Mephisto Polka

Dedication#

The Mephisto Polka was dedicated to Lina Schmalhausen, one of Liszt’s “inner-circle” piano students. However, she is remembered more as one among the closest and most ardently devoted of Liszt’s followers, frequently attending to and assisting in the many needs of the aged master whose health was in rapid decline.

Form#

This work appears the simplest and technically least challenging of all the Mephisto dances; except for the Bagatelle sans tonalité, it is also the shortest. Tonally, it is also mildest and can appear to be a fully tonal composition, with chromaticism limited to neighboring-tone and chordal sonority varieties. These passages are usually realized on the left hand in chordal or arpeggiated figures. However, the simplicity in notation disguises the true character of the music. There is no functional harmony to clearly create the relational behavior of tonic, dominant, and subdominant harmonic functions. If anything, the general impression of the music is modal, with the piece constantly in flux. Any suggested tonality is quickly undermined by the following sonority, which may in turn vaguely (and now even more weakly) suggest another tonal focus. The most haunting touch is at the end, when the piece simply stops without explanation, with a solitary F natural above middle C sounding, then dying out.

See also#

• Bagatelle sans tonalité
• Mephisto Waltzes

Bibliography#

• ed. Ewen, David, The Complete Book of Classical Music (Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey: Prentice-Hall, Inc., 1965). Library of Congress Catalog Card Number 65-11033
• 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.
• Howard, Leslie, Notes for Hyperion CDA68011/2, Liszt Dances and Marches, 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, “Liszt’s Final Period,” Oxford Journals 1 April 1952.