Franz Liszt was a pioneering 19th century Hungarian composer and pianist who was taught composition by Antonio Salieri in his early years. While Liszt composed religious works and helped other artists, some of his compositions used unprecedented emotional and psychological impacts with brutal sounds that may have planted the seeds for later heavy metal styles. Liszt felt free to portray all human experiences through his music, including the darker and more evil sides of life, though he was a devout Catholic not seeking to worship evil.

1. Franz Liszt
1811 - 1886

2. Liszt was born in a village near
Sopron, Hungary,
(now Raiding, Austria).

3. Antonio Salieri taught him the
technique of composition and
fostered the young Liszt's
musical taste.

4. Were the seeds of Heavy Metal
planted by Franz Liszt?
That question may sound a bit
far-fetched, but one should listen
closely to some of Liszt's
pioneering compositions-- filled
with brutal moans & groans.

5. Liszt brought to music unprecedented
emotional and psychological impact
that previously never existed, paving the
way for Wagner, Tchaikovsky, Puccini and
many others that followed. Though
Beethoven previously touched upon a
heavier style with the Coriolan Overture, or
Mozart with Don Giovanni, they never
delved as deep into the brutal dark side of
mankind, nor into the darkest and most
demonic realms of evil as did Liszt.

6. Franz Liszt was a diehard Catholic.
Moreover, one look at how he
conducted his life, giving free
lessons, free concerts as
fundraisers, helping aspiring artists,
and writing celestial oratorios and
masses, we instantly and quite
assuredly know that Franz Liszt
was an angel not Mephistopheles.

7. Henceforth, Liszt was certainly not a devil
worshipper, as some foolishly suspected, as he
simply revealed all facets of the human
experience. His era was one of great instability,
revolutions, war and death. To turn a deaf ear,
and close one's eyes, to this aspect of life is, after
all, pure ignorance. That a novelist can write
about the evil side of mankind, like Shakespeare
did in "Hamlet", Goethe did in "Faust" or Dante
did in his "Divine Comedy", Liszt felt the same
freedom as a composer.

8. Liszt composed Hamlet in the 1850's
well over a hundred years before Led
Zeppelin, Black Sabbath, or Jimi
Hendrix.
Liszt's Hamlet: Liszt's symphonic poem
ingeniously portrays the various psychological
mood swings that plague Hamlet throughout
Shakespeare's intense play.
http://www.d-vista.com/OTHER/franzliszt.html

9. Liszt's Dante Symphony,
Totentanz, Prometheus and
many others also contain
advanced sound scapes that
make Liszt look like a modern
time traveler stuck in an ancient
civilization.

10. http://www.music-scores.com/liszt/composer.php