Liszt's biographer, Lina Ramann, wrote an article about Elegy No.1, which apparently gave him the idea of writing a second Elegy, which he did in 1877 and dedicated to her. The original instrumentation was for violin and piano, but Liszt also arranged it for cello and piano and for solo piano. The second Elegy is shorter than the first, but its main theme is more compelling. It begins with a meditative ascending phrase which precedes the main theme, after which the ascending phrase recurs. The following section is more animated in a very typical Lisztian way, a slow melody accompanied with piano figurations. A quasi-chorale passage precedes the coda.

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