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Bach And Liszt Essay

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Johann Sebastian Bach and Franz Liszt were both renowned for their keyboard proficiency and talent for composing. Bach was born in Germany and influenced by the Baroque period when music was centered on religion. Liszt was Hungarian born and influenced by the Romantic period, a time when composers began breaking away from the traditional and expressing themselves through music. Coming from different periods the two composers exhibited vast differences and overlapping similarities. Johann Sebastian Bach was born to a musical family in the Duchy of Saxe-Eisenach in 1685. The youngest of eight children, he received a classical education from an early age as well as being taught the violin and music theory by his father. Bach was a devout Lutheran who composed many sacred works for the church including masterpiece, The St. Matthew Passion (Sherrane, 2015, para. 4). As a composer, Bach enriched established German styles through his skill in counterpoint, harmonic and motivic organization, and the adaptation of rhythms, forms, and textures from abroad, particularly from Italy and France …show more content…

1). He was a Romantic composer and pianist who was renowned for his unprecedented technique composing complex music for the piano. His Hungarian and religious upbringing as well as the expressive Romantic Era highly influenced work. Liszt is credited with the creation of the symphonic poem also known as a tone poem, a musical composition for orchestras inspired by an extra-musical idea, story, or program. (Encyclopedia Britannica, 2016, para. 1). Liszt uses music to freely express the emotions of a story such as his composition, Les

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