Hungarian Rhapsodies

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The Hungarian Rhapsodies, (S/G244, R106) Rapsodies hongroises or Ungarische Rhapsodien) are a set of pieces of music by Franz Liszt, originally for solo piano.

Form

Liszt incorporated many themes which he had heard in his native Hungary and which he believed to be folk music, but which were in fact tunes written by contemporary composers, often played by Roma bands. The large scale structure of each was influenced by the verbunkos, a Hungarian dance in several parts, each with a different tempo. The set is as follows:

Hungarian Rhapsody No. 1 in E major
Hungarian Rhapsody No. 2 in C-sharp minor
Hungarian Rhapsody No. 3 in B-flat minor
Hungarian Rhapsody No. 4 in E-flat major
Hungarian Rhapsody No. 5 in E minor, Héroïde-élégiaque
Hungarian Rhapsody No. 6 in D-flat major
Hungarian Rhapsody No. 7 in D minor
Hungarian Rhapsody No. 8 in F-sharp minor
Hungarian Rhapsody No. 9 in E-flat major, Le carnaval de Pest
Hungarian Rhapsody No. 10 in E major
Hungarian Rhapsody No. 11 in A minor
Hungarian Rhapsody No. 12 in C-sharp minor
Hungarian Rhapsody No. 13 in A minor
Hungarian Rhapsody No. 14 in F major
Hungarian Rhapsody No. 15 in A minor, Rákóczi-Marsch
Hungarian Rhapsody No. 16 in A minor, Magyar rhapsodia
Hungarian Rhapsody No. 17 in D minor, tirée de l'album de Figaro
Hungarian Rhapsody No. 18 in F-sharp minor, Magyar rhapsodia
Hungarian Rhapsody No. 19 in D minor, d'après les 'Csárdás nobles' de K. Ábrányi (sr) (1885)

The first fifteen were published in the year 1853, with the last four being added in 1882 and 1885. Numbers 2, 4, 5, 6, 9, 12, and 14 were arranged by Liszt for orchestra, and number 14 was also the basis of Liszt's Hungarian Fantasia for piano and orchestra. Some are better known than others, with number 2 being particularly famous.

In their original piano form, the Hungarian Rhapsodies are noted for their difficulty (Liszt was a virtuoso pianist as well as a composer).

Hungarian Rhapsodies in popular culture

The Hungarian Rhapsody No. 2 in C-sharp minor is particularly well known, due to its frequent use in animated cartoons.

The first such appearance was as part of a piano solo by Mickey Mouse in The Opry House in 1929 where he has to deal with an animated piano intent upon making life difficult for him. Another notable early appearance was in the 1937 Max Fleischer cartoon A Car-Tune Portrait, featuring a lion attempting to conduct an orchestra of animals playing a variety of instruments. As the music progresses, the orchestra falls into disarray (to the conductor's despair) and eventually ends with all the animal musicians attacking one another. The rhapsody made another early appearance, as one of several classical pieces, in Disney's Farmyard Symphony (1938).

It became a permanent part of cartoon history with its use in Friz Freleng's Rhapsody in Rivets (1941), where the construction of a skyscraper is synchronized to the rhapsody. Freleng used the piece in several other Warner Brothers cartoons, most notably Rhapsody Rabbit (1946), which featured Bugs Bunny as a concert pianist playing the solo piano version. This film was clearly inspired by it's first use in 1929 because many of the gags are similar. However, controversy followed this short's release. Within weeks, MGM released Bill Hanna and Joe Barbera's Tom and Jerry short, The Cat Concerto, which won the 1946 Academy Award for best cartoon. The short featured an almost identical plot, and the same Hungarian Rhapsody, being played by Tom the cat this time. Freleng was convinced that MGM stole the idea from him, and Hanna and Barbera were just as convinced that they were the victims of plagiarism.

Freleng continued to use the piece, though, featuring it in Back Alley Oproar (1948) and in an animated sequence for the Doris Day movie My Dream Is Yours. In the 1988 film Who Framed Roger Rabbit, director Robert Zemeckis pays tribute to "Number 2"'s cartoon heritage by using the piece for the "dueling pianos" scene featuring Daffy Duck and Donald Duck. Warner Brothers also used it in the Tiny Toon Adventures episode C Flat or B Sharp? (1990), in which Buster Bunny, Plucky Duck and Hamton must take the piano that is on top of the Acme Looniversity's main tower to the concert room, following orders of Yosemite Sam. The soundtrack of this episode is a shorter version of the composition, and no lines are spoken.

The rhapsody was also used several times in the movies of the Marx Brothers. In A Day at the Races and A Night in Casablanca, Chico Marx plays it as an introduction to his main number on the piano with an orchestral accompaniment; in Races it is played with a full philharmonic orchestra with Harpo conducting comically; in Casablanca, it is played with a smaller jazz orchestra, and opens Chico's 'classical number... the second movement from the Beer Barrel Polka'. Later on, Harpo plays the rhapsody as his harp solo.

Most recently, Hungarian Rhapsody No. 2 was used in the "Ice-Skating Priests" advertisement for the Lager Stella Artois.

External links

[Free MP3 of #2] by Sean Bennett

The "Hungarian Rhapsody" #2 was also the basis for a popular song, "Ebony Rhapsody" by Sam Coslow and Arthur Johnston, introduced in the 1934 film MURDER AT THE VANITIES. In the film, it was played by Duke Ellington and his Orchestra, who also recorded it. This swing version of the rhapsody was a major influence on several aspiring arrangers, including Billy Strayhorn (who later became Duke Ellington's composing partner) and Billy May (who later recorded "Ebony Rhapsody" with NAT KING COLE.)

With a different set of lyrics, "Hungarian Rhapsody" became the Capitol children's record "Daffy Duck's Rhapsody," sung by Mel Blanc in his Daffy Duck persona, and still another cartoon connection for the rhapsody.

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