AbstractsLanguage, Literature & Linguistics

An informed performance of the music of Franz Liszt often requires biographical study and knowledge of numerous literary references. Composed primarily during his exile from Paris with Countess Marie d' Agoult, the keyboard work Vallée d' Obermann from the Années de Pèlerinage, Première Année, Suisse captures the despondence and hope in two Romantic sources: the French novel Obermann (1804) by Étienne Pivert de Sénancour and the English poem Childe Harold's Pilgrimage (1812) by Lord Byron. But the score also reflects the young musician's unease over his career, reputation, and future.This document will address the highly personal nature of Vallée d'Obermann and investigate musical narratives that will benefit enterprising pianists for more poetically nuanced rendition. The first chapter will discuss the compositional and literary background of Vallée d' Obermann, delving into the works by Senancour and Byron and touching upon events in Liszt's life. The second chapter will present the rhetorical devices in Vallée d' Obermann that create unique music-poetic relationships. The final chapter is a performance guide to Vallée d' Obermann for pianists who wish not only to execute the technical obstacles of the score, but to project the work's literary and autobiographical aspects.