Sposalizio

The painting which inspired this piece of music is also sometimes called the Sposalizio; for it, see Sposalizio (painting).

Sposalizio is the title of the first piece in Franz Liszt's Deuxième Année de Pèlerinage: Italie (Second year of Pilgrimage: Italy), published in 1858. The composition starts out with a simple pentatonic melody, which transforms itself into a complex musical architecture. The melody then transforms itself into a type of wedding march, which continually embellishes itself to lead up to the grand climax, which contains crashing octaves into a loud finish. The composition ends quietly.