This study examines Liszt's use of the style hongrois in his Swiss book of Années de pèlerinage to reference certain sentiments he had experienced. The event that brought Liszt to Switzerland is discussed in Chapter 1 in order to establish an understanding of the personal difficulties facing Liszt during the period when the Swiss book took shape. Based on Jonathan Bellman's research of the style hongrois, Chapter 2 examines the Swiss pieces that exhibit musical gestures characteristic of this style. Bellman also introduced a second, metaphoric meaning of the style hongrois, which is discussed in Chapter 3 along with Liszt's accounts from his book Des Bohémien as well as the literary quotations that are included in the Swiss book. Together, the biographical facts, the accounts from Des Bohémien, and the literary quotations show that Liszt was using the style hongrois to substantiate the autobiographical significance of the Swiss book.

Terra Mirabilis is a three-movement musical composition for symphony orchestra with piano solo inspired by natural landscapes photographed by the composer. The three movement composition and its corresponding landscapes portray three times of a day: early morning (I. The Mists), evening (II. Oceanus), and late night (III. Nocturne). Each chapter is devoted to the discussion of one movement, wherein overall concept and form are addressed, followed by detailed analyses of harmonic structure, motivic and thematic development, orchestration, and representational elements. As a complement to the score and the text, a CD-R audio recording of orchestral mock-ups accompanies this dissertation.