Liszt’s Piano Sonata in B-minor is one of the most extensively scrutinized compositions in all of music history. Since it was published in 1854, countless musicologists have eagerly delved into researching its origin and purpose. From its groundbreaking formal structure to its highly ambiguous allusions, there is no shortage of aspects to investigate. Liszt’s departure from Classical sonata form was the most significant formal advancement in the solo piano sonata since Beethoven’s experimentation during his late period. In his B-minor Sonata, Liszt not only dismantled the conventions of the Classical sonata but also retained and repurposed many of its formal attributes. He combined the traditional four-movement sonata into one single-movement work, altered the treatment of thematic and motivic material, and abandoned the tonal constraints of the Classical sonata. These assertions are easily supported through analysis of Classical sonata form, prior works that influenced Liszt’s sonata, and the sonata itself.
From afar, the B-minor Sonata does not look significantly different from other solo piano sonatas that came before it during the early nineteenth century. However, numerous unique characteristics emerge beneath the surface. The first aspect one notices is its lack of a title or program; while it was completely normal for nineteenth-century composers to refrain from giving a solo sonata a descriptive title or program, it seems significantly out of place for Liszt. Nearly ninety percent of Liszt’s works have a title or some form of programmatic description.1 Many musicologists believe that the B-minor Sonata is far too significant a work for Liszt to simply not give it a title. Thus, they have attempted to divulge various hidden meanings. The most common hypotheses are as follows: first, the sonata tells the story of the Faust legend; second, the sonata takes an autobiographical form and tells the story of Liszt’s life and personality; third, the sonata deals with the fight between Good and Evil; fourth, the sonata tells the story of the Garden of Eden and the Fall of Man.2 Other historians claim that the sonata has no hidden meaning or program beyond the music itself.
The second aspect often observed is the lack of movement breaks. The entire thirty-minute work is played from beginning to end without so much as a pause between sections. Liszt is not the first com- poser to use this technique. Before him, Beethoven famously linked the third and fourth movements of his Fifth Symphony and “Appassionata” Piano Sonata, among other works. Liszt’s major influence for the B- minor Sonata, however, came in the form of Schubert’s “Wanderer” Fantasie.3 Liszt greatly admired this work and was the first pianist to perform it for the public. Additionally, he arranged the Fantasie first for piano and orchestra and then for two pianos.4 Schubert linked all four movements together in the Fantasie and undoubtedly influenced Liszt to do the same. While this is an important structural development, it is not the attribute that influenced Liszt most. Alan Walker, a musicologist and leading biographer of Liszt, states, “Not only are the Fantasie’s four movements linked, but they are unified by the use of the ‘metamorphosis of themes’ technique—in this case, the opening theme of Schubert’s song ‘Der Wanderer,’ which re-appears in various guises throughout each of the four movements and gives the Fantasie its name.”5 It is this “metamorphosis of themes” technique that Liszt utilizes throughout his B-minor Sonata. However, Liszt composes his sonata so that every portion of the work “contributes to two sonata forms simultaneously,” taking Schubert’s technique to another level.6
The overarching formal structure of the B-minor Sonata is one characteristic that makes it truly unique. As stated above, the music constantly participates in two separate types of sonata form. The first takes the structure of the traditional four-movement sonata of the Clas- sical period, which takes the following form: allegro movement (sonata-allegro form: exposition, development, recapitulation); slow movement (andante, adagio, largo, etc.); dance movement (minuet/ scherzo and trio); and finale movement (faster, usually sonata-rondo form).7 In the case of the B-minor Sonata, Liszt composes the four- movement form as follows: Lento assai (introduction); Allegro energico (I: allegro movement); Andante sostenuto (II: slow movement); Fugato (III: three-part fugue); Allegro energico (IV: finale movement); Prestissimo (coda).8 The second form, on the other hand, takes the structure of a sonata-allegro movement. Liszt composes the work specifically so that the following sections coincide with one another: (the introduction stands alone); exposition and the Allegro movement; development/ retransition and the Andante/Fugato movements; recapitulation and the Finale-allegro movement; and coda and the Prestissimo section. The concept of composing with two interconnected structural forms is often referred to as two-dimensional sonata form (see Figure 1).9
Figure 1. Alignment of the two-dimensional sonata form10