FRANZ LISZT'S BAGATELLE OHNE TONART (IN B MINOR)

Scholars generally agree that Franz Liszt's Bagatelle ohne Tonart (1885), "bagatelle without tonality" for piano, is locally tonal, but they do not agree on what the tonality is. English-language authors have proposed eight different tonal centers for the Bagatelle. Russian theorist Yuriy Kholopov adds a ninth: B minor. My analysis adopts Kholopov's position and uses a harmonic reduction to demonstrate the viability of a B-minor hearing. I draw on Kholopov's "states of tonality" to argue that different hearings of the Bagatelle depend on different conceptions of tonality and the variety of listening strategies they entail.