Schubert's 'Wanderer' Fantasie: A creative springboard to Liszt's sonata in B minor

Abstract

This study explores the 'Wanderer' Fantasie by Schubert, seeking to understand how its unique attributes may have been emulated by Liszt in his major piano work, the Piano Sonata in b minor. The intent of this paper is to study the compositional characteristics common to Schubert and Liszt, and to trace the relationship between the musical styles of the works through detailed examination of shared formal characteristics and similar compositional device, i.e., the technique of thematic transformation and affinities in formal relationships. Liszt was fond of Schubert's songs, and he transcribed many of them for piano. He especially loved the Fantasie, and called it "Schubert's splendid Wanderer-Dithyramb." He made an arrangement of this piece for piano and orchestra in 1851. At about the same time that Liszt transcribed the Fantasie, he composed the monumental piano work, the Sonata in b minor. The 'Wanderer' Fantasie and the Sonata in b minor have many common aspects in their form and compositional technique. Both piece are large, continuous works which consist of several movements. Notable economy of thematic ideas prevail in the whole of each work through transformation and development. It seems very likely that Liszt's idea of compositional technique in his Sonata in b minor was derived from Schubert's 'Wanderer' Fantasie.