Bagatelle sans tonalité
Composition for piano by Franz Liszt / From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Bagatelle sans tonalité ("Bagatelle without tonality", S.216a) is a piece for solo piano written by Franz Liszt in 1885. The manuscript bears the title "Fourth Mephisto Waltz"[1] and may have been intended to replace the piece now known as the Fourth Mephisto Waltz when it appeared Liszt would not be able to finish it; the phrase Bagatelle ohne Tonart actually appears as a subtitle on the front page of the manuscript.
The Bagatelle is a waltz in a typical sectioned dance form, with repeated sections given inventive variation. While this piece is not especially dissonant, it is extremely chromatic, becoming what Liszt's contemporary François-Joseph Fétis called "omnitonic"[2] in that it lacks any definite feeling for a tonal center.[3] Some critics have suggested, however, that the various underpinnings of the piece—in other words, the main bass notes and melodic elements—work together to imply an underlying tonality of D,[4] which would link the Bagatelle in terms of tonality with the Fourth Mephisto Waltz.[5]