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Gosh Pianoloverus - I didn't remember this was a public forum when I voiced my frustrations. Sorry. I always seek out what you say about things to other people and think highly of you opinions. I'm sorry I said that publicly.

I don't think so. Neither sight-reading nor learning that piece would be more difficult if it were in E-sharp major.</strong></font><hr /></blockquote><font size="2" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">Do you know a lot of pieces that were written in this key? :rolleyes: Do you see the connection?</strong></font><hr /></blockquote><font size="2" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">I just noticed that! LOL

While I have never been a total Liszt fan(atic), I have many times felt he is at his best in his transcriptions. I have played (at) many of his transcriptions of the songs of Schubert and I find, with only few exceptions that these transcriptions
1) reveal a complete respect and love for the originals
2) are sometimes the highest form of creative cleverness - adeptly interweaving the vocal line with something close to the original accompaniment,
3) are joys of pure pianism where showmanship for its own sake often takes a (very) back seat to the essence of the music
4) focus on the melody/vocal line

Examples : "Auf dem Wasser zu singen" "Du bist die Ruh'" "Der Müller und der Bach" "Sei mir gegrüsst" "Ständchen" "Litanei" "Trockne Blumen" "Der Lindenbaum" etc., the list could go on and on.

Also, his transcription of Mendelssohn's "Auf Flugeln des Gesanges" is another of the same ilk. His opera paraphrases, well that's another story.

If you don't know some of these transcriptions, they really are worth investigating - even more so when you know and love the originals, can't sing worth a darn, but love to be able to use them as a means of musical expression.

Regards,

Lyn wrote,
Actually, there is a piano transcription of this piece. Like a lot of Liszt it has tons of notes, but it is quite playable with practice. My brother is an organist and said the organ version is harder; I said, "Of course, you have to worry about what your feet are doing in addition to your hands!". The piano version is available in a Kalmus edition K09367, "Miscellaneous Piano Works, Volume III".

No, I don't. And that's because there's no connection whatsoever between the key signature and the difficulty of a piece. So if it were in E-sharp major, what would it matter?

I think he meant that there's no such key as E sharp minor

Dave

D'oh!

I know that there's no such key, but if there were, it had three sharps and four double-sharps. But it wouldn't make the piece more difficult to learn, which was exactly my point.

Actually, there is technically an infinite number of possible keys.

Learning something like a key that does not exist would be difficult for me even with one less sharp.