Franz Liszt
Most of Liszt’s compositions were for piano. He wrote one piano sonata. It is in B minor. Its form is very different from the sonatas of composers like Beethoven. It is a very Romantic work, but it does not tell a story like a lot of Romantic pieces do. Most of his piano works are shorter pieces that are quite free in form. He often took a theme and transformed it (changed it gradually). He wrote studies which are much more than just pieces to improve one’s piano technique. One collection is called Transcendental Studies. In Switzerland he wrote Années de pèlerinage (Years of Wandering), a collection of pieces to which he gave titles later. Liszt explored all the possible sounds that the piano could make (it was still a fairly new instrument). Sometimes he made it sound like an orchestra. Some of his last piano works are much simpler to play, although the chords would have sounded very modern for his time. They are like the Impressionistic music of Debussy.