Digital Edition of Liszt’s Writings
Funding: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) Period: 2023–2026
Franz Liszt, a world-renowned pianist, court conductor in Weimar and the founder of the symphonic poem, not only left behind an extensive body of compositions but was also active as a writer for decades. In essays, books and literary travel letters – to George Sand, Heinrich Heine, Hector Berlioz and others – he expressed his views on the aesthetic, cultural and social issues of his time. He is the author of a highly successful monograph on Chopin; his proposal for a ‘Goethe Foundation’ aimed to promote the arts in Europe; he championed Richard Wagner and his operas through essays and books; and he wrote a theory of programme music. His monumental book on ‘The Gypsies and their Music in Hungary’ was driven by the conviction that it represented a Hungarian national epic in sound. Liszt wrote in French; he had most of his articles from the Weimar period translated into German and published them only in German.
News
As part of the project funded by the German Research Foundation (DFG) to produce a digital edition of Franz Liszt’s writings, an international conference will take place in Saarbrücken from 24 to 25 October 2025. Scholars from the United Kingdom, France, Hungary and Germany will present the new complete digital edition of Liszt’s Collected Writings and discuss the current possibilities and prospects of digital editing.
The conference will take place at the Saarländisches Staatstheater and the Saar College of Music. It will begin on Friday, 24 October 2025, at 2.00 pm in the Upper Foyer of the Saarländisches Staatstheater with a public presentation of the new digital edition of Franz Liszt’s writings. Admission is free.
At 7.30 pm in the auditorium of the Saar University of Music, Prof. Dr David Trippett from the University of Cambridge will give a public lecture on the topic: “Liszt’s Italian Opera Sardanapalo: the story of a rescue”.
Information: Prof. Dr. Rainer Kleinertz, Saar College of Music, Tel. 0681 302-3440, Email:
rainer.kleinertz(at)uni-saarland.de
Digital edition and thematic indexing of the writings of Franz Liszt
The aim of the project is to publish Liszt’s writings in full for the first time in a freely accessible digital edition. It encompasses scholarly editing and annotation, as well as digital thematic indexing; in other words, the texts are organised according to a dynamically designed thematic structure: Based on a controlled keyword system to be developed specifically for Liszt’s writings, the texts can be searched thematically and displayed in a variety of ways. The project is collaborating, amongst others, with the Digital Liszt Source and Works Catalogue (LisztQWV).