Liszt: Unstern! – Sinistre – Disastro, S208 (Cohen)

Unstern! (‘Unlucky’, or ‘Evil Star’) contains some brutally unfriendly harmony, and an unwary listener would be apt to place some passages among the works of the twentieth century’s most important innovators. Open tritones, whole-tone harmony, augmented triads over a pedal and a particularly violent dissonance before the organ-like closing section, create a continuous tension. Small wonder that Liszt spoke of his musical language not being understood in his lifetime! ?