Franz Liszt was born in Raiding, Hungary (now part of Austria) about thirty miles from Vienna, Austria (Longyear 105.) His Father was steward to the family of Esterhazy and a good amateur musician; consequently, he was also Liszt's first piano teacher. Young Liszt's extraordinary abilities were recognized without delay and he was soon taken to Vienna to study piano under Czerny and composition under Salieri (the former teacher of Schubert, an acquaintance of Liszt's.) His phenomenal aptitude for the piano at the age of eleven was greeted with a kiss from Beethoven, and praised endlessly by the musical circles of the day. In 1823, Liszt went to Paris, where he studied music theory and compos

Among his other important works are his compositions for piano orchestra including the E-flat Piano Concerto, the A major Piano concerto and the Totentanz, a set of free variations of the "Dies Irae" chant of the Requiem Mass; "the finest example of Liszt's 'satanic' compositions, which had so much influence on Stravinsky and Prokofiev" (Longyear 109). Similarly, this period was also the beginning of his use of the symphonic poem which in one way was derived from the concert overtures of Beethoven and Mendelssohn but was also like the programmatic symphonies of Spohr and Berlioz, thus creating a midway between overture and symphony (Longyear 109). The structure of the Liszt symphonic poem coordinated to his B minor Sonata, Les Preludes being his most famous of the genre and Orpheus as his Masterpiece. Finally the symphonies of his Weimar years included what is considered Liszt's greatest composition: The Faust symphony, a truly monumental piece in that is employs many modern devices which weren't employed again until the 20th century by composers such as Vaughan Williams or Skyrabin.

Following his Parisian period were his Years of Transcendental Execution from about 1839-1847 (Arnold.) He spent much of his time as a touring virtuoso and thus had little time for composition, although he did begin to write songs and sketches of several works to be completed in Weimer after retiring from performing. His most representative works of this period were his piano transcriptions, which were most often operatic works such as "Isoldens Liebstod" from the final scene of Wagner's Tristan un Isolde. In addition, he performed transcribed orchestral works by Beethoven, Berlioz, and JS Bach's Weimer organ works. He also transcribed many songs, his own and songs by Schubert, in fact, Liebestraume and Petrarch sonnets were originally songs or Lieder (Longyear 107.) These many transcriptions brought many unfamiliar works to the general public and aroused public desire to hear the originals his altruism was also displayed when he played works of Schumann and Chopin since they were often physically incapable to do so.

The Weimar Years (1848-1860) which followed his touring years produced some of his best known works. After meeting Princess Sayn-Wittgenstein one of his most important lovers in 1847, he retired from the stage and moved, with her to Weimer, Germany as musical director to the Prince. There he remained for ten years and enjoyed his fame, great abundance of money, and spending time pushing rising genius such as Wagner, conducting his first opera, Lohengrin (Scholes 576). Many of his most frequently performed large compositions were written during this period as well as revisions of most of his early compositions into final form. Piano works of this period include "Consolations," "Harmonies Poetiques et religiesus" (a continuation of Annees de perlerinage,) the grand heroic elegy: "Funerailles," and most importantly his B minor Piano sonata, dedicated to Schumann in 1853, and considered one of the most influential compositio

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