# Liszt - Vor hundert jahren (1859) (unpublished)



## Monju (Jan 26, 2017)

"A hundred years ago" is a play written by Friedrich Halm to which Liszt composed this orchestral melodrama on. It was performed in November 1859 for the festivities celebrating Schiller's 100th birthday. However, Liszt didn't attend the performance himself and the piece was never published for some reason.

The manuscript is held by the Liszt Academy archives, some 60 pages or so of which I have not seen the contents of and can speak nothing about. However, there are two other sources held in the Library of Paris. Two digitized manuscripts exist that are related to this work, freely available for viewing. First, a four-page long "Einleitung", and the other some 14 pages of scene music.

The "Einleitung" draft (?) contains few dynamic markings, no tempo indication nor date or Liszt's signature. But it's essentially a finished piece, a brief two minute orchestral fanfare if you will.

I've converted it to a readable format, and hopefully, small as this snippet is, it might prove interesting to see for those curious in the less-threaded realms of Liszt's orchestral music.


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## Bettina (Sep 29, 2016)

Thanks for sharing this with us. As a huge fan of Liszt, I appreciate your work! Has the piece ever been recorded? I'm assuming that the answer is no...


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## Pugg (Aug 8, 2014)

Bettina said:


> Thanks for sharing this with us. As a huge fan of Liszt, I appreciate your work! Has the piece ever been recorded? I'm assuming that the answer is no...


Just checked it out, couldn't fined it on any website.


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## Monju (Jan 26, 2017)

Thanks for the comments. Well, it hasn't been recorded as far as anybody can tell.

I'm brushing up the last of the scene snippets that are available in the digitized manuscript, though I have to say as relatively easy as it is to decipher his actual notation, the fact causing trouble for me is, Liszt's german handwriting is nothing but illegible.. 

But the music itself is passable. There are enjoyable, short arrangements of stuff like Beethoven's Ode to Joy, "gaudeamus igitur" and so on, and also new music from Liszt, brief as these pieces are it's been a fun undertaking to transcribe them.

And here's a midi rendition of the opening, I'll put up the rest later...


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## Pugg (Aug 8, 2014)

Do keep us updated please.


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## Monju (Jan 26, 2017)

Well, at this point I've recreated the score from the manuscript to best extent of my skills, mistakes and all are likely 

The sources I've used were the Library of Paris autograph digitizations, and German text of Halm's play. Interspersed with the text there are descriptions on the kind of music Halm wanted at whichever part of the play - Liszt respects Halm's intentions quite well to the letter, only skipping one instruction to insert music in the latter half of the work. These instructions can be helpful to understanding the context of the music, so I've translated them for the heading of each section.

Liszt would also often write down lines from the text, to better punctuate the flow of the music against the action in the play. I've inserted these lines as they appear in the manuscript. Note that many lines weren't included and I thought best not to clutter the score by what wasn't written down anyway.


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## Mkid (May 31, 2019)

This piece will be performed by the Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra, conducted by Kirill Karabits, on 02/10/2019 at Poole.


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