A Brief Overview of the Programmatic Fantasy Involving Keyboard Works from the Late 1700s to the 1900s

    A subcategory of the non-operatic fantasy, the

programmatic fantasy, was prominent in both the eighteenth and

nineteenth centuries, although such fantasies could be found as

earl as the seventeenth century (Parker, The Clavier Fantasy

From Mozart 108).  This is usually a piece on a non-operatic

subject or subjects, describing a person, a story, a dream

or an idea, whether or not the word ‘fantasy’ appeared in

the title (e.g., the Dante Fantasy of Franz Liszt or the

Phantasiestücke of Robert Schumann or Johannes Brahms).

   Daniel Gottlieb Türk’s Klavierschule (1789) gives the

reason for the development of this piano genre:

         Forms, and colours, in brightest array,

    [envelop] us; and if the transient glance of

    a good composition happen to unite them, we

    should give any price to fix, and appropriate

    the scene (312, qtd. in Annette Richards 75).

    Part of the development of the programmatic pieces

came from the early French composers.

    The Les Cyclopes (1724) of Jean-Philippe Rameau (1683-

1764) was one of the famous early programmatic pieces. It

is in a style of a toccata in a bourrée-like fashion, with

da capo, depicting the mythological figure hammering at the

hot irons. The piece is in the key of D minor and in a fast

alla breve time. Another French composer, Louis-Claude Daquin

(1694-1772), was famous for his rondeau called Le Coucou

(1735?). The piece, in E minor and in 2/4 meter, is famous with

the two-note motive of the cuckoo call in the left hand that

permeates almost the entire piece.

   

    Daniel Steibelt (1765-1822) showed his programmatic fantasy

style that imitated Beethoven’s and Chopin’s musical styles  

(Parker, The Clavier Fantasy 79). He was "arrogant and

uncouth [...] something of the charlatan-virtuoso that

appeared now and then in the nineteenth century [...] In

1820 he had a brief run-in with Beethoven who vested him as an

advisor (Suttoni, Piano and Opera 106)."

    His Rule Britannia, which was composed around 1797, was

a fantasy that depicts a naval battle between the Dutch a

and the British, was perhaps one of the best of any of his

programmatic fantasies. Nicholas Temperley gave the full

title of the fantasy as follows, which resembles the long

titles often used in dissertations:

    

     Britannia: An Allegorical Overture in

    Commemoration of the Signal Naval Victory Obtained

    by Admiral Duncan Over The Dutch Fleet The 11th

    Of October, 1797: Composed For The Pianoforte

    and Humbly Inscribed To The Most Gracious

    Majesty The King of Great Britain by Daniel

    Steibelt (The London Pianoforte School, p.

    243: v. 6).

    Temperley then gives a detailed background on why

Steibelt composed Rule Britannia:

         This historical naval victory celebrated

   here is the Battle of Camperdown, which was

   fought in the North Sea a few miles of Kamper-  

   duin on the Dutch Coast [..] Holland was under

   French rule, and a large fleet had been as-

   sembled in the Texel channel on July 1997 with

   the object of invading Ireland. On 3 October

   the British fleet under Admiral Adam Duncan

   (1731-1804) put into Yarmouth to refit. The

   Dutch, under Admiral de Winter, abandoned the

   invasion plan and put to sea on 7 October

   with the object of engaging the British."

(The London Pianoforte School xxiv: v. 6)   

   In this programmatic fantasy, pianistic effects here are

plentiful and widely varied. Full forte chords in imitative

effect between the hands imitate a volley of ships' cannon

shots; slow, descending chromatic scales in the right

hand over a left hand pedal point indicate the lamenting and

suffering of the fleets' wounded; legato downward scales over a

pedal point indicate the falling of the masts.  In other cases,

the songs of the navy sailors, or sea shanties, are given a 6/8

meter, and are somewhat less in barcarolle or siciliana style

and more in pastoral style, and Britain's victory cry, ending

the naval battle, is done through contrary arpeggio figuration

in fortissimo, in C major.

    In addition to Steibelt's original material, the fantasy

uses these four transcriptions, often interspersed in the

composer's musical depiction of the battle scenes:

"Britons, strike home"(from Purcell's Bonduca, 1695)

"Britain's Best Bulwarks Are Her Wooden Walls" (unknown)

"Rule Britannia" (from Thomas Arne's Alfred, 1740)

"God Save The King" (British national anthem, unknown)

(Temperley, The London Pianoforte School xxv: v. 6)

     The fantasy ends with a reformulation of "God Save The

King", which is varied only briefly, in E-flat major, which

turns out to be the key that began the whole fantasy.

    The outline of the fantasy can be given thus:

Outline of Steibelt's Britannia

Measure(s)         Brief Indication in the Passage

Part I--Before The Battle

1-11              --The Stillness of the Night

36-40             --Advice from Captain Trollope

Part II--The Battle

41-77             --Sailing of the Dutch Fleet

78-99             --Beat to Arms

100-118           --Setting the Sails

119-148           --"Britons Strike Home"

149-156           --The Sailing of the Fleet

157-176           --The Roaring of the Sea

177-186           --Joy on Fight of the Enemy

187-192           --Signal to Engage

193-205           --Approach to the Enemy

206-211           --Cannon (shots)

212-219           --Engagement

220-235           --Discharge of Small Arms

236-247           --Falling of the Mast

248-262           --The Cries of the Wounded

263-275           --"Britain's Best Bulwarks"

276-279           --The Heat of the Action

280-291           --The Falling of the Mast

292-303           --The Cries of the Wounded

304-309           --More Cannon Shots

310-317           --Second Engagement

318-323           --Second Exchange of Small Arms

324-333           --Cry of Victory

Part III--Victory After The Battle

334-341           --"Rule Britannia"

342-356           --Distense of the Vanquished

357-384           --Sailing After Victory

385-403           --Rejoicing of the Sailors

404-419           --Return to Port and Acclimation of the

                      Populace

420-452           --"God Save the King" (finale)

    Often, a programmatic fantasy is used in a keyboard

setting in a rondo format. Beethoven's Rondo a

capriccio, op. 120, subtitled as 'The Rage Over A Lost Penny',

can be described by the present writer as "A galop-rondo in 2/4

where the fast rhythmic drive of the eighth notes (punctuated

by the running-effect of the sixteenth notes) gives a

effect of a moto perpetuo, where the depiction of the piece

suggests two market-shoppers fighting

penny at a German produce shop." Like the Haydn C Major

Fantasy, it is in rondo form, but the use of mediant rela-

tionship in the Beethoven work are more pronounced than that

of the Haydn. Progression in chromatic harmony in the Rondo

a capriccio permeates over half of the work so that it seems a

little more like a fantasy than a traditional rondo.

    In Chopin's Nocturne in D-flat, op. 27, no. 2 (1835), the

passage on mm. 18-23 shows an example of a call-and-response

pattern that definitely imitates two different singing

characters in an dramatic opera. That is, the octave melody

is one character, and the single-line melody, the other

(F. Chopin 45). Although the nocturne had no programmatic

title, most of the programmatic imagination in this and

most other Chopin pieces (especially his polonaises) are

implied.

    Liszt's Il Pensieroso (a programmatic piece as part of

his Years of Pilgrimage: Second Year, Italy) focuses mainly

on dotted rhythms. Almost similarly, Carl Czerny's Die Nacht

(c. 1837), which depicted the "midnight bell" by the use of

middle c (in dotted rhythms also),  has almost a marcia funebre

effect (Parker, The Clavier Fantasy 121).

    Robert Schumann (1810-1856) was adored highly for his

program music. For instance, in the "Kind in Einschlummern"

(no. 12 of Kinderscenen, op. 15, 1837), Robert describes the

sleeping child counting sheep as one dreams of a fairy tale.

The piece starts in E minor, but then Robert concludes the

piece on a iv6, almost like the ending of Beethoven’s

                  4

Seventh Symphony in the Andantino movement. In the following

piece, "Furchtenmachen" (no. 13 of Kinderscenen), Schumann

depicts a fairy tale again, read to a child, about a boy who

during a dream sees an innocent environment (key: G major), and

is suddenly frightened by an impromptu stalker who is out to

terrify the child (key centers: E minor, C major). The frights

here happen two times. Schumann resolves the dream as the

stalker does not frighten the child again and out of sight,

repairing the boy’s lost innocence as the dream ends.

     Like Felix Mendelssohn, Sigismond Thalberg (1812-1881)

composed some programmatic piano music. One of them is the

Neopolitan Song. This barcarolle was perhaps a reaction to the

three barcarolles Mendelssohn used as part of his Lieder ohne

Worte. Thalberg’s Neopolitan Song starts off with a seven-

measure introduction, then an inner melodic line between two

textures starts off the barcarolle. At measure 55 onward,

the melody transfers into a higher texture, in octaves, while

the obbligato has a mixture of eighth and sixteenth notes,

taking up the second half of the composition. In another of

Thalberg’s programmatic pieces, Romance sans paroles, this 44-

measure piece is in a style of a nocturne, perhaps in the style

of John Field. In the key of E-flat major, the melodic upper

line sounds slightly Chopinesque.

falling on the major seventh of the E-flat scale. The piece is

basically in ABA form.

     In the late eighteenth century, Moritz Moskowski

(1854-1925) composed the eight-piece series called Eight

Characteristic Pieces, op. 36 (1886), One programmatic

piece was in the set was highly admired by Russian concert

pianist Vladimir Horowitz. It was Etincelles (Sparks), op.

36, no. 6, the sixth piece in the set. The piece can be

described as a short programmatic scherzo that depicts sparks

dancing lively from a fire. The staccato passages are put in

such a way that it resembles something like a spiccato

etude that he could compose the piece for violin solo. The

reason: Martha Easlich states that Moskowski can play quite

well not only on the piano, but also the violin (New Grove

II 189-190: v. 17). In the key of B-flat major and in

3/8 meter, descriptive effects include staccato notes (to

describe the sparks themselves), running legato scales

(to depict flames rising from the ground that lead to the

sparks), and running passage-work (to depict the sparks

floating up and dying away). Etincelles also shows some

correlation to the style of Liszt because at one time he

befriended Moskowski (Martha Easlich, Ibid). Horowitz adored

improvising on the classical piano as much as Liszt, so he often

gave his own ending to Etincelles that was different than its

original version. It was one of several of his favorite

encore pieces.

    Programmatic pieces went on past the eighteenth century.

There were so many to list here but we must not leave out the

piano program music of Leopold Godowsky (1870-1938). According

to Charles Hopkins:

         Like Busoni, who observed that, besides

    himself, Godowsky was the only composer to have

    added anything of significance to keyboard

    writing since Liszt [...] By the age of five

    he had already started to compose, as well as

    being proficient on both piano and violin. He

    have his first piano recital when he was nine,

    and subsequently toured through Lithuania

    and East Prussia. After studying briefly

    with Ernst Rudorff at the Berlin Hochschule

    für Musik he left for America, where he made

    his first appearance, in Boston, in 1884

    ("Godowsky", New Grove II 74: v. 10)

    Hence, his musical life almost resembled that of Louis

Moreau Gottschalk, a nineteenth-century American pianist.

    The Symphonic Metamorphosis on the Johann Strauss’s

Waltz "Kunstlerleben" (1912?) was Godowsky’s greatest ac-

complishment in the milieu of the contemporary programmatic

piece. The piece combines the improvisation seen in earlier

programmatic salon music with the virtuosity of some operatic

fantasies of earlier times. Moreover, the piece pushes the

element of virtuosity into the most extreme level possible,

with three-part textures so difficult that it would take

slow-learning pianists many years to perfect the piece. Some

of the virtuosic passages in the piece even seem to dwarf

the virtuosity of Liszt (and definitely hint at the composi-

tional style of Busoni) such as the use of the false trill

(borrowed from Liszt use of the false octave). Even

the introductory bars, on the A-flat pedal point (the dominant

of D-flat, the main key center for the piece), has some

marginal hallucination similar to that of Maurice Ravel’s

La Valse, which was composed about that time. The work takes

over ten minutes to perform; yet the general idea is that the

audience is taken into a wonderful, imaginary environment in

Strauss’ time—-in Vienna, where the Viennese Waltz was

assumed to be born.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Easlich, Martha. “Moritz Moszkowski.” The New Grove Dictionary

of Music and Musicians, Ed. Stanley Sadie. London:

Macmillian Publishers Ltd., 2000. Vol. 17: 189-190.

Hopkins, Charles. “Leopold Godowsky”. The New Grove Dictionary

of Music and Musicians, Ed. Stanley Sadie. London:

Macmillian Publishers Ltd., 2000. Vol. 10: 74.

Parker, Jesse. The Clavier Fantasy from Mozart to Liszt: A Study in Style and Content. Dissertation. Stanford University, 1974. Cf. also appearing in Google Books, website, <http://books.google.com/books/about/The_clavier_fantasy_from_Mozart_to_Liszt.html?id=dNJGAAAAIAAJ>.

Richards, Annette. Fantasy and Fantasia: A Theory of the Musical Picturesque in Late 18th and 19th Century Culture. Dissertation, Stanford University, 1994

Suttoni, Charles. Piano and Opera: A Study of the Piano Fantasias Written on Opera Themes in the Romantic Era. New York, 1973.

Temperley, Nicholas, ed. The London Pianoforte School 1776-1880: Clementi, Dussek, Cogan, Field, Pinto, Sterndale, Bennett, and Other Masters of the Pianoforte. 20 Volumes. London: Garland, 1983-1987.

Turk, Daniel Gottlob. School of Clavier Playing (Klavierschule), or, Instructions in Playing the Clavier for Teachers and Students. 1789.

Summary of the "Chamber Fantasy on Bizet's "Carmen" For Solo Piano

     Carmen was the most beloved opera in the general

repertoire.  With music by Georges Bizet, this work

is the tragic love story between the title role, who loves to

seduce by way of dancing and deception of true love, and Don

Jose, who gets jealous at her when she falls in love with

Escamillo. As a result, Don Jose's enviousness towards Carmen

turns to full-scale rage and desperation, leading him to take

away Carmen's life with his dagger at the end of the opera.

Busoni's transcription is what I call a tableau-operatique,

(operatic tableau) because he composed in such a way that it

is like a movie; each of its five parts shows a different

highlight, or picture, of the opera. He borrows six parts

from the opera, in the order which they happen in the fantasy:

1. Chorus, "A deux cuartos"

(Act IV, no. 25, mm. 1-111)

2. Flower Song, "La fleur que tu m'avais jetee"

(Act II, no. 17 (duet), mm. 129-178)

3. Habanera, "L'amour est un oiseau rebelle"

(Act I, no. 5, mm. 1-116)

4. Part I of Overture of Act I--Setting of the Act IV Scene

(Act I, no. 1, mm. 1-120)

5. Duet and final scene, "O vas-tu? Laisse-moi!"

(Act IV, no. 27, mm. 130-145)

6. Part II of Overture of Act I--Carmen's "Fate Motive"

(Act I, no. 1, mm. 130-145)

[The parentheses depict exactly where in the musical score of Carmen where the borrowings occur.]

The parts here, hence, can be summarized as follows:

Part 1 (mm. 1-81)

     This reenacts Act IV, where a boisterous dance

party is taking place just near the bull ring in Seville, where

a corrida featuring Escamillo Le Torero will take place. The

chorus depicted is "A deux cuartos". Busoni starts off the passage in A major, repeats it in Bizet's 

original key for the chorus, D major, and repeats it in F major, ending on the V in D minor.

Part 2 (mm. 82-101)

     Here, the Act II flower song ("La fleur que tu m'avais

jetee") is transcribed, when Don JosŽ says to Carmen that this

symbol represents the desire for love, although Carmen remains

indifferent to his wishes. The contemporary accompaniment seems

to make the aria more of an hallucination then just simply a

straightforward reformulation. A transitional section based on

the famous fate motive (in which the title role's turn of events will lead to her own murder) appears in mm. 

102-109, leading to the V7 of D-flat, which moves on to the next part.

  

Part 3 (mm. 110-186)

     This time, the part brings out the Carmen's Habanera aria

("L'amour est comme un oiseau rebelle") in Act I; she sings that falling in love with a man may bring with it 

danger--that's the Bohemian law of romance. The key center in this part starts in Db major, and then 

switches to the original key, D minor (m. 131ff.), where there is a flourishing figuration of the motive. 

Another transition passage depicts the Act IV quarrel between Don Jose and Carmen ("O vas-tu? Laisse-

moi!") just before Carmen gets killed (mm. 169-186,Tempestuoso ), which leads to the V7 of A by running 

scales.

Part 4 (mm. 187-278)

     Now, Busoni brings out the Act I overture, although a little slower than Bizet's version. He starts with the 

original key of the overture. But the reprise of the overture theme starts to dissipate thematically with 

babbling-brook arpeggios representing Busoni's new material, although it showed fragments of the trumpet 

call from the overture. Then more arpeggios on the chords G major and B augmented mark still another 

transition, which is quasi-Impressionistic.

Part 5 (mm. 257-272)

     Now, in the indication, Andante visionario,  Busoni shows the stabbing of Carmen by Don Jose in Act 

IV, brought in by a more solemn rendition of the fate motive. (The same fate motive also exists in the ending 

of the Act I overture).  Descending sixths in the right hand shows Carmen falling in Don Jose's arms and her 

blood from the slaughter. The fantasy then ends on a A minor chord, were a lone A in the bass is punctuated 

lightly by soft A minor portamento chords, indicating that Carmen had died (mm. 270-272).

 **********

     The overture theme is used by Bizet also in the "Les voici" chorus with an added countermelody (Act IV, 

no. 26, mm. 27-58) but Busoni does not borrow it in this case.

Abbreviated Chronology of Operatic/Non-Operatic Variations, Fantasies and Programmatic Music in the Piano Repertory from Mozart To Liszt

This is by no means an exhaustive list. It is only intended to guide the reader though a sample of the many original and borrowed piano pieces that led up to Franz Liszt’s opera fantasies at that time.

Mozart, 1773
”Mio caro Adone” from La fiera di Venezia(Salieri), K. 180.

Mozart, 1778
»Je suis Lindor » from Le barbier de Seville(A.L. Baudron), K. 354.

Mozart, 1784
"Unser dummer Pobel meint" from Le recontre impreuve » (Gluck), K. 455.

Mozart, 1784?
”Come un agnello” from Fra i due litiganti(Sarti), K. 460.

Beethoven, 1792
Transcriptions on Das rote Kappchen(Dittersdorf).

Beethoven, 1792
Variations on “Es war einmal ein alter Mann”

Beethoven, 1795
9 Variations on the aria “Quant’ e piu bello” from La Molinara (Paisiello), WoO 75.

Beethoven, 1795
Variations on themes from La Molinara(Paisiello).

Beethoven, 1799
7 Variations on the Quartet "Kind, willst du ruhig schalfen" from Das unterbrochene Opernfest, WoO 85.

Hummel, 1801
Fantasy in E-flat, op. 18

Hummel, 1802
Variations in E major on a march from Les jour journees(Cherubini), op. 8.

Schubert, 1810
Fantasy in G major, D. 1

Hummel, 1811-15? Variations in F major on a theme from Armide(Gluck), op. 57.

Schubert, 1822
Wandererfantasie, based on Schubert’s own lied Der Wanderer, op. 15(D. 760)

Chopin, 1824
Variations, for flute and piano, from “Non piu mesta” of La Cenerentola (Rossini)

Kalkbrenner, 1826
Grand Fantasy, Effusio Musica, op. 68

Chopin, 1827
Variations on "La ci darem la mano of Don Giovanni (Mozart) for piano and orchestra, op. 160.

Schubert, 1827
8 Variations on a theme from Marie (Herold), D. 886.

Schubert, 1828
Fantasy in F# minor, op. 103(D. 940), piano duet

Heller, 1829
Dramatic Fantasy on the themes of the operas Semiramide (Rossini) and La Muette (d’Auber), op. 3

Mendelssohn, 1830
Lieder ohne Worte(Songs Without Words)op. 19

Chopin, 1832
Grand Duo in E major, on themes on Robert le Diable (violoncello and piano)

Schumann, 1832
Abegg Variations, op. 1

Prudent, 1833
Fantasy on Lucia di Lammermoor(Donizetti), op. 8.

Hummel, 1833
Fantasina in C major on themes of Le nozze di Figaro(Mozart), op. s187.

Mendelssohn, 1833?
Variations on march from La Preciosa(Weber)

Moscheles, 1833
Variations on a March from Preciosa(Weber), for 2 pianos, with collaboration with Mendelssohn, op. 87b

Chopin, 1835
Fantasy-Impromptu in C-sharp minor, op. 66

Liszt, 1835
Fantasy on Les Hugenots(Meyerbeer), long version

Schumann, 1835
Carnaval--Scenes mignonnes en quarte notes, op. 9.

Liszt, 1836
Fantasy on I Puritani (Bellini)

Schumann, 1836
Fantasy in C major, op. 17.

Thalberg, 1836
Fantasy on Les Hugenots(Meyerbeer)

Chopin, 1837
Variation no. 6, from Liszt’s Hexameron, based on “Suoni la tromba" of I puritani (Bellini)

Schumann, 1837
Phantasiestuecke (Fantasy Pieces), op. 12

Liszt, 1838
Apres une lecture du Dante: Fantasia quasi Sonata; Overture to Gugliemo Tell for piano solo--parition arrangement(Rossini)

Heller, 1839
Brilliant Amusements on “Ouvrez-moi” on the opera Les Treize (Halevy), op. 13.

Liszt, 1839
Reminisences of Norma(Bellini), Reminiscences of Don Juan(Mozart), Grand Concert Fantasy on La Sonnambula(Bellini)

Heller, 1840
Brilliant Little Rondo on « la pauvre couturiere » from the opera Les Treize(Halevy), op. 15

Heller, 1840
6 Caprices from Le sherif(Halevy), op. 17.

Liszt, 1840
Fantasy on Les Hugenots(Meyerbeer), second and shorter version.

Chopin, 1841
Fantasy in F minor, op. 49

Liszt, 1841
Infernal Waltz from Robert le Diable (Meyerbeer)

Liszt, 1842
Fantasy on Les Hugenots(Meyerbeer), third and even shorter version

Heller, 1844
Brilliant Caprice, op. 38, on “sur avec la douce chansonnelle” from Charles VI(Halevy)

Heller, 1846
Brilliant Caprice, op. 66 on Le Val d’Andorre(Halevy)

Liszt, 1847
Bravura Tarantella from La Muette de Portici(d’Auber)

Liszt, 1849
Apres une lecture du Dante: Fantasia quasi Sonata--second version