Supposing that I have 10 fingers,
HOW AM I SUPPOSED TO PLAY RACHMANINOFF's PRELUDE IN C# MINOR?!?!?
Towards the end on one of the chords, how am I supposed to play 24 notes at the same time?
Someone with experience please help me.
Hmmm...
(a) Ask a friend to help you.
(b) Delete all the note that you think are unimportant. If someone complains that it is not the way Mr. R. wrote it, reply "What did he know about music?"
(c) Use something such as a blackboard eraser (unchalked) to strike multiple notes simultaneously, if they are adjacent. I have seen this done in performance by a contemporary musician who was playing something that is the work of an apparently well-known modern composer.
(d) Evolve.
Use Hermione's Special Spell:
Multidigitalem Pianofortam!
I don't have any pianist friends. But I'll try removing some notes.
Hi Daniel,
I'm not a pianist either but you might try this:
Those parts where you don't have enough fingers, could you use the sustain pedal and run a quick arpeggio?
Lawrie
Hi again Daniel,
perhaps one of the following combinations will give an idea? The first bar is supposed to represent what you have written, the second is probably no good at all but the others may be useful - I dunno, like I said, I'm no pianist. BTW the example is only 13 notes, not 24 but I'm sure you'll get the idea.
Lawrie
!NoteWorthyComposerClip(2.0,Single)
|Clef|Type:Treble
|TimeSig|Signature:4/4
|Chord|Dur:Whole|Pos:-13,-11,-9,-6,-4,-2,1,3,5,8,10,12,15
|Bar
|SustainPedal|Pos:-8|Wide:Y
|Note|Dur:32nd|Pos:-13|Opts:Stem=Up,Beam=First
|Note|Dur:32nd|Pos:-11|Opts:Stem=Up,Beam
|Note|Dur:32nd|Pos:-9|Opts:Stem=Up,Beam
|Note|Dur:32nd|Pos:-6|Opts:Stem=Up,Beam
|Note|Dur:32nd|Pos:-4|Opts:Stem=Up,Beam
|Note|Dur:32nd|Pos:-2|Opts:Stem=Up,Beam
|Note|Dur:32nd|Pos:1|Opts:Stem=Up,Beam
|Note|Dur:32nd|Pos:3|Opts:Stem=Up,Beam=End
|Note|Dur:32nd|Pos:5|Opts:Stem=Down,Beam=First
|Note|Dur:32nd|Pos:8|Opts:Stem=Down,Beam
|Note|Dur:32nd|Pos:10|Opts:Stem=Down,Beam
|Note|Dur:32nd|Pos:12|Opts:Stem=Down,Beam
|Note|Dur:8th|Pos:15^|Opts:Stem=Down,Beam=End
|Note|Dur:Half|Pos:15
|SustainPedal|Status:Released|Pos:-8|Wide:Y
|Bar
|SustainPedal|Pos:-8|Wide:Y
|Chord|Dur:8th|Pos:-13,-11,-9,-6|Opts:Stem=Up
|Chord|Dur:8th|Pos:-4,-2,1,3|Opts:Stem=Up
|Chord|Dur:8th|Pos:5,8,10,12|Opts:Stem=Down,Beam=First
|Note|Dur:8th|Pos:15^|Opts:Stem=Down,Beam=End
|Note|Dur:Half|Pos:15
|SustainPedal|Status:Released|Pos:-8|Wide:Y
|Bar
|SustainPedal|Pos:-8|Wide:Y
|Chord|Dur:8th|Pos:-13,-11,-9,-6,-4,-2|Opts:Stem=Up
|Chord|Dur:8th|Pos:1,3,5,8,10,12,15^|Opts:Stem=Down
|Note|Dur:Half,Dotted|Pos:15
|SustainPedal|Status:Released|Pos:-8|Wide:Y
|Bar
|SustainPedal|Pos:-8|Wide:Y
|Chord|Dur:8th,Dotted|Pos:-13,-11,-9,-6,1,3,5,8|Opts:Stem=Up
|Chord|Dur:8th,Dotted|Pos:-6,-4,-2,1,8,10,12,15^|Opts:Stem=Down
|Note|Dur:8th|Pos:15^
|Note|Dur:Half|Pos:15
|SustainPedal|Status:Released|Pos:-8|Wide:Y
!NoteWorthyComposerClip-End
Listen to a recording of it. If you are diligent, you may find one by Rachmaninoff himself. But I'm sure that Van Cliburn or Horowitz knew what to do.
BTW, there aren't 24 notes. Worst case is 12. Even so, you would have to have 6 fingers on each hand and a 4 octave reach to play it as written.
What you should have realized long before you developed the technical ability to even attempt this piece is that written notation is at best a rough approximation of performance. The same is true of poetry.
Rachmaninoff is indicating the effect that he is !B(striving for) knowing full well that it is not possible. Still, given the tempo of this piece, getting close is well within the reach of concert pianists (I'm just a humble piano player).
Look at any number of impressionist pieces, Ravel's Jeux d'Eau comes to mind, for more "utterly unplayable" examples.
Miscounted did I?
Thanks for everything.
I have actually heard a CD recording of a piano-roll
that Rachmaninov made of the prelude.
If I remember correctly, he split the big chords the same
way that string players do: he first hit the lower notes of
the chord, and then quickly hit the upper notes.
HTH
I also have only 10 fingers, but I'm no piano player, so I don't need any help on this.
May I suggest, for your next postings, to use a more specific description in the subject text ?
Thanks, tip. Youv'e been the most helpful.
Daniel (and others who just dropped by)... Don't be put off by the first (humorous) reply to your question. It's just that anything frantic and capitalized (or in the case of others, terribly mis-spelled) is sure to bring out the worst.
I play (let's just use that term loosely) Gershwin's Rhapsody in Blue, and Mussourgsy's Picture's at an Exhibition, as well as hunt-and-peck Rach's Prelude (his worst piece, in his opinion).
They all have requirements for more than ten notes being played at a time. The answer? Don't play them all at the same time. As alluded to above, you need to split the chords. You will often find that they are written for "one big splash down here" followed by "one big splash up here". At least, they sound better if you play the lower notes of each stave first, followed by the higher ones. You will most likely want to use the pedal, but that may depend upon how accurate you are with your chords! If only one staff requires the splitting of notes (normally the left hand), play the lower notes of it first, and then the right hand together with the top notes of the left. The trick is to try and get the split working as quickly as possible. This comes with lots of practice, something I never do these days, hence my constant lifting of the sustain pedal! ;-)
HTH,
A
or you could hang around a nuclear reactor until you had the required number of digits
Oh no, that won't work. It will only affect your offspring. So you'll have to wait for years for a possible result.
Surely, Rach's music will be around that long...
Picture's at an Exhibition
Pictures at an Exhibition
I know an artist whose picture's at an exhibition. His signature is hard to read. Viewers always ask, "Who's that?"
Tonight, the symphony will play "Pictures at an Exhibition."
I fixed the problem by playing the bass notes like grace notes, playing the treble notes a split second after them, while using the pedal. It works ok.
That's the spirit!
Rachmaninov Had Big Hands (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ifKKlhYF53w)
Yes! :)