Liszt was distinguished as the most important virtuoso in the Romantic period of music history, whose Weimar period between 1848 and 1861 was the time of Liszt¡¦s golden age of composition. The Mephisto Waltz No.1, finished in 1860, was based on the second episode The Dance in the Village Inn from Nikolaus Lenau¡¦s poem ¡§Faust.¡¨ Exercising the virtuosic elements and thematic transformation technique, Liszt combined both literature and musical ideas in the Mephisto Waltz No.1 successfully. This work remains one of the most popular works on today¡¦s piano recital repertoire ever since. This research consists of two parts. Part one discusses the characteristics of Liszt¡¦s compositions, with a focus on how Liszt¡¦s style was influenced by the nineteenth century virtuosity. Part two analyzes Mephisto Waltz No. 1 by exploring its historical background, formal structure, and the techniques of thematic transformation. The corresponding pianistic techniques are summarized from the various sources of scholarly suggestions as the conclusion of this analysis.

Sonata had gone through the development of Baroque and Classical Era and reached the high point in the beginning of 19th century. Liszt¡¦ s Piano Sonata in B minor is an important work. It is also an arguable piece in the sonata literatures. Its musical form or content are both the issues of which is considered to carry on the past musical heritage and opened up the future. This thesis starts from the introduction of the composing background of Piano Sonata in B minor. It then focuses to the significance of this work in Romantic Era. After that, many pianists¡¦ and scholars¡¦ view points are collected and analyzed for discussing how this work has the characteristics of absolute music and program music. The relationship between Liszt¡¦s Faust Symphony and this sonata is also explored. Finally, the structure of this sonata is analyzed for understanding how the technique of thematic transformation works in this piece.

The aspiration of this dissertation is to bring forth the significance of Shostakovich's Piano Sonata Op.12. This sonata is a hybrid of the German musical tradition, Russian Modernism, and Liszt's thematic transformation technique. It demonstrates Shostakovich's highly intellectual compositional skills influenced by the education that he received at St. Petersburg Conservatory as well as the exposure to modern music in the 1920s. This dissertation discusses composition techniques, such as the harmonic piers adapted from Alexander Scriabin, neighboring-tone technique, which involves the application of semitone cell throughout the piece, as well as the technique of thematic transformation borrowed from Liszt. These all come together by Shostakovich's design in the most controversial sonata form. The Piano Sonata Op.12 also sheds light on Shostakovich's early compositional style and proves its contribution to the evolution of sonata genre in the twentieth-century.

Ce mémoire porte sur la Symphonie en ré de César Franck, une œuvre écrite entre 1887 et 1888 et créée en 1889. Plus précisément, nous nous intéressons à l’organisation du matériau unificateur de cette œuvre tout en observant les problèmes que pose l’approche cyclique développée par Vincent d’Indy. Nous faisons ainsi valoir les apports et avantages à adopter plutôt la transformation thématique, une méthodologie fortement associée à l’œuvre de Franz Liszt. Théorisée en 1909 au sein du Cours de composition musicale, la forme cyclique exerce une emprise dominante dans la littérature musicologique s’intéressant à l’analyse de l’œuvre de César Franck. Nous mettons en lumière des biais idéologiques et nationalistes du discours de Vincent d’Indy visant à promouvoir la supériorité légitime des compositeurs français sur les Allemands en développant une conception de l’excellence fondée sur des métaphores chrétiennes (la trinité, la cathédrale gothique). Cette argumentation a pour effet néfaste de gommer des données historiographiques importantes telles que les échanges culturels s’établissant de part et d’autre du Rhin ou encore les contacts significatifs qu’ont entretenus César Franck et Franz Liszt. Cette recherche permet ainsi de nuancer la théorie de d’Indy et d’enrichir la perspective analytique de la Symphonie de César Franck en la remettant dans son contexte sociohistorique. L’étude de la transformation thématique a l’avantage de prendre en compte la dimension expressive des thèmes de la Symphonie en plus de la notion d’unité inhérente à l’œuvre et aide à approfondir les affinités musicales qui rapprochent Franck et Liszt. / This thesis focuses on César Franck's Symphony in D, a work written between 1887 and 1888, and premiered in 1889. More precisely, we are interested in the organization of the unifying material of this work while observing the problems posed by the cyclical approach developed by Vincent d'Indy. We thus highlight the contributions and advantages of adopting thematic transformation instead, a methodology strongly associated with the work of Franz Liszt. Theorized in 1909 as part of the “Cours de composition musicale”, the cyclical form exerts a hegemonic hold in the musicological literature interested in the analysis of the work of César Franck. We highlight the ideological and nationalist biases of Vincent d’Indy’s speech, aimed at promoting the legitimate superiority of French composers over the Germans by developing a conception of excellence based on Christian metaphors (the Trinity, the Gothic cathedral). This argument has the detrimental effect of erasing important historiographical data such as the cultural crosscurrent taking place on both sides of the Rhine or the significant contacts that César Franck and Franz Liszt maintained. This research thus makes it possible to qualify d’Indy’s theory and enrich the analytical perspective of César Franck’s Symphony by placing it in its socio-historical contexts. The study of the thematic transformation has the advantage to consider the expressive dimension of the themes of the Symphony while focusing on the unity of the piece, and helps deepen the musical affinities that bring Franck and Liszt close together.