second work in the Première année: Suisse is titled Au lac de Wallenstadt. Its overall length is short, and each phrase is succinct, but the texture is exceptionally tight. It reveals that Liszt has multiple personalities. 

This opus's core idea is to portray a lake called Walensee. Water can take a lot of various shapes. When describing lakes, rivers, oceans, and glaciers, people might do so in a variety of ways. However, I believe that the majority of works emphasize the fluidity and tenderness of liquid water while describing it. Liszt used a tight homophonic texture the whole time, a prominent melody in the upper part, supported by a triplet plus four semiquavers harmonic accompaniment underneath. Compared with eight semiquavers, this rhythm is more complex and disordered. I was pleasantly surprised by this arrangement, as the lake is flowing rather than static. Adding some messiness makes the picture described in this work more lifelike, which would otherwise remind people of stagnant water or ice. Since Liszt plays long pedals throughout the entire composition, the notes, therefore, sound like flowing water, smooth, and continuous. On top of that, the bass part makes extensive use of second passing tones. Visually, from the score, the notes move like a flowing lake, and aurally, the melody is continuous and harmonious without abrupt jumps, expressing the composer's pleasant mood when he was traveling with his lover.

In the exposition, the melody remains in A flat major. As the melody flows between the tonic and dominant chords, it resembles the gentle waves of a lake. The melody ebbs and flows gracefully, which evokes the image of brilliant sunlight being reflected on the surface of a lake. The use of ascending and descending patterns, like the oars of a boat, set off the melodic voices and creates a relaxed mood. From the fourth bar, the melody moves directly from a weak start to the theme, with three repetitions of the E flat to B flat in the fifth, expressing Liszt’s confident and positive mood. And then, the last phrase of the theme has a sharp skip from E flat to C and back to the A flat tonic, gradually solving the tension to a steady state. As I listened to this, I felt that Liszt was just beginning to express his emotions and was desperate to say more. The first main theme is concluded with a tonic A flat, which also prepares the listener for the subsequent, more fervent octaves. Although the melody seems to be simple, it can make the performer and the listener feel as if they were personally on the scene.

From bar 36 to 62, it moves from the tonic(A flat) to the relational minor(F) to the dominate key(C sharp) and finally back to the tonic. Beginning with a fragment of the main theme, Liszt ventures into chaotic waters. I feel like a wind gust, and suddenly it starts to rain, making the lake ripple. Although the left hand’s accompaniment pattern remains the same, the serene atmosphere disappears. Liszt makes numerous rhythmic changes to the theme melody and temporary shifts in the tonality of the accompanying texture, making the listener's emotions up and down. One of my favorite sections is when Liszt quickly raises his right hand an octave and uses acciaccatura in bars 53-60. The highest notes appear to convey that Liszt has reached the height of his feelings and is utterly in love with both the woman in front of him and Walensee.

Under this opus, Liszt quoted Byron's poem, which not only expresses the mood of the work itself but also can trigger the reverie and deep thoughts of the listeners. 

‘                                …thy contrasted lake,
With the wild world I dwelt in, is a thing
Which warns me, with its stillness, to forsake
Earth's troubled waters for a purer spring. ’

In fact, it can be clearly seen that Liszt was using a calm melody to describe the beauty he saw, but also spoke of his own state of mind with romantic implications.