Bagatelle sans tonalité

Program#

The Bagatelle, like the Mephisto Waltzes, could be considered a typical example of program music, taking for its program an episode from Faust, not by Goethe but by Nikolaus Lenau (1802–1850). The following program note, which Liszt took from Lenau, appears in the printed score of the Mephisto Waltz No. 1: There is a wedding feast in progress in the village inn, with music, dancing, carousing. Mephistopheles and Faust pass by, and Mephistopheles induces Faust to enter and take part in the festivities. Mephistopheles snatches the fiddle from the hands of a lethargic fiddler and draws from it indescribably seductive and intoxicating strains. The amorous Faust whirls about with a full-blooded village beauty in a wild dance; they waltz in mad abandon out of the room, into the open, away into the woods. The sounds of the fiddle grow softer and softer, and the nightingale warbles his love-laden song."

Form#

Written in waltz form, The lack of a definite key feeling, these critics continue, is due to the piece’s reliance on mainly tritone and diminished seventh harmony, as well as the piece’s ending in an indefinite manner. The main theme, marked Scherzando, alternates between F and F, suggesting an oscillation traditional between major and minor modes. Consequently, the main elements of this melody, E and A, combine with C in the bass to project what would traditionally be considered the dominant here.

Premiere and publication#

Unlike the Third and Fourth Mephisto Waltzes, the Bagatelle received its premiere within Liszt’s lifetime, by his pupil Hugo Mansfeldt in Weimar on June 10, 1885. Like the Fourth Mephisto Waltz, however, it was not published until 1955.

See also#

• Mephisto Waltzes
• Mephisto Polka

Bibliography#

• ed. Ewen, David, The complete book of classical music (Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey: Prentice-Hall, Inc., 1965).
• ed. Hamilton, Kenneth, The Cambridge companion to Liszt (Cambridge and New York: Cambridge University Press, 2005). (paperback).
• Baker, James M., “A survey of the late piano works”
• Hamilton, Kenneth, “Early and Weimar piano works”
• Howard, Leslie, Notes for Hyperion CDA66201, Liszt Waltzes, Leslie Howard, piano.
• Walker, Alan, Liszt: The Final Years, 1861-1886 (Cornell University Press, 1997).
• Searle, Humphrey, ed. Stankey Sadie, “Liszt, Franz,” The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians, 20 vols. (London: Macmillan, 1980). .
• Searle, Humphrey, The Music of Liszt, Second Revised Edition (New York: Dover Publications, Inc., 1966). Library of Congress Card Catalog Number 66-27581.
• Searle, Humphrey, “Liszt’s Final Period,” Oxford Journals 1 April 1952.