Rachmaninov: Prelude C sharp minor

Hi all.

This is my first post here, I'm not much of a pianist but I love classical music and have been trying to find piano pieces similar to this one for a while now.

Can anyone help?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0Wddtne7KSs

Thanks in advance.

 

Hello,


Allow me to be the first to say that.


As for your question....I guess I can answer it by saying "Any of Rachmaninov's pieces are similar to that one because Rachmaninov is Rachmaninov".

Do you understand? Every composer has his (her) own style and what you linked is Rachmaninov. So if you want to hear more pieces like that, look to the recordings on this site under the Rachmaninov page.

Take care,
-jg

 

Thank you both very much.

I can't really play piano very well at all, I'm a guitarist, I would simply like to develop my knowledge of piano pieces, I will probably never be able to play anything as complex as that on anything other then guitar.

I do transcribe piano pieces to guitar occasionally, just finished an Eric Satie piece, however by doing this your obviously limited to only being able to play half of the notes, 10 fingers down to only 5 fingers etc and no more then six notes at any one time lol.

Thanks again piano lady & juufa72, I'd be very greatfull if any one could still expand on this thread still further with the names of any other similarly "dark, heavy" sounding pieces.

 

Dark and heavy???

Hehehehe... my specialty!!!

Try these:

Prokofiev - Suggestion Diabolique (op. 4, no. 4)
Rachmaninoff - Moments Musicaux Nos. 2 and 4 (op. 16, nos. 2 and 4) , Prelude in G Minor (op. 23, no. 5), Prelude in F Minor (op. 32 no. 6), Elegy in E-Flat Minor (op. 3, no. 1)

Chopin - Preludes in G Minor and D Minor (op. 28, nos. 22 and 24)
Scriabin - Prelude in D Minor (op. 11, no. 24), Piano Sonata No. 1, Movement III (op. 6), Etude in D-Sharp Minor (op. 8, no. 12)

Liszt - Transcendental Etudes nos. 4 in D Minor (Mazzepa) and 8 in C Minor (Wilde Jagd) (S. 139)
Schumman - Piano Sonata No. 2 in G Minor - Movements 1, 3, and 4 (op. 22)
Brahms - Rhapsody no. 2 in G Minor (op. 79, no. 2)

There are a lot more that I could list... but that's all I can think of off the top of my head...

 

Tsk tsk tsk....Demonic Advent! You call yourself knowledgable in the dark and heavy genre but yet fail to list these popular pieces :wink: :

Liszt: Funerallis
Chopin: Marche Funebre from Sonata op.35(?)

And the not-so famous-
Tchaikovsky: "The Dolls Funeral" from Album for the Young op.39

 

Hehehe... I was assuming that everybody already knew about Chopin's funeral march... and I don't consider that one very dark anymore... I've become immune to it.

And I'm not intimately familar with Listz, just the transcendental etudes.

Hmmm... I actually do know the Tchaikovsky piece... but it never crossed my mind.

Time to pull out my Ipod... I have a playlist on it called "Super evil"... time to see what I forgot about in the last post...

 

You guys, thanks for these pieces, however i feel "You underestimate the Power of the Dark Side".

No but really, these are all great, though slightly obscure sounding, could you help me find more of the "classic" well know pieces? pieces that might strike a chord with the average peeps on the streets.

Grieg's Piano Concerto in A minor Op.16, would have been more the kind of thing I was looking for, luckily my little bro' remembered that one

Thanks again in advance.

 

Hmmm... the Scriabin Etude in D-Sharp Minor is fairly famous... as is Rachmaninoff's prelude in G Minor.

Other really famous ones:

Rachmaninoff's 2nd and 3rd piano concertos... The third is famous for being EXTREMELY difficult, and the 2nd is just... ... ... pure awesomeness to the 10th degree.

Perhaps you could look at the third movement of Beethoven's "Moonlight" sonata?
Or the first movement of his Pathetique sonata?

Of course, for organ, there are Bach's Toccata and Fugue in D Minor, and his Great Fantasy and Fugue in G Minor. You could also look at his Toccata and Fugue in D Dorian.

Uhh... my brain is kinda fried at the moment (I just got back from crazy pyschodelic bowling :shock: ), so my whole "commonplace" section of my brain is kinda not working.

But seriously... a lot of the pieces I listed in my prior post should be available for download here on the pianosociety website. I would recommend listening to them. I think they'd be of great intrest to you. They might sound obscure... but to people who really know a lot about the classical standards, those pieces are rather common. Although, to the Average Joe on the street, maybe they won't immediatly recognize it. :wink:

Hmmm... I'm gonna go poke around now for a list of recordings to recommend...

 

That is soooo fun!!


Why hasn't anyone mentioned the Totentanz by Liszt ... you can't get darker than a 'Dance of Death' based on the Daes Irae chant ... love, love, love this piece!!!!

 

I can safely say that I've never heard that one. I don't know much Liszt. Just the transcendental etudes.

And crazy pyschodelic bowling is amazing... especially at 10:00 PM, with various friends who are just only slightly insane...

 

OH MY GOSH!!! :shock: :shock: You must go forthwith to this page immediately and listen to Neil O'Doan's recording on PS http://pianosociety.com/cms/index.php?section=241

it will change your life. You know how they say you'll always remember your first time ... I totally remember every moment of the first time I heard this piece, the totally hot chick that played it live is completely beside the point!

 

Hmmm... not particularly impressed, sorry to say.

I don't like Liszt much. He's got lots of "flashiness" and "show-off-ishness" which is cool, but I find that the actual musical value diminishes when that happens.

This piece didn't impress me. It was very dark, yes, but a very opressive darkness, very humid. It made me feel dragged down, and gross. It wasn't the exciting darkness of Rachmaninoff or Scriabin, but more... ... hmmm ... "sticky?"

Also, Liszt decided to be stupid and end a work that is clearly in a minor tonality in the major tonality... BAH! Humbug!
Composer's only do that when they're weeines. Ending on the major is NOT COOL in my book. And I can only abode it if done tastefully. Bach, for instance, does it horribly in a lot of cases. Thus, while I can love his works, I tend to hate the endings, because out of NOWHERE will appear this frill little major chord. Bah. Liszt is just as bad.

 

That is grossly underestimating Rachmaninov's diversity and genius. And it makes me wonder how much more of his work you have actually heard.

Also, this early piece is not at all characteristic of Rachmaninov's style, if there is such a thing. It was just the piece that everybody wanted to hear over and over again, until he got so sick of it that he refused to play it in concert. I guess he would not be overly pleased by your claim that all his later output is similar to this one.

 

Thanks again to all of you, especially to you demonic_advent, for the shear volume of pieces that you have named.

I have listened to all of your suggestions and found them all really interesting. I must also say thanks to nathenscoleman for drawing our attention to the "Totentanz" I thought it was realy cool and just the sort of piece i'm looking for.

A small observation I would like to share with you all, on something I have discovered in my own Writing, some of you may disagree:

I've found Writing in minor keys, producing dark sinister music, a lot easier then producing happy uplifting music. For some reason, if you start with a mind to "go dark", but then mess up I would vew that section of the piece as simply being "more experimental" the fact that it might be more "A tonal" doesn't seem to be of to much consequence, other then giving the piece a more weird edge.

But when writing uplifting pieces, if mistakes are made the result is basically worse, and stands out as somehow being more out of contrast. Whilst trying to write happy melodies, I often think, "Ahaa, what I have just written here.... if indeed it has a name, is actually some cheese!" :shock:

It's taken some time to cull the happier elements out of my writing, but now I am finding writing a lot more fun.

Thanks, just my opinion, as I am by no means a skilled composer and struggle at writing, for me though, this small personal rule has seemed to of helped.

 

*gasp* :shock: :? :twisted: *shocked astonishment* *inarticulate growl*

How dare thee??!! I, sir, challenge you to a duel ... pistols ... at dawn. *throwing down the gauntlet* I shall meet you on the field, sir, and vanquish your boorish opinion.

 

I like the picardy third. Chopin does it a lot, too (the 10/2 etude in a minor comes immediately to mind), and I always find it to be tasteful when he does it, as I do with Bach. Sometimes Chopin extends it to an entire passage of major in a minor key (25/12 in c minor for example) and I always love it.

I agree with demonic advent about Liszt, though. I find his music to be lacking profundity much of the time.

 

Hmmm... When a composer can do it tastefully, by making the major ending fit naturally... then it's okay. Even though I would still like the minor ending...

But sometimes some composers just come out of NOWHERE all like: "Hmmm... I'd better pretend to be happy here..." And they're all major and crap like that.

If I had a good example off the top of my head... I'd list it. But... I'm tired. So I can't think.
Bleh. Just as well I don't. I probably end up saying something about somebody's favorite work and end up in another duel.

 

Hey, you ! :evil:

Don't ever accuse Bach of doing anything horrible. Bach was never wrong and nothing he wrote is ever less than perfect, including his major turns. If you don't concede, you'll have to duel me after Nathan's killed you first.

I will some time in the not too distant future post Shostakovich's P&F Op.87 No.12. The ending of that fugue is the most beautiful major key ending to a minor piece that I know. It is absolutely divine. I hope you'll deem it tastefully enough to abode :roll:

BTW - I wonder if there are any examples of the converse - ending a major-key piece in minor. That would take some courage.

 

Off the top of my head: Schubert (Impromptu in E flat major Op.90/2) and that copycat of Brahms (Rhapsody Op.119/4, same tonality, same ending).