Liszt, Language, and Identity

Abstract

Liszt had an impressively forward-looking awareness of public relations and had a range of means for altering his image as required. He managed to project diverse identities that were sometimes embraced by the public, and sometimes questioned. These "contradictions" in Liszt's character have been the subject of much confusion and debate in Liszt literature, and one aspect particularly has scholars still perplexed-Liszt's national identity. Writers have come down on all sides of the debate, declaring Liszt was "really" Hungarian, French, German, or "cosmopolitan." Alan Walker, for example, is adamant that "Liszt was Hungarian in thought and word and deed."' Recently, Dana. Gooley has suggested that Liszt used different national identities as a means of winning over concert audiences,^ but the role of language in projecting these identities has so far been overlooked. This article will examine how Liszt adjusted his use of languages throughout his life to gain acceptance into certain groups and to manipulate the way he was perceived by others.To define the context against which Liszt employed his linguistic strategies, the article begins by briefly examining nineteenth-century perceptions of the relationship between national identity and language. It then maps Liszt's fluctuating proficiency and frequency of use of a number of languages onto his biography to discover what prompted these changes in his linguistic identity. The second half of the article undertakes a detailed investigation of Liszt's