In the 19th century, melodrama, often performed in salons with instrumental accompaniment, enjoyed great popularity and had its origins in opera and Singspiel. The combination of recitation and piano accompaniment was explored by composers such as Schubert and Richard Strauss. The most extensive work of this kind was Strauss's setting of Tennyson's "Enoch Arden," while Graham Johnson arranged Schubert's "Abschied von der Erde" for Hyperion. Among Liszt's five composed melodramas are "Lenore" and "Der traurige Mönch" (The Sad Monk). These works are documented here because they use only the piano as an accompanying instrument, in order to preserve them from oblivion.
Bürger's "Lenore" served not only as inspiration for Raff's Fifth Symphony but also for Liszt's "Lenore - Ballade." With his setting of Nicolaus Lenau's "Der traurige Mönch," Liszt showed early signs of his later musical development. "Helge's Loyalty," based on Felix Draeseke's work, remained unpublished until 1874. Liszt's most outstanding work in Hungarian is considered to be "A holt költö szerelme," a setting of Mór Jókai's poem about Sándor Petőfi. Liszt's only Russian-language work was his setting of Count Alexey Konstantinovich Tolstoy's "Do Not Reject Me, My Friend," which was later reworked into a solo piano piece.