An die Jugend is a sequence (or collection) of pieces of classical music for solo piano by Ferruccio Busoni.

Plan of the work

The collection was written June–August 1909 and consists of four volumes, the last with an epilogue. It was published later in the same year by Zimmermann of Leipzig under four separate catalog numbers (Z 4755, Z 4756, Z 4757, and Z 4781). Each book takes about five minutes to play, and may be played separately, or together as a cycle. As in many other works by Busoni, it is compiled from transcribed, freely adapted, and original music.

First performance

The first performance, of Books 2, 3, and 4 (without "Epilogo"), was on 16 October 1909 in Bechstein Hall, London, with Busoni as the pianist.

The first Sonatina

The materials of Book 1, and the "Epilogo," all related and highly original compositions, and written in the new style first explored in Elegien (BV 249), were later revised and combined with a new introduction and short linking passages presenting the thematic roots of the pieces and gluing them together into a single entity. The new piece, resembling a set of variations without a theme, Busoni entitled Sonatina (BV 257). This more advanced and forward-looking composition was the first of what would eventually be six "sonatinas" containing some of the most unusual and original piano music of the early 20th century.

Composition and publication details

Free scores