Liszt’s Mephisto Waltzes

Music Appreciation
Written By Edward Wolfe

Franz Liszt

Romantic composers often seemed obsessed with the irrational, the diabolical and the occult. (The Romantic period in music was about 1825-1900.) Hungarian composer Franz Liszt’s (1811-1886) famous “Mephisto” waltzes for piano, written around 1859-1862, are an example. Named for Mephistopheles, servant of the Devil, of the Faust legend by Goethe, the first waltz tells how Faust, who has made a deal with the Devil, is able to play diabolically seductive and intoxicating strains on the violin at a country wedding. He dances wildly with a village beauty and takes her into the woods.

These two pieces for piano are famous among pianists for their exceptional virtuosity, difficulty, and diabolical beauty.

Performer: Vladimir Ashkenazy, piano; Philips 456 715-2

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Edward Wolfe

Edward Wolfe has been a fan of Christian apologetics since his teenage years, when he began seriously to question the truth of the Bible and the reality of Jesus. About twenty years ago, he started noticing that Christian evidences roughly fell into five categories, the five featured on this website.
Although much of his professional life has been in Christian circles (12 years on the faculties of Pacific Christian College, now a part of Hope International University, and Manhattan Christian College and also 12 years at First Christian Church of Tempe), much of his professional life has been in public institutions (4 years at the University of Colorado and 19 years at Tempe Preparatory Academy).
His formal academic preparation has been in the field of music. His bachelor degree was in Church Music with a minor in Bible where he studied with Roger Koerner, Sue Magnusson, Russel Squire, and John Rowe; his master’s was in Choral Conducting where he studied with Howard Swan, Gordon Paine, and Roger Ardrey; and his doctorate was in Piano Performance, Pedagogy, and Literature, where he also studied group dynamics, humanistic psychology, and Gestalt theory with Guy Duckworth.
He and his wife Louise have four grown children and six grandchildren.

https://WolfeMusicEd.com
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