(T. C. A.)
1SeeTrans. of the International Medical Congress(1881), vol. ii. p. 373.2SeeVerhandlungen des X internationalen Congresses, Bd. i. p. 33.
1SeeTrans. of the International Medical Congress(1881), vol. ii. p. 373.
2SeeVerhandlungen des X internationalen Congresses, Bd. i. p. 33.
LISTER, MARTIN(c.1638-1712), English naturalist and physician, was born at Radclive, near Buckingham. He was nephew of Sir Matthew Lister, physician to Anne, queen of James I., and to Charles I. He was educated at St John’s College, Cambridge, 1655, graduated in 1658/9, and was elected a fellow in 1660. He became F.R.S. in 1671. He practised medicine at York until 1683, when he removed to London. In 1684 he received the degree of M.D. at Oxford, and in 1687 became F.R.C.P. He contributed numerous articles on natural history, medicine and antiquities to thePhilosophicalTransactions. His principal works wereHistoriae animalium Angliae tres tractatus(1678);Historiae Conchyliorum(1685-1692), andConchyliorum Bivalvium(1696). As a conchologist he was held in high esteem, but while he recognized the similarity of fossil mollusca to living forms, he regarded them as inorganic imitations produced in the rocks. In 1683 he communicated to the Royal Society (Phil. Trans., 1684),An ingenious proposal for a new sort of maps of countries; together with tables of sands and clays, such as are chiefly found in the north parts of England. In this essay he suggested the preparation of a soil or mineral map of the country, and thereby is justly credited with being the first to realize the importance of a geological survey. He died at Epsom on the 2nd of February 1712.
LISTON, JOHN(c.1776-1846), English comedian, was born in London. He made his publicdébuton the stage at Weymouth as Lord Duberley inThe Heir-at-law. After several dismal failures in tragic parts, some of them in support of Mrs Siddons, he discovered accidentally that hisfortewas comedy, especially in the personation of old men and country boys, in which he displayed a fund of drollery and broad humour. An introduction to Charles Kemble led to his appearance at the Haymarket on the 10th of June 1805 as Sheepface in theVillage Lawyer, and his association with this theatre continued with few interruptions until 1830.Paul Pry, the most famous of all his impersonations, was first presented on the 13th of September 1825, and soon became, thanks to his creative genius, a real personage. Liston remained on the stage till 1837; during his last years his mind failed, and he died on the 22nd of March 1846. He had married in 1807 Miss Tyrer (d. 1854), a singer and actress.
Several pictures of Liston in character are in the Garrick Club, London, and one as Paul Pry in the South Kensington Museum.
Several pictures of Liston in character are in the Garrick Club, London, and one as Paul Pry in the South Kensington Museum.
LISTON, ROBERT(1794-1847), Scottish surgeon, was born on the 28th of October 1794 at Ecclesmachan, Linlithgow, where his father was parish minister. He began the study of anatomy under Dr John Barclay (1758-1826) at Edinburgh in 1810, and soon became a skilful anatomist. After eight years’ study, he became a lecturer on anatomy and surgery in the Edinburgh School or Medicine; and in 1827 he was elected one of the surgeons to the Royal Infirmary. In 1835 he was chosen professor of clinical surgery in University College, London, and this appointment he held until his death, which occurred in London on the 7th of December 1847. Liston was a teacher more by what he did than by what he said. He taught simplicity in all operative procedures; fertile in expedients, of great nerve and of powerful frame, he is remembered as an extraordinarily bold, skilful and rapid operator. He was the author ofThe Elements of Surgery(1831-1832) andPractical Surgery(1837), and made several improvements in methods of amputation, and in the dressing of wounds.
LISZT, FRANZ(1811-1886), Hungarian pianist and composer, was born on the 22nd of October 1811, at Raiding, in Hungary. His appeal to musicians was made in a threefold capacity, and we have, therefore, to deal with Liszt the unrivalled pianoforte virtuoso (1830-1848); Liszt the conductor of the “music of the future” at Weimar, the teacher of Tausig, Bülow and a host of lesser pianists, the eloquent writer on music and musicians, the champion of Berlioz and Wagner (1848-1861); and Liszt the prolific composer, who for some five-and-thirty years continued to put forth pianoforte pieces, songs, symphonic orchestral pieces, cantatas, masses, psalms and oratorios (1847-1882). As virtuoso he held his own for the entire period during which he chose to appear in public; but the militant conductor and prophet of Wagner had a hard time of it, and the composer’s place is still in dispute. Liszt’s father, a clerk to the agent of the Esterhazy estates and an amateur musician of some attainment, was Hungarian by birth and ancestry, his mother an Austrian-German. The boy’s gifts attracted the attention of certain Hungarian magnates, who furnished 600 gulden annually for some years to enable him to study music at Vienna and Paris. At Vienna he had lessons in pianoforte playing from Carl Czerny of “Velocity” fame, and from Salieri in harmony and analysis of scores. In his eleventh year he began to play in public there, and Beethoven came to his second concert in April 1823. During the three years following he played in Paris, the French provinces and Switzerland, and paid three visits to England. In Paris he had composition lessons from Paër, and a six months’ course of lessons in counterpoint from Reicha. In the autumn of 1825 the handsome and fascinatingenfant gâtéof the salons and ateliers—“La Neuvième Merveille du monde”—had the luck to get an operetta (Don Sancho) performed three times at the Académie Royale. The score was accidentally destroyed by fire, but a set of studies à la Czerny and Cramer, belonging to 1826 and published at Marseilles as 12 Études, op. i., is extant, and shows remarkable precocity. After the death of his father in 1828 young Liszt led the life of a teacher of the pianoforte in Paris, got through a good deal of miscellaneous reading, and felt the influence of the religious, literary and political aspirations of the time. He attended the meetings of the Saint-Simonists, lent an ear to the romantic mysticism of Père Enfantin and later to the teaching of Abbé Lamennais. He also played Beethoven and Weber in public—a very courageous thing in those days. The appearance of the violinist Paganini in Paris, 1831, marks the starting-point of the supreme eminence Liszt ultimately attained as a virtuoso. Paganini’s marvellous technique inspired him to practise as no pianist had ever practised before. He tried to find equivalents for Paganini’s effects, transcribed his violin caprices for the piano, and perfected his own technique to an extraordinary degree. After Paganini he received a fresh impulse from the playing and the compositions of Chopin, who arrived in 1831, and yet another impulse of equal force from a performance of Berlioz’s “Symphonie Fantastique, épisode de la vie d’un artiste,” in 1832. Liszt transcribed this work, and its influence ultimately led him to the composition of his “Poèmes symphoniques” and other examples of orchestral programme-music.
From 1833 to 1848—when he gave up playing in public—he was greeted with frantic applause as the prince of pianists. Five years (1835-1840) were spent in Switzerland and Italy, in semi-retirement in the company of Madame la comtesse d’Agoult (George Sand’s friend and would-be rival, known in literary circles as “Daniel Stern,” by whom Liszt had three children, one of them afterwards Frau Cosima Wagner): these years were devoted to further study in playing and composition, and were interrupted only by occasional appearances at Geneva, Milan, Florence and Rome, and by annual visits to Paris, when a famous contest with Thalberg took place in 1837. The enthusiasm aroused by Liszt’s playing and his personality—the two are inseparable—reached a climax at Vienna and Budapest in 1839-1840, when he received a patent of nobility from the emperor of Austria, and a sword of honour from the magnates of Hungary in the name of the nation. During the eight years following he was heard at all the principalcentres—including London, Leipzig, Berlin, Copenhagen, St Petersburg, Moscow, Warsaw, Constantinople, Lisbon and Madrid. He gained much money, and gave large sums in charity. His munificence with regard to the Beethoven statue at Bonn made a great stir. The subscriptions having come in but sparsely, Liszt took the matter in hand, and the monument was completed at his expense, and unveiled at a musical festival conducted by Spohr and himself in 1845. In 1848 he settled at Weimar with Princess Sayn-Wittgenstein (d. 1887), and remained there till 1861. During this period he acted as conductor at court concerts and on special occasions at the theatre, gave lessons to a number of pianists, wrote articles of permanent value on certain works of Berlioz and the early operas of Wagner, and produced those orchestral and choral pieces upon which his reputation as a composer mainly depends. His ambition to found a school of composers as well as a school of pianists met with complete success on the one hand and partial failure on the other. His efforts on behalf of Wagner, who was then an exile in Switzerland, culminated in the first performance ofLohengrinon the 28th of August 1850, before a special audience assembled from far and near. Among the works produced for the first time or rehearsed with a view to the furtherance of musical art wereWagner’sTannhäuser,Der fliegende Holländer,Das Liebesmahl der Apostel, andEine Faust Overtüre, Berlioz’sBenvenuto Cellini, theSymphonie Fantastique,Harold en Italie,Roméo et Juliette,La Damnation de Faust, andL’Enfance du Christ—the last two conducted by the composer—Schumann’sGenoveva,Paradise and the Peri, the music toManfredand toFaust, Weber’sEuryanthe, Schubert’sAlfonso und Estrella, Raff’sKönig Alfred, Cornelius’sDer Barbier von Baghdadand many more. It was Liszt’s habit to recommend novelties to the public by explanatory articles or essays, which were written in French (some for theJournal des débatsand theGazette musicaleof Paris) and translated for the journals of Weimar and Leipzig—thus his two masterpieces of sympathetic criticism, the essaysLohengrin et Tannhäuser à WeimarandHarold en Italie, found many readers and proved very effective. They are now included, together with articles on Schumann and Schubert, and the elaborate and rather high-flown essays on Chopin andDes Bohémiens et de leur musique en Hongrie(the latter certainly, and the former probably, written in collaboration with Madame de Wittgenstein), in hisGesammelte Schriften(6 vols., Leipzig). The compositions belonging to the period of his residence at Weimar comprise two pianoforte concertos, in E flat and in A, the “Todtentanz,” the “Concerto pathétique” for two pianos, the solo sonata “An Robert Schumann,” sundry “Études,” fifteen “Rhapsodies Hongroises,” twelve orchestral “Poèmes symphoniques,” “Eine Faust Symphonie,” and “Eine Symphonie zu Dante’s ‘Divina Commedia,’” the “13th Psalm” for tenor solo, chorus and orchestra, the choruses to Herder’s dramatic scenes “Prometheus,” and the “Missa solennis” known as the “Graner Fest Messe.” Liszt retired to Rome in 1861, and joined the Franciscan order in 1865.1From 1869 onwards Abbé Liszt divided his time between Rome and Weimar, where during the summer months he received pupils—gratis as formerly—and, from 1876 up to his death at Bayreuth on the 31st of July 1886, he also taught for several months every year at the Hungarian Conservatoire of Budapest.
About Liszt’s pianoforte technique in general it may be said that it derives its efficiency from the teaching of Czerny, who brought up his pupil on Mozart, a little Bach and Beethoven, a good deal of Clementi and Hummel, and a good deal of his (Czerny’s) own work. Classicism in the shape of solid, respectable Hummel on the one hand, and Carl Czerny, a trifle flippant, perhaps, and inclined to appeal to the gallery, on the other, these gave the musical parentage of young Liszt. Then appears the Parisian Incroyable and grand seigneur—“Monsieur Lits,” as the Parisians called him. Later, we find him imitating Paganini and Chopin, and at the same time making a really passionate and deep study of Beethoven, Weber, Schubert, Berlioz. Thus gradually was formed the master of style—whose command of the instrument was supreme, and who played like an inspired poet. Liszt’s strange musical nature was long in maturing its fruits. At the pianoforte his achievements culminate in the two books of studies, twice rewritten, and finally published in 1852 asÉtudes d’exécution transcendante, theÉtudes de concertand thePaganini Studies; the two concertos and theTodtentanz, theSonata in B minor, theHungarian Rhapsodiesand the fine transcriptions of Beethoven’s symphonies (the 9th for two pianofortes as well as solo), and of Berlioz’sSymphonie fantastique, and the symphony,Harold en Italie. In his orchestral pieces of Liszt appears—next to Berlioz—as the most conspicuous and most thorough-going representative of programme music,i.e.instrumental music expressly contrived to illustrate in detail some poem or some succession of ideas or pictures. It was Liszt’s aim to bring about a direct alliance or amalgamation of instrumental music with poetry. To effect this he made use of the means of musical expression for purposes of illustration, and relied on points of support outside the pale of music proper. There is always danger of failure when an attempt is thus made to connect instrumental music with conceptions not in themselves musical, for the order of the ideas that serve as a programme is apt to interfere with the order which the musical exposition naturally assumes—and the result in most cases is but an amalgam of irreconcilable materials. In pieces such as Liszt’s “Poèmes symphoniques,”Ce qu’on entend sur la montagne(1848-1856), after a poem by Victor Hugo, andDie Ideale(1853-1857), after a poem by Schiller, the hearer is bewildered by a series of startling orchestral effects which succeed one another apparently without rhyme or reason. The music does not conform to any sufficiently definite musical plan—it is hardly intelligible as music without reference to the programme. Liszt’s masterpiece in orchestral music is theDante Symphony(1847-1855), the subject of which was particularly well suited to his temperament, and offered good chances for the display of his peculiar powers as a master of instrumental effect. By the side of it ranks theFaust Symphony(1854-1857), in which the moods of Goethe’s characters—Faust, Gretchen and Mephistopheles—are depicted in three instrumental movements, with a chorus of male voices, supplying a kind of comment, by way of close. The method of presentation in both symphonies is by means of representative themes (Leitmotif), and their combination and interaction. Incidents of the poem or the play are illustrated or alluded to as may be convenient, and the exigencies of musical form are not unfrequently disregarded for the sake of special effects. Of the twelve Poèmes symphoniques,Orphéeis the most consistent from a musical point of view, and is exquisitely scored. Melodious, effective, readily intelligible, with a dash of the commonplace,Les Préludes,Tasso,MazeppaandFest-Klängebid for popularity. In these pieces, as in almost every production of his, in lieu of melody Liszt offers fragments of melody—touching and beautiful, it may be, or passionate, or tinged with triviality; in lieu of a rational distribution of centres of harmony in accordance with some definite plan, he presents clever combinations of chords and ingenious modulations from point to point; in lieu of musical logic and consistency of design, he is content with rhapsodical improvisation. The power of persistence seems wanting. The musical growth is spoilt, the development of the themes is stopped, or prevented, by some reference to extraneous ideas. Everywhere the programme stands in the way. In much of Liszt’s vocal music, particularly in the songs and choral pieces written to German words, an annoying discrepancy is felt to exist between the true sound of the words and the musical accents. The music is generally emotional, the expression direct and passionate; there is no lack of melodic charm and originality, yet the total effect is frequently disappointing. In the choral numbers of the five masses, and in the oratoriosDie Heilige ElisabethandChristus, the rarity of fugal polyphony acts as a drawback. Its almost complete absence in some of these works makes for monotony and produces a sense of dullness, which may not be inherent in all the details of the music, but is none the less distinctly present.
Omitting trifles and all publications that have been cancelled, the following list of compositions may be taken as fairly comprehensive:—Pianoforte Pieces.—Études d’exécution transcendante; Études de concert; Zwei Etuden, Waldesrauschen, Gnomentanz; Ab Irato; Paganini Studies; Années de Pélerinage, 3 sets; Harmonies poétiques et religieuses, 1-10; Consolations, 1-6; Ave Maria in E; Sonata in B minor; Konzert-Solo in E minor; Scherzo und Marsch; Ballades, I. II.; Polonaises, I. II.; Apparitions, 1-3; Berceuse; Valse impromptu; Mazurka brillant; 3 Caprices Valses; Galop chromatique; Mephisto-Walzer, I., II., III. and Polka; Zwei Legenden, “Die Vogelpredigt,” “Der heilige Franciscus auf den Wogen schreitend”; “Der Weihnachtsbaum,” 1-12; Sarabande und Chaconne (“Almira”); Elegies, I., II. and III.; La lugubre Gondola; Dem Andenken Petöfi’s; Mosonyi’s Grabgeleit; Romance oubliée; Valses oubliées, 1-3; Liebesträume, 1-3 (originally songs); Hexameron; Rhapsodies Hongroises, 1-18.Pieces for Two Pianos.—Concerto pathétique (identical with the Konzert-Solo in E minor); Dante symphony; Faust symphony; Poèmes symphoniques, 1-12; Beethoven’s 9th symphony.Pianoforte with Orchestra.—Concertos I. in E flat, II. in A; Todtentanz; Fantasie ueber Motif aus Beethoven’s “Ruinen von Athen”; Fantasie ueber Ungarische National Melodien; Schubert’s Fantasia in C; Weber’s Polacca in E.Fantaisies de Concert for Piano Solo.—Don Juan; Norma; Sonnambula; I Puritani; Lucia, I., II.; Lucrezia, I., II.; La Juive; Robert le Diable; Les Huguenots; Le Prophète, 1-4.Paraphrases, Auber, Tarantella di bravura (Masaniello); Verdi, Rigoletto, Ernani, Il Trovatore; Mendelssohn, “Hochzeitsmarsch und Elfenreigen”; Gounod, Valse de Faust, Les Adieux de Roméo et Juliette; Tschaikowsky, Polonaise; Dargomiyski, Tarantelle; Cui, Tarantella; Saint-Saëns, Danse macabre; Schubert, Soirées de Vienne, Valses caprices, 1-9.Transcriptions.—Beethoven’s Nine Symphonies; Berlioz’s “Symphonie fantastique,” “Harold en Italie”; Bénédiction et Serment (Benvenuto Cellini); Danse des Sylphes (Damnation de Faust); Weber’s overtures, Der Freischütz, Euryanthe, Oberon, Jubilee; Beethoven’s and Hummel’s Septets; Schubert’s Divertissement à la Hongroise; Beethoven’s Concertos in C minor, G and E flat (orchestra for a second piano); Wagner’s Tannhäuser overture, march, romance, chorus of pilgrims; Lohengrin, Festzug und Brautlied, Elsa’s Brautgang, Elsa’s Traum, Lohengrin’s Verweiss an Elsa; Fliegender Holländer, Spinnlied; Rienzi, Gebet; Rheingold, Walhall; Meistersinger, “Am stillen Herd”; Tristan, Isolde’s Liebestod; Chopin’s six Chants Polonais; Meyerbeer’s Schillermarsch; Bach’s six organ Preludes and Fugues; Prelude and Fugue in G minor; Beethoven, Adelaide; 6 miscellaneous and 6 Geistliche Lieder; Liederkreis; Rossini’s Les Soirées musicales; Schubert, 59 songs; Schumann, 13 songs; Mendelssohn, 8 songs; Robert Franz, 13 songs.Organ Pieces.—Missa pro organo; Fantasia and Fugue, “Ad nos, ad salutarem undam”; B-A-C-H Fugue; Variations on Bach’s Basso continuo, “Weinen, Klagen”; Bach’s Introduction and Fugue, “Ich hatte viel Bekümmerniss”; Bach’s Choral Fugue, “Lob und Ehre”; Nicolai’s Kirchliche Festouvertüre, “Ein feste Burg”; Allegri’s Miserere; Mozart’s Ave Verum; Arcadelt’s Ave Maria; Lasso’s Regina Coeli.Orchestral Pieces.—Eine Symphonie zu Dante’s “Divina Commedia”; Eine Faust Symphonie; Poèmes symphoniques: 1. “Ce qu’on entend sur la montagne”; 2. Tasso; 3. Les Préludes; 4. Orphée; 5. Prométhée; 6. Mazeppa; 7. Fest-Klänge; 8. Héroïde funèbre; 9. Hungaria; 10. Hamlet; 11. Hunnenschlacht; 12. Die Ideale; Zwei Episoden aus Lenau’s Faust: I. Der nächtliche Zug, II. Der Tanz in der Dorfschenke; Marches, Rakoczy, Goethe, Huldigung, “Vom Fels zum Meer” (for a military band); Ungarischer, Heroischer and Sturmmarsch; Le Triomphe funèbre du Tasse; “Von der Wiege bis zum Grab”; six Hungarian rhapsodies; four marches; four songs, and Die Allmacht, by Schubert.Vocal Music.—Oratorios: “Die Legende von der Heiligen Elisabeth,” “Christus,” “Stanislaus” (unfinished). Masses: Missa solennis for the inauguration of the cathedral at Gran; Ungarische Krönungs-messe; Missa choralis (with organ); Missa and Requiem for male voices (with organ); Psalms, 13, 137, 23 and 18; 12 Kirchen-Chor-Gesänge (with organ). Cantatas: Prometheus-chöre; “Beethoven Cantata”; “An die Künstler”; Die Glocken des Strassburger Münsters; 12 Chöre für Männergesang; Songs, 8 books; Scena, Jeanne d’Arc au bûcher.Melodramatic Pieces for Declamation, with Pianoforte Accompaniment.—Leonore (Bürger); Der traurige Mönch (Lenau); Des todten Dichter’s Liebe (Jokai); Der blinde Sänger (Tolstoy).Editions, Text and Variants.—Beethoven’s Sonatas; Weber’s Concertstück and Sonatas; Schubert Fantasia, 4 Sonatas, Impromptus, Valses and Moments musicaux.See also L. Ramaun,Fr. Liszt als Künstler und Mensch(1880-1894); E. Dannreuther,Oxford Hist. of Music, vol. vi.(1905).
Omitting trifles and all publications that have been cancelled, the following list of compositions may be taken as fairly comprehensive:—
Pianoforte Pieces.—Études d’exécution transcendante; Études de concert; Zwei Etuden, Waldesrauschen, Gnomentanz; Ab Irato; Paganini Studies; Années de Pélerinage, 3 sets; Harmonies poétiques et religieuses, 1-10; Consolations, 1-6; Ave Maria in E; Sonata in B minor; Konzert-Solo in E minor; Scherzo und Marsch; Ballades, I. II.; Polonaises, I. II.; Apparitions, 1-3; Berceuse; Valse impromptu; Mazurka brillant; 3 Caprices Valses; Galop chromatique; Mephisto-Walzer, I., II., III. and Polka; Zwei Legenden, “Die Vogelpredigt,” “Der heilige Franciscus auf den Wogen schreitend”; “Der Weihnachtsbaum,” 1-12; Sarabande und Chaconne (“Almira”); Elegies, I., II. and III.; La lugubre Gondola; Dem Andenken Petöfi’s; Mosonyi’s Grabgeleit; Romance oubliée; Valses oubliées, 1-3; Liebesträume, 1-3 (originally songs); Hexameron; Rhapsodies Hongroises, 1-18.
Pieces for Two Pianos.—Concerto pathétique (identical with the Konzert-Solo in E minor); Dante symphony; Faust symphony; Poèmes symphoniques, 1-12; Beethoven’s 9th symphony.
Pianoforte with Orchestra.—Concertos I. in E flat, II. in A; Todtentanz; Fantasie ueber Motif aus Beethoven’s “Ruinen von Athen”; Fantasie ueber Ungarische National Melodien; Schubert’s Fantasia in C; Weber’s Polacca in E.
Fantaisies de Concert for Piano Solo.—Don Juan; Norma; Sonnambula; I Puritani; Lucia, I., II.; Lucrezia, I., II.; La Juive; Robert le Diable; Les Huguenots; Le Prophète, 1-4.Paraphrases, Auber, Tarantella di bravura (Masaniello); Verdi, Rigoletto, Ernani, Il Trovatore; Mendelssohn, “Hochzeitsmarsch und Elfenreigen”; Gounod, Valse de Faust, Les Adieux de Roméo et Juliette; Tschaikowsky, Polonaise; Dargomiyski, Tarantelle; Cui, Tarantella; Saint-Saëns, Danse macabre; Schubert, Soirées de Vienne, Valses caprices, 1-9.
Transcriptions.—Beethoven’s Nine Symphonies; Berlioz’s “Symphonie fantastique,” “Harold en Italie”; Bénédiction et Serment (Benvenuto Cellini); Danse des Sylphes (Damnation de Faust); Weber’s overtures, Der Freischütz, Euryanthe, Oberon, Jubilee; Beethoven’s and Hummel’s Septets; Schubert’s Divertissement à la Hongroise; Beethoven’s Concertos in C minor, G and E flat (orchestra for a second piano); Wagner’s Tannhäuser overture, march, romance, chorus of pilgrims; Lohengrin, Festzug und Brautlied, Elsa’s Brautgang, Elsa’s Traum, Lohengrin’s Verweiss an Elsa; Fliegender Holländer, Spinnlied; Rienzi, Gebet; Rheingold, Walhall; Meistersinger, “Am stillen Herd”; Tristan, Isolde’s Liebestod; Chopin’s six Chants Polonais; Meyerbeer’s Schillermarsch; Bach’s six organ Preludes and Fugues; Prelude and Fugue in G minor; Beethoven, Adelaide; 6 miscellaneous and 6 Geistliche Lieder; Liederkreis; Rossini’s Les Soirées musicales; Schubert, 59 songs; Schumann, 13 songs; Mendelssohn, 8 songs; Robert Franz, 13 songs.
Organ Pieces.—Missa pro organo; Fantasia and Fugue, “Ad nos, ad salutarem undam”; B-A-C-H Fugue; Variations on Bach’s Basso continuo, “Weinen, Klagen”; Bach’s Introduction and Fugue, “Ich hatte viel Bekümmerniss”; Bach’s Choral Fugue, “Lob und Ehre”; Nicolai’s Kirchliche Festouvertüre, “Ein feste Burg”; Allegri’s Miserere; Mozart’s Ave Verum; Arcadelt’s Ave Maria; Lasso’s Regina Coeli.
Orchestral Pieces.—Eine Symphonie zu Dante’s “Divina Commedia”; Eine Faust Symphonie; Poèmes symphoniques: 1. “Ce qu’on entend sur la montagne”; 2. Tasso; 3. Les Préludes; 4. Orphée; 5. Prométhée; 6. Mazeppa; 7. Fest-Klänge; 8. Héroïde funèbre; 9. Hungaria; 10. Hamlet; 11. Hunnenschlacht; 12. Die Ideale; Zwei Episoden aus Lenau’s Faust: I. Der nächtliche Zug, II. Der Tanz in der Dorfschenke; Marches, Rakoczy, Goethe, Huldigung, “Vom Fels zum Meer” (for a military band); Ungarischer, Heroischer and Sturmmarsch; Le Triomphe funèbre du Tasse; “Von der Wiege bis zum Grab”; six Hungarian rhapsodies; four marches; four songs, and Die Allmacht, by Schubert.
Vocal Music.—Oratorios: “Die Legende von der Heiligen Elisabeth,” “Christus,” “Stanislaus” (unfinished). Masses: Missa solennis for the inauguration of the cathedral at Gran; Ungarische Krönungs-messe; Missa choralis (with organ); Missa and Requiem for male voices (with organ); Psalms, 13, 137, 23 and 18; 12 Kirchen-Chor-Gesänge (with organ). Cantatas: Prometheus-chöre; “Beethoven Cantata”; “An die Künstler”; Die Glocken des Strassburger Münsters; 12 Chöre für Männergesang; Songs, 8 books; Scena, Jeanne d’Arc au bûcher.
Melodramatic Pieces for Declamation, with Pianoforte Accompaniment.—Leonore (Bürger); Der traurige Mönch (Lenau); Des todten Dichter’s Liebe (Jokai); Der blinde Sänger (Tolstoy).
Editions, Text and Variants.—Beethoven’s Sonatas; Weber’s Concertstück and Sonatas; Schubert Fantasia, 4 Sonatas, Impromptus, Valses and Moments musicaux.
See also L. Ramaun,Fr. Liszt als Künstler und Mensch(1880-1894); E. Dannreuther,Oxford Hist. of Music, vol. vi.(1905).
(E. Da.)
1It is understood that, in point of fact, the Princess Wittgenstein was determined to marry Liszt; and as neither he nor her family wished their connexion to take this form, Cardinal Hohenlohe quietly had him ordained.—[Ed.E.B.].
1It is understood that, in point of fact, the Princess Wittgenstein was determined to marry Liszt; and as neither he nor her family wished their connexion to take this form, Cardinal Hohenlohe quietly had him ordained.—[Ed.E.B.].
LITANY.This word (λιτανεία), likeλιτή(both fromλίτομαι), is used by Eusebius and Chrysostom, commonly in the plural, in a general sense, to denote a prayer or prayers of any sort, whether public or private; it is similarly employed in the law of Arcadius (Cod. Theod.xvi. tit. 5, leg. 30), which forbids heretics to hold assemblies in the city “ad litaniam faciendam.” But some trace of a more technical meaning is found in the epistle (Ep.63) of Basil to the church of Neocaesarea, in which he argues, against those who were objecting to certain innovations, that neither were “litanies” used in the time of Gregory Thaumaturgus. The nature of the recently introduced litanies, which must be assumed to have been practised at Neocaesarea in Basil’s day, can only be conjectured; probably they had many points in common with the “rogationes,” which, according to Sidonius Apollinaris, had been coming into occasional use in France about the beginning of the 5th century, especially when rain or fine weather was desired, and, so far as the three fast days before Ascension were concerned, were first fixed, for one particular district at least, by Mamertus or Mamercus of Vienne (A.D.c.450). We gather that they were penitential and intercessory prayers offered by the community while going about in procession, fasting and clothed in sackcloth. In the following century the manner of making litanies was to some extent regulated for the entire Eastern empire by one of theNovelsof Justinian, which forbade their celebration without the presence of the bishops and clergy, and ordered that the crosses which were carried in procession should not be deposited elsewhere than in churches, nor be carried by any but duly appointed persons. The first synod of Orleans (A.D.511) enjoins for all Gaul that the “litanies” before Ascension be celebrated for three days; on these days all menials are to be exempt from work, so that every one may be free to attend divine service. The diet is to be the same as in Quadragesima; clerks not observing these rogations are to be punished by the bishop. InA.D.517 the synod of Gerunda provided for two sets of “litanies”; the first were to be observed for three days (from Thursday to Saturday) in the week after Pentecost with fasting, the second for three days from November 1. The second council of Vaison (529), consisting of twelve bishops, ordered theKyrie eleison—now first introduced from the Eastern Church—to be sung at matins, mass and vespers.
A synod of Paris (573) ordered litanies to be held for three days at the beginning of Lent, and the fifth synod of Toledo (636) appointed litanies to be observed throughout the kingdom for three days from December 14. The first mention of the word litany in connexion with the Roman Church goes back to the pontificate of Pelagius I. (555), but implies that the thing was at that time already old. In 590 Gregory I., moved by the pestilence which had followed an inundation, ordered a “litania septiformis,” sometimes calledlitania major, that is to say, a sevenfold procession of clergy, laity, monks, virgins, matrons, widows, poor and children. It must not be confused with thelitania septenaused in church on Easter Even. He is said also to have appointed the processions or litanies of April 25 (St Mark’s day), which seem to have come in the place of the ceremonies of the old Robigalia. In 747 the synod of Cloveshoe ordered the litanies or rogations to be gone about on April 25 “after the manner of the Roman Church,” and on the three days before Ascension “after the manner of our ancestors.” The latter are still known in the English Church as Rogation Days. Games, horse racing, junkettings were forbidden; and in the litanies the name of Augustine was to be inserted after that of Gregory. The reforming synod of Mainz in 813 ordered the major litany to be observed by all for three days in sackcloth and ashes, and barefoot. The sick only were exempted.
As regards the form of words prescribed for use in these “litanies” or “supplications,” documentary evidence is defective. Sometimes it would appear that the “procession” or “litany” did nothing else but chantKyrie eleisonwithout variation. There is no reason to doubt that from an early period the special written litanies of the various churches all showed the common features which are now regarded as essential to a litany, in as far as they consisted of (1) invocations, (2) deprecations, (3) intercessions, (4) supplications. But in details they must have varied immensely. The offices of the Roman Catholic Church at present recognize two litanies, the “Litaniae majores” and the “Litaniae breves,” which differ from one another chiefly in respect of the fulness with which details are entered upon under the heads mentioned above. It is said that in the time of Charlemagne the angels Orihel, Raguhel, Tobihel were invoked, but the names were removed by Pope Zacharias as really belonging to demons. In some medieval litanies there were special invocations of S. Fides, S. Spes, S. Charitas. The litanies, as given in the Breviary, are at present appointed to be recited on bended knee, along with the penitential psalms, in all the six week-days of Lent when ordinary service is held. Without the psalms they are said on the feast of Saint Mark and on the three rogation days. A litany is chanted in procession before mass on Holy Saturday. The “litany” or “general supplication” of the Church of England, which is appointed “to be sung or said after morning prayer upon Sundays, Wednesdays and Fridays, and at other times when it shall be commanded by the ordinary,” closely follows the “Litaniae majores” of the Breviary, the invocations of saints being of course omitted. A similar German litany will be found in the works of Luther.In the Roman Church there are a number of special litanies peculiar to particular localities or orders, such as the “Litanies of Mary” or the “Litanies of the Sacred Name of Jesus.”
There was originally a close connexion between the litany and the liturgy (q.v.). The ninefoldKyrie eleisonat the beginning of the Roman Mass is a relic of a longer litany of which a specimen may still be seen in the Stowe missal. In the Ambrosian liturgy, the threefoldKyrie eleisonor Lesser Litany occurs thrice, after theGloria in excelsis, after the gospel and at the end of Mass; and on the first five Sundays in Lent a missal litany is placed before theOratio super populum, and on the same five Sundays in the Mozarabic rite before the epistle. In Eastern liturgies litanies are a prominent feature, as in the case of the deacon’s litany at the beginning of theMissa fideliumin the Clementine liturgy, immediately before theAnaphorain the Greek liturgy of St James, &c.
(F. E. W.)
LITCHFIELD,a township and the county-seat of Litchfield county, Connecticut, U.S.A., about 28 m. W. of Hartford, and including the borough of the same name. Pop. of the township (1890) 3304; (1900) 3214; (1910) 3005; of the borough (1890) 1058; (1900) 1120; (1910) 903. Area of the township, 48.6 sq. m. The borough is served by the New York, New Haven & Hartford railroad. It is situated on elevated land, and is one of the most attractive of southern New England summer resorts. The principal elevation in the township is Mt. Prospect, at the base of which there is a vein of pyrrhotite, with small quantities of nickel and copper. On the southern border of the borough is Lake Bantam (about 900 acres, the largest lake in the state) whose falls, at its outlet, provide water power for factories of carriages and electrical appliances. Dairying is the most important industry, and in 1899 the county ranked first among the counties of the state in the value of its dairy products—$1,373,957, from 3465 farms, the value of the product for the entire state being $7,090,188.
The lands included in the township of Litchfield (originally called Bantam) were bought from the Indians in 1715-1716 for £15. the Indians reserving a certain part for hunting. The township was incorporated in 1719, was named Litchfield, after Lichfield in England, and was settled by immigrants from Hartford, Windsor, Wethersfield, Farmington and Lebanon (all within the state) in 1720-1721. In 1751 it became the county-seat of Litchfield county, and at the same time the borough of Litchfield (incorporated in 1879) was laid out. From 1776 to 1780 two depôts for military stores and a workshop for the Continental army were maintained, and the leaden statue of George III., erected in Bowling Green, New York City, in 1770, and torn down by citizens on the 9th of July 1776, was cut up and taken to Litchfield, where, in the house (still standing) of Oliver Wolcott it was melted into bullets for the American army by Wolcott’s daughter and sister. Aaron Burr, whose only sister married Tapping Reeve (1744-1823), lived in Litchfield with Reeve in 1774-1775. In 1784 Reeve established here the Litchfield Law School, the first institution of its kind in America. In 1798 he associated with himself James Gould (1770-1838), who, after Reeve’s retirement in 1820, continued the work, with the assistance of Jabez W. Huntington (1788-1847), until 1833. The school was never incorporated, it had no buildings, and the lectures were delivered in the law offices of its instructors, but among its 1000 or more students were many who afterwards became famous, including John C. Calhoun; Levi Woodbury (1789-1851), United States senator from New Hampshire in 1825-1831 and in 1841-1845, secretary of the navy in 1831-1834 and of the treasury in 1834-1841, and a justice of the United States Supreme Court from 1845; John Y. Mason; John M. Clayton; and Henry Baldwin (1780-1844), a justice of the United States Supreme Court from 1830. In 1792 Mrs Sarah Pierce made one of the first efforts toward the higher education of women in the United States by opening in Litchfield her Female Seminary, which had an influential career of about forty years, and numbered among its alumnae Harriet Beecher Stowe, Mrs Marshall O. Roberts, Mrs Cyrus W. Field and Mrs Hugh McCulloch. Litchfield was the birthplace of Ethan Allen; of Henry Ward Beecher; of Harriet Beecher Stowe, whose novel,Poganuc People, presents a picture of social conditions in Litchfield during her girlhood; of Oliver Wolcott, Jr. (1760-1833); of John Pierpont (1785-1866), the poet, preacher and lecturer; and of Charles Loring Brace, the philanthropist. It was also the home, during his last years, of Oliver Wolcott (1726-1797); of Colonel Benjamin Tallmadge (1774-1835), an officer on the American side in the War of Independence and later (from 1801 to 1817) a Federalist member of Congress; and of Lyman Beecher, who was pastor of the First Congregational church of Litchfield from 1810 to 1826.
See Payne K. Kilbourne,Sketches and Chronicles of the Town of Litchfield, Connecticut(Hartford, Conn., 1859); George C. Boswell,The Litchfield Book of Days(Litchfield, 1900); and for an account of the Litchfield Female Seminary, Emily N. Vanderpoel,Chronicles of a Pioneer School(Cambridge, Mass., 1903).
See Payne K. Kilbourne,Sketches and Chronicles of the Town of Litchfield, Connecticut(Hartford, Conn., 1859); George C. Boswell,The Litchfield Book of Days(Litchfield, 1900); and for an account of the Litchfield Female Seminary, Emily N. Vanderpoel,Chronicles of a Pioneer School(Cambridge, Mass., 1903).
LITCHFIELD,a city of Montgomery county, Illinois, U.S.A., about 50 m. N. E. of St Louis, Missouri. Pop. (1900) 5918; (1910) 5971. Its principal importance is as a railway and manufacturing centre; it is served by the Chicago, Burlington & Quincy, the Chicago & Alton, the Cleveland, Cincinnati, Chicago & St Louis, the Illinois Central, the Wabash, and the Litchfield & Madison railways, and by electric lines connecting with St Louis and the neighbouring towns. In the vicinity are deposits of bituminous coal, fire-clay and moulding sand. There are various manufactures in the city. Litchfield was incorporated as a town in 1856, and was first chartered as a city in 1859.
LITCHI,orLee-Chee, the fruit ofNephelium Litchi, a small tree, native of southern China and one of the most important indigenous fruits. It is also cultivated in India. The tree bears large compound leaves with two to four pairs of leathery lanceolate pointed leaflets about 3 in. long, and panicles of small flowers without petals. The fruits are commonly roundish, about 1½ in. in diameter, with a thin, brittle, red shell which bears rough protuberances. In the fresh state they are filled with a sweet white pulp which envelops a large brown seed, but in the dried condition the pulp forms a blackish fleshy substance. The pulp is of the nature of an aril, that is, an additional seed-coat.
Nephelium Longana, the longan tree, also a native of southern China, is cultivated in that country, in the Malay Peninsula, India and Ceylon for its fruit, which is smaller than that of the litchi, being half an inch to an inch in diameter with a nearly smooth yellowish-brown brittle skin, and containing a pulpy aril resembling that of the litchi in flavour. Another species,N. lappaceum, a tall tree native of the Malay Peninsula, where it is known under the names Rambutan or Rambosteen, is also cultivated for its pleasantly acid pulpy aril. The fruit is oval, bright red in colour, about 2 in. long and covered with long fleshy hairs.Nepheliumbelongs to the natural order Sapindaceae, and contains about twenty-two species.
Nephelium Longana, the longan tree, also a native of southern China, is cultivated in that country, in the Malay Peninsula, India and Ceylon for its fruit, which is smaller than that of the litchi, being half an inch to an inch in diameter with a nearly smooth yellowish-brown brittle skin, and containing a pulpy aril resembling that of the litchi in flavour. Another species,N. lappaceum, a tall tree native of the Malay Peninsula, where it is known under the names Rambutan or Rambosteen, is also cultivated for its pleasantly acid pulpy aril. The fruit is oval, bright red in colour, about 2 in. long and covered with long fleshy hairs.
Nepheliumbelongs to the natural order Sapindaceae, and contains about twenty-two species.
LITERATURE,a general term which, in default of precise definition, may stand for the best expression of the best thought reduced to writing. Its various forms are the result of race peculiarities, or of diverse individual temperaments, or of political circumstances securing the predominance of one social class which is thus enabled to propagate its ideas and sentiments. In early stages of society, the classes which first attain a distinct literary utterance are priests who compile the chronicles of tribal religious development, or rhapsodes who celebrate the prowess of tribal chiefs. As man feels before he reasons, so poetry generally precedes prose. It embodies more poignantly the sentiment of unsophisticated man. Hence sacred books and war-songs are everywhere the earliest literary monuments, and both are essentially poetic compositions which have received a religious or quasi-religious sanction. The recitation of the Homeric poems at the Panathenaea corresponds to the recitation elsewhere of the sacred texts in the temple; the statement of Phemios (Odyssey, xxii. 347) that a god inspired his soul with all the varied ways of song expresses the ordinary belief of early historical times. Versicles of the sacred chronicles, or fragments of epic poems, were learned by heart and supplied a standard of popular literary taste. The public declamation of long chosen passages by priests, and still more by contending rhapsodes, served to evoke thelatent sense of literary criticism; and, at a later stage, the critical spirit was still further stimulated by the performance of dramatic pieces written by competing poets. The epical record of the past was supplemented by the lyrical record of contemporary events, and as the Homeric poets had immortalized the siege of Troy, so Pindar commemorated Salamis. Prose of any permanent value would first show itself in the form of oratory, and the insertion of speeches by early historians indicates a connexion with rhetoric. The development of abstract reasoning would tend to deprive prose of its superfluous ornament and to provide a simpler and more accurate instrument.
No newgenrehas been invented since the days of Plato. The evolution of literature is completed in Greece, and there its subdivisions may best be studied. Epic poetry is represented by the Homeric cycle, lyrical poetry by Tyrtaeus, dramatic poetry by Aeschylus, history by Herodotus, oratory by Pericles, philosophy by Plato, and criticism by Zoilus, the earliest of slashing reviewers; and in each department there is a long succession of illustrious names. Roughly speaking, all subsequent literature is imitative. Ennius transplanted Greek methods to Rome; his contemporary L. Fabius Pictor, the earliest Roman historian, wrote in Greek; and the later Roman poets from Lucretius to Horace abound in imitations of Greek originals. The official adoption of Christianity as the state religion changed the spirit of literature, which became more and more provincial after the downfall of the empire. Literature did not perish during the “dark ages” which extend from the sixth century to the beginning of the 11th, but it was subordinate to scholarship. The dissolution of Latin was not complete till about the middle of the 9th century, and the new varieties of Romance did not become ripe for literary purposes till a hundred years later. Meanwhile, not a single literary masterpiece was produced in western Europe for five centuries; by comparison only do Boëthius and Venantius Fortunatus seem to be luminous points in the prolonged night; the promise of a literary renaissance at the court of Charlemagne was unfulfilled, and the task of creating a new literature devolved upon the descendants of the barbarians who had destroyed the old. The Celtic and Teutonic races elaborated literary methods of their own; but the fact that the most popular form of Irish verse is adopted from Latin prosody is conclusive evidence that the influence of Roman—and therefore of Greek—models persisted in the literature of the outlying provinces which had attained political independence. The real service rendered to literature by the provincials lay in the introduction and diffusion of legends freighted with a burden of mystery which had disappeared with Pan, and these new valuable materials went to form the substance of the new poetry.
The home of modern European literature must be sought in France, which assimilated the best elements in Celtic and Teutonic literature. From the 11th to the 14th century, France was the centre of intellectual life in Europe, as Greece and Rome had been before, and as Italy was to be afterwards. Thechansons de geste, inspired by the sense of patriotism and the yearning for religious unity, inculcate feudal and Catholic doctrine, and as society in the western world was universally committed to feudalism and Catholicism, these literary expressions of both theories were widely accepted and copied. The Germanic origin of the French epic is lost sight of, and imitators are attracted by the French execution, and by the creative power of thechansons de geste. Again, France takes the stories of the Arthurian court from Welsh texts or from the lips of Welsh settlers, rehandles the romantic element, and, through Marie de France and Chrétien de Troyes, imparts to the whole a touch of personal artistry which is absent from thechansons de geste. Thematière de Bretagnegoes forth to Italy, Germany and England—later to Portugal and Spain—bearing the imprint of the French genius. Thus France internationalizes local subjects, and first assumes a literary function which, with few interruptions, she has since discharged. She further gives to Europe models of allegory in theRoman de la rose, founds the school of modern history through Villehardouin, inaugurates the religious drama and the secular theatre. She never again dominated the literatures of Europe so absolutely.
The literary sceptre passed from France to Italy during the 14th century. Brunetto Latini, who wrote in French as well as in Italian, is the connecting link between the literatures of the two countries; but Italy owes its eminence not so much to a general diffusion of literary accomplishment as to the emergence of three great personalities. Dante, Boccacio and Petrarch created a new art of poetry and of prose. England yielded to the fascination in the person of Chaucer, Spain in the person of her chancellor López de Ayala, and France in the person of Charles d’Orléans, the son of an Italian mother. Petrarch, once ambassador in France, alleged that there were no poets out of Italy, and indeed there were no living poets to compare with him elsewhere. But in all countries he raised up rivals—Chaucer, Marot, Garcilaso de la Vega—as Sannazaro did a century and a half later. Sannazaro’sArcadiacaptured the Portuguese Montemôr, whose pastoral novel theDiana, written in Spanish, inspired d’Urfé no less than Sidney, and, as d’Urfé’sAstréeis considered the starting-point of the modern French novel, the historical importance of the Italian original cannot be exaggerated. Spain never obtained any intellectual predominance corresponding to that exercised by France and Italy, or to her political authority during the 16th and 17th centuries. This may be attributed partly to her geographical position which lies off the main roads of Europe, and partly to the fact that her literature is essentially local. Cervantes, indeed, may be said to have influenced all subsequent writers of fiction, and the influence of Spanish literature is visible in the body of European picaresque tales; but, apart from Corneille and a few other dramatists who preceded Molière in France, and apart from the Restoration drama in England, the influence of the Spanish drama was relatively small. In some respects it was too original to be imitated with success. Much the same may be said of England as of Spain. Like Spain, she lies outside the sphere of continental influence; like Spain, she has innumerable great names in every province of literature, and, in both cases, to Europe at large these long remained names and nothing more; like Spain, she is prone to reproduce borrowed materials in shapes so transformed and rigid as to be unrecognizable and unadaptable. Moreover, the Reformation isolated England from literary commerce with the Latin races, and till the 18th century Germany was little more than a geographical expression. Even when Germany recovered her literary independence, Lessing first heard of Shakespeare through Voltaire. Neither Shakespeare nor Milton was read in France before the 18th century—the first translated by Ducis, the second by Dupré de Saint-Maur—and they were read with curiosity rather than with rapture. On the other hand, Boileau, Rapin and Le Bossu were regarded as oracles in England, and through them French literature produced the “correctness” of Queen Anne’s reign. Horace Walpole is half a Frenchman, Hume imitates Montesquieu’s cold lucidity, Gibbon adapts Bossuet’s majestic periods to other purposes. On the other hand Voltaire takes ideas from Locke, but his form is always intensely personal and inimitably French. After the 16th century English literature, as a whole, is refractory to external influence. Waves of enthusiasm pass over England—for Rousseau, for Goethe—but leave no abiding trace on English literature. During the latter half of the 18th century France resumed something of her old literary supremacy; the literatures of Italy and Spain at this period are purely derivative, and French influence was extended still further on the continent as the result of the Romantic movement. Since that impulse was exhausted, literature everywhere has been in a state of flux: it is less national, and yet fails to be cosmopolitan. All writers of importance, and many of no importance, are translated into other European languages; the quick succession of diverse and violent impressions has confused the scheme of literature. Literature suffers likewise from the competition of the newspaper press, and as the press has multiplied it has grown less literary. The diversities of modern interests, the want of leisure for concentrated thought, suggest that literaturemay become once more the pleasure of a small caste. But the desire for the one just form which always inspires the literary artist visits most men sometimes, and it cannot be doubted that literature will continue to accommodate itself to new conditions.