Transcendental Étude No. 12 (Liszt)

The first bar of the Transcendental Étude No. 12

Transcendental Étude No. 12 in B flat minor is an étude for piano written by composer Franz Liszt. It has the programmatic title "Chasse-Neige", (Snow-Drift) and is the 12th and last of the Transcendental Études. The étude is a study in tremolos but contains many other difficulties like wide jumps and fast chromatic scales, and it requires a very gentle and soft touch in the beginning. The piece gradually builds up to a powerful climax. It is one of the most difficult Transcendental Études, being ranked 9 out of 9 by publisher G. Henle Verlag—one of the five in the series to receive the highest possible difficulty ranking.^[1]

Ferruccio Busoni stated that this is the greatest, most accurate example of program music, or 'poetised music.' He described the work as "a sublime and steady fall of snow which gradually buries landscape and people".^[2]

References

1. Liszt: Transcendental Studies, Urtext Edition
2. Ferruccio Busoni: The Essence of Music, p.162; in Jim Samson, Virtuosity and the Musical Work, Cambridge University Press, 2003 (p.185).

External links

• Transcendental Études: Scores at the International Music Score Library Project