La lugubre gondola, a piano piece, is one of Franz Liszt's most important late works, written in 1882.
Its genesis is well documented in letters from which we know that Liszt was Richard Wagner's guest in the Palazzo Vendramin on the Grand Canal in Venice in late 1882.
Liszt may have had a premonition there of Wagner's death which inspired the first version of the work: a piano piece in 44, written in December 1882 (which remained unpublished until the Rugginenti edition of 2002).
According to Liszt's correspondence with Lina Ramann, La Lugubre Gondola was originally to have been entitled Troisième élégie and was to have been dedicated to her.
There is an undated manuscript, clearly from the end of Liszt's life, of a starker version of the piece in 68 for piano solo - virtually a new composition.