The Hungarian Rhapsodies are a set of pieces of music by Franz Liszt, originally for solo piano.
The first fifteen were published in the 1850s, with the last four being added in the 1880s. Numbers 14, 12, 6, 2, 5 and 9 were arranged by Liszt for orchestra, and number 14 was also the basis of Liszt's Hungarian Fantasia for piano and orchestra. Some are better known than others, with number 2 being particularly famous.
Liszt incorporated many themes which he had heard in his native Hungary and which he believed to be folk music, but which were in fact tunes written by contemporary composers, often played by Roma bands. The large scale structure of each was influenced by the verbunkos, a Hungarian dance in several parts, each with a different tempo.
In their original solo piano form, the Hungarian Rhapsodies are noted for their difficulty (Liszt was a virtuoso pianist as well as a composer).
The second Hungarian Rhapsody is particularly well known as the main themes of the The Cat Concerto, a famous Tom and Jerry cartoon, the dual scene in Who Framed Roger Rabbit? and Rhapsody Rabbit, a similar Bugs Bunny cartoon. In one scene in the cartoon, a telephone (conveniently placed inside the piano) rang. When Bugs Bunny answered the phone, the person on the other end asked to speak to Franz Liszt. Bugs Bunny replied, "Who? Franz Liszt? Never heard of him. Wrong number."
External links
MIDI file for music (http://members.fortunecity.com/ajsmidi/alpcond/alpha_08/midi/hunrap.mid)
Free MP3 of #2 by Sean Bennett (http://www.download.com/seanbennett)
The HungarianRhapsodies, (S/G244, R106) Rapsodies hongroises or Ungarische Rhapsodien) are a set of pieces of music by Franz Liszt, originally for solo piano.
The large scale structure of each was influenced by the verbunkos, a Hungarian dance in several parts, each with a different tempo.
In their original piano form, the HungarianRhapsodies are noted for their difficulty (Liszt was a virtuoso pianist as well as a composer).
Rhapsody Rabbit is a Bugs Bunny animated short film from Warner Bros.
Bugs plays the HungarianRhapsody No. 2 by Franz Liszt for a concert audience while trying to remove a mouse from his piano.
The massive similarities could be coincidental, for "all great minds think alike." The animators at Warner Bros. and MGM were great at cartoons, and it could be likely that they all thought of similar concepts and expanded them, not knowing that similar situations resulted in each cartoon.
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