Venezia e Napoli No.3 “Tarantella“ - Franz Liszt | •DevilSynthesia•

This tarantella is the third of three works comprising Liszt’s Venezia e Napoli (Venice and Naples), issued as a supplement to Italie, the second of three volumes of his series of piano works issued under the collective title Années de Pèlinerage (Years of Pilgrimage, or Travel). While the three pieces in Venezia e Napoli were composed in 1859, like many of Liszt’s works, they were drawn on earlier versions dating to around 1840. The first version of this piece was entitled Tarantelles Napolitaines. This tarantella is the largest and most musically substantial of the three works in the set. Based on a melody by Guillaume Louis Cottrau, it is really a fantasy expressing many moods, not simply a composition confined to the tarantella dance form. The piece opens with a Presto whose frantic manner right off portends ominous things ahead, but the music quickly lightens and turns playful. The mood turns appropriately songful in the “Canzone napoletana“ section that follows. The concludin