The paper compares some compositional techniques in Liszt with those in late Skrjabin, using a neo-Riemannian perspective. In particular, a study is made of Listz’s use of some families of chords, referred to as Weitzmann Regions, whose members are linked by parsimonious voice-leading. On this basis the paper talks about the Consolation n. 2, involving two tonal centers recalling the opposition between the main and subordinate tonalities in functional syntax. Furthermore, taking into account an interest in Greek music and its particular device known as metabolè, the paper points out a distinctive feature in Lisztian works: the re-reading of the same structure with minimal inflections of voices. In this perspective we can consider the several presentations of the opening theme in the B-minor Sonata, as observed by Lajos Zeke. This technical device also appears in Liszt’s late music, as can be seen on analysing R. W. Venezia, whose first section shows a minimal shift from a WT1 element to a WT0 element before returning to WT1, while the middle section consists of a half RP cycle.
With this in mind, the paper examines some techniques contained in Skrjabin’s late works, where parsimonious shiftings occur between objects with higher cardinality: octatonic collections, acoustic and whole-tone scales.
In the last section some twentieth-century developments of the minimal inflection technique are investigated, focusing on several non-triadic collections as studied by J. Straus. All of this shows the achievement of a generalized technique of parsimonious hybridization: starting with symmetrical structures, gradual departures from perfect evenness arise moving to near-evenness, according to the so called fuzzy logic. Meanwhile we can observe that, as in coeval science and philosophy, the focus is moved to transformations rather than to the objects themselves.