Franz Liszt (1811-1886) is a Hungarian pianist and composer. He is one of the most representative composers of the Romantic era.

Liszt invented the music form “symphonic poem” and explored the expression of piano playing. He composed more than seven hundred pieces, including twelve symphonic poems, two piano concertos, and a great amount of virtuoso piano works. In addition, he wrote eighty-two art songs (Lieder) in various languages, including German, French, Italian, Hungarian, Russian and English. Well known composers such as Berlioz, Schumann and Wagner are all elevated by Liszt. Liszt can be seen as one of the most remarkable musicians of the 19th century in Europe.

This thesis first mentioned the background of Liszt and his art songs, then goes into the life of the poet Petrarca, whose poem Liszt applied to his fabulous work, Tre sonetti di Petrarca. Eventually the author analyzes the interpretation and the form in expectation of having more profound understanding of the work and encouraging more people to perform it.