Ringing the Bell with Liszt's La campanella
The Best Moments
Grandes études de Paganini, S. 141: No. 3 in G-sharp minor
I am Franz Liszt, and I would love to guide you through the best moments of my piano piece La campanella. You will hear how I turn a playful violin tune into a sparkling display of chiming high notes and daring leaps across the keyboard, showing just how much magic ten fingers can create. If you also want to recognize our music whenever it plays, visit our Trainer where my fellow composers and I help you practice.
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Ringing the Dinner Bell
I start La campanella by borrowing a melody that Niccolò Paganini wrote with a real little handbell in mind, and I make the piano imitate that bright chiming sound right at the top of the keyboard. To pull that off, the right hand has to jump back and forth across huge distances between the melody and a high ringing note, like a waiter trying to carry two trays at opposite ends of a crowded room.
A Workout for the Little Fingers
Once that gentle opening tune has settled in, I put it through a set of variations where the notes come faster and thicker with every pass. Before long I have the player tap out rapid repeated notes and shake out trills with the fourth and fifth fingers, which are usually the laziest members of the hand and suddenly have to do all the heavy lifting.
No Speed Limit at the Finish
When I reach the final coda, I drop any pretense of a polite little bell and send both hands racing across the keys in a grand, sweeping finish. I actually had to tone the piece down for my 1851 version in Weimar because my first attempt back in 1838 was almost impossible to play, though any pianist wiping their brow after the last chord might still question my idea of making things easier.
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I hope you had fun walking through these highlights of La campanella with me. There is still plenty more to discover about the piece, from the night in Paris that first sparked the idea to the long road I took before settling on the final version in Weimar. Feel free to follow the links on this page if you would like to hear the rest of the story.
Recording: Greiss, Public domain