There is a certain amount of imagination in between a very clumping fugato and bold Hungarianisms, along with treacherous double-note glissandi and other tricks of the virtuoso’s trade. The Gaudeamus igitur-Paraphrase (or Gaudeamus! Chanson des étudiants as the Schlesinger edition gives the title) was composed for we know not what occasion, but is one of Liszt’s typically extrovert paraphrases on such material and, although quite entertaining in its dare-devilry, is scarcely a masterpiece-indeed, the extra melodic appendage which the theme acquires in midstream is numbingly banal, but fortunately funny. The student song Gaudeamus igitur has long been associated with graduations and other academic festivals, and Liszt also used it in the music for the dramatic dialogue Vor hundert Jahren (mistakenly entered in most Liszt catalogues as a melodrama, but, in fact, a theatrical work) as well as in the present pieces.
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