To Franz Liszt’s biographers, his nationality is a matter of controversy. But most people, be they ordinary listeners of music or writers of encyclopedia articles, think of him as Hungarian. It is certainly because he is perceived as a Hungarian that a biographical film about Liszt was called “Hungarian Rhapsody,” not because he had composed a series of pieces with that title; otherwise a film about Brahms might well have been titled “Hungarian Dance.” Nor is there any doubt that Liszt thought of himself as a Hungarian. Early in 1840, when he addressed the public at his first concert in Pest upon his return to his native Hungary after an absence of almost two decades, he began with the famous words Je suis Hongrois (or, more likely, Hongrais, as I will explain below). Yes, he said it in French. For Liszt had not simply forgotten his Hungarian; he had never learned it. In 1873 he wrote, in a letter to a friend, Man darf mir wohl gestatten, dass ungeachtet meiner beklagenwerthen Unkentniss der ungarischen Sprache, ich von Geburt bis zum Grabe im Herzen und Sinne, Magyar verbleibe (It must surely be conceded to me that, regardless of my lamentable ignorance of the Hungarian language, I remain from birth to the grave, in heart and mind, a Magyar). What kind of Hungarian, then, was Franz Liszt?
Posted on: Sat, 27 Sep 2014 12:10:08 +0000
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