Hungarian Rhapsodies virtuoso pianist as well as a composer). Liszt incorporated many themes he had heard in his native western Hungary and which he believed to be folk music, though many were in fact tunes written by members of the Hungarian upper middle class, or by composers such as József Kossovits, often played by Roma (Gypsy) bands. The large scale structure of each was influenced by the verbunkos, a Hungarian dance in several parts, each with a different tempo. Within this structure, Liszt preserved the two main structural elements of typical Gypsy improvisation—the "lassan" ("slow") and the "friska" ("fast"). At the same
Alan Richardson (composer) Piano at the Royal Academy of Music in 1960, a position he held until his death in 1978. Richardson composed many pieces for piano, as well as some chamber music, including several works for the oboe which he wrote for his wife. He died, aged 74, in London. Alan Richardson (composer) Alan Richardson (29 February 1904 – 29 November 1978) was a Scottish pianist and composer. Richardson was born in Edinburgh, where he worked for some time as a pianist for the BBC before going to London to study piano and composition, from 1929 to 1930, with Harold Craxton at