The modernity of Faust Synphony by Franz Liszt: an aesthetic-analitical approach

Author(s)

Ísis Biazioli de Oliveira

• Document type: Doctoral Thesis
• Press: São Paulo.
• Institution: Universidade de São Paulo (USP). Escola de Comunicações e Artes (ECA/SBD)
• Defense date: 2019-11-01

Examining board members

Mario Rodrigues Videira Junior; Maurício Funcia de Bonis; Yara Borges Caznok; Adriana Lopes da Cunha Moreira; Glaucio Adriano Zangheri

• Advisor: Mario Rodrigues Videira Junior

Abstract

This thesis intends to present a contribution to the debate on the issue of modernity in Franz Liszt\'s work. Our question arises from the evidence that the program chosen by the composer derives from a work - Goethe\'s \"Faust: A Tragedy\" - considered a symbol of modernity, as demonstrated in the first chapter. After discussing Liszt\'s conceptions of programmatic music (chapter 2), we find in his Faust Symphony (Eine Faust-Symphonie in drei Charakterbildern, 1854) especially in the first and second movements, three points that will lead to our thesis (chapter 3): the form of the first movement as a process (Schmalfeldt, 2010), the augmented triad as the harmonic foundation of the piece (Todd, 1988; Cohn, 2000) and the \"contrasting derivation\" that allows us to recognize the unity behind the large surface contrasts of the work (Dahlhaus, 1991a). We will then point out how the modernity of the Faust Symphony reveals itself in the necessary historiographical notion (under the influence of Hegel, therefore) required by the work for its comprehension, the exploration of ambiguities and contradictions (Compagnon, 2014) and a networked thinking for the organization of harmonic and thematic material. (AU)

• FAPESP's process: 15/04762-8 - Characteristics of modernity in "A Faust Symphony" by Franz Liszt: an aesthetic-analytical approach
• Grantee: Ísis Biazioli de Oliveira
• Support Opportunities: Scholarships in Brazil - Doctorate