Rachmaninoff’s Six Moments Musicaux

Sergei Rachmaninoff composed in Six Moments Musicaux in the fall of 1896. It is a set of six pieces of piano music in characteristic forms of past musical periods. The work was composed under a period of great financial stress for Rachmaninoff, and the impetus for its composition was essentially monetary. However, despite the short amount of time he had to compose the pieces, the Six Moments Musicaux rate among Rachmaninoff’s greatest works of piano music. The work is longer, more sophisticated and requires a greater virtuosity than any of his previous piano compositions. It is indicative of the high quality that Rachmaninoff’s future music would have. In an interview in 1941, Rachmaninoff said, “What I try to do, when writing down my music, is to make it say simply and directly that which is in my heart when I am composing.” Indeed, the Six Moments Musicaux came from the heart, and perhaps it was the strenuous outward circumstances that allowed him to do so.

The Six Moments Musicaux contains six characteristic forms of previous musical periods: the nocturne, song without words, barcarolle, virtuoso etude, and theme and variations. Although written as a set, each piece is capable of standing on its own as a separate work. The first piece is a lyrical Andantino in B flat minor. Interestingly, a pause occurs in the middle of the piece at an almost identical place as in Franz Schubert’s first Moments Musicaux. The second is an Allegretto that adequately display Rachmaninoff’s mastery of piano technique. The third, in B minor, is reminiscent of a funeral march but takes on the guise of a song without words. The fourth piece is another dazzling virtuosic etude in E minor. It has some similarities to Chopin’s Revolutionary Etude in it’s daunting and constant left-hand figurations. The fifth piece, an Adagio sostenuto, is a great relief after the previous virtuosic display. It is an intensely lyrical barcarolle, a folk song with a rhythmic triplet accompaniment. The final piece is a Maestoso in the key of C major and another display of virtuosic piano technique. Along side this is also the brilliant display of compositional technique in the use of canons and triple counterpoint.

Shostakovich’s 24 Preludes and Fugues

Besides being an important part of piano music literature, Johann Sebastian Bach’s Well-Tempered Clavier has been a continuous influence on composers. Several of the great composers, including Mozart and Beethoven, secured their own personal copies for study purposes before the first publication of Bach’s collection of preludes and fugue. Not only this, but the Well-Tempered Clavier has often inspired other composers to undertake the composition of similar collections. For instance, Frederic Chopin wrote his own collection of 24 preludes for piano in each of the 24 major and minor keys. Chopin’s preludes, however, do not have accompanying fugues. Dmitri Shostakovich, on the other hand, did compose a set of 24 preludes and fugues.

After World War II, Shostokovich was Soviet Russia’s leading composer, despite the fact that he was in a general position of disfavor with the Soviet Communist Party. In 1950, Shostokovich was sent to Leipzig as Russia’s representative at the bicentennial festival of Bach’s death. As a part of this festival, he was asked to sit on the judging panel for the First International Bach Competition. On of the entrants was a 26-year-old girl from Moscow named Tatiana Nikolayeva had come to the festival prepared to play any of Bach’s 48 preludes and fugues from the Well-Tempered Clavier on request. Needless to say, she won the gold medal.

Shostokovich was greatly inspired by the Nikolayeva’s playing and he returned to Moscow and set out on the composition of his own set of preludes and fugues. After the completion of each piece, he would invite Nikolayeva to his Moscow apartment for her to see the piece. At the collection’s completion, Shostokovich dedicated the work to Nikolayeva and she undertook the public premiere of the 24 preludes and fugues on December 23rd, 1952. The work was not received well in Soviet Russia. The dissonances of the fugues offended some of other composers, and the fugue was, in general, seen as too “Western” by the Soviet regime and therefore, too archaic. Despite this, Shostokovich’s 24 preludes an fugues have become a well-known collection of piano music.

Unlike the Well-Tempered Clavier in which the preludes and fugues are ordered in parallel major/minor pairs ascending chromatically from C major (C major, C minor, C sharp major, C sharp minor, etc.), Shostokovich adopted the same ordering as in Chopin’s 24 preludes, that is, relative major/minor pairs around the circle of fifths (C major, A minor, G major, E minor, etc.). Musical references, both to Bach’s Well-Tempered Clavier and Shostokovich’s own works, appear in several of the pieces.

Bach’s Six Partitas

Johann Sebastian Bach composed three sets of six dance suites for the keyboard, which today form an important of piano music. The third set, known as the Partitas (BWV 825-830), were composed between 1725 and 1730 or 1731, placing them during Bach’s time in Leipzig. This also makes them the last suites he composed for the keyboard. Each partita was published separately but they were also published as a collection forming volume 1 of the Clavier-Übung (Keyboard Practice). The title “Partita” in the strict sense actually means variation, however, it is far more usual to see it used as an alternate name for a dance suite. The Partitas are also occasionally called the German Suites. This title was applied after Bach’s death to continue the naming convention of the English and French Suites. Yet, like those sets, there is nothing particularly “German” about the Partitas. On a side note, Bach’s three suites for violin are also titled Partita.

The Partitas are the most technically challenging and diverse of the three sets of suites. The English Suites were characterized by a consistent form; each suite being preceded by a prelude and only one dance inserted before the gigue. The French Suites universally dispensed with any form of introductory movement, but varied in the number of dances interposed between the sarabande and gigue. The Partitas, on the other hand, vary significantly in the form of each suite. Each suite, except for the fifth, begins with a different type introductory movement before the allemande.  The first and fifth both start with preludes, the second with a sinfonia, the third with a fantasia, the fourth with an overture, and the sixth with a toccata. The suites vary in the number of dances inserted before the gigue, yet there is never more than three additional dances. Besides this, there are significant deviations from the dance suite form. The second suite ends exceptionally with a capriccio instead of a gigue and the sixth suite places an air before the sarabande. The third suite in A minor also includes a dance titled Scherzo. While not the type of scherzo made famous by Beethoven, it does share some characteristics with it.

Together Bach’s three sets of dance suites, while not originally composed for the piano, are today an important and remarkable collection of piano music.

Bach’s French Suites

Bach’s keyboard works form an important part of modern day piano music. Pieces like the Inventions and Sinfonias and the Well-Tempered Clavier serve a mostly educational role, while his suites are often performed on both piano and harpsichord. Since the “Bach Revival” started by Felix Mendellsohn, Bach’s music has never ceased to amaze. Bach’s keyboard music ultimately experienced a significant boost in popularity by the outstanding pianist Glenn Gould.

One of his most well-known sets of piano music (although not originally piano music, of course) is the French Suites. This collection of six suites were probably composed between 1722 and 1725, a few years after the composition of the English Suites, and at the start of Bach’s time in Leipzig. As with the English Suites, the title “French” was not given to the collection by Bach. The first noted use of the term is by Friedrich Marpurg, a pupil of Bach, and it was made popular by Bach’s biographer, Johann Forkel. While perhaps there are certain elements of a genuine “French” style, the name was more or less given as a means of differentiating them from the so-called English Suites.

The French Suites follow a much less strict plan as than their English counterparts. Whereas the English Suites, were consistent in the presence of a prelude prior to the first dance and in inserting only one dance between the sarabande and gigue, the French Suites are not so regular. One consistent point is the absence of a prelude in all of the suites. However, there is a great difference in the number of dances each contain. Each suite does contain the obligatory four dances of an allemande, courante, sarabande and gigue. It was up to the composer as to which dances were interposed before the final dance. The first suite simply adds a minuet before the gigue. The second through the fifth suites insert three dances. The third suite includes the unusual Angloise, an English country dance (ironically in the French Suites and not in the English Suites) and the fifth suite includes a loure, a French dance originating in Normandy. Finally, the six suite inserts four dances, including a polonaise, before the final gigue.

Bach’s English Suites

While Johann Sebastian Bach didn’t actually write for the piano, his keyboard works form an important part of modern piano music literature. Bach was familiar with the early forms of the piano present during his lifetime, but it wasn’t until 1747, three years before his death, that the instrument had improved enough to win Bach’s appraisal. His collections like the Well-Tempered Clavier and the Inventions and Sinfonias, while not necessary frequently heard on recital programs, are heavily used in the training of pianists. In fact, the 19th century conductor and pianist Hans von Bülow called Bach’s Well-Tempered Clavier the “Pianist’s Old Testament.”

Bach’s English Suites are considered to be his earliest suites written for keyboard. Originally, it was thought the six suites were composed between 1718 and 1720, but recent research suggests that Bach may have composed them even early in 1715. This would place the composition of the suites while he was still in Weimar. The title is somewhat vague and the origin of it is not completely known. While there did exist a distinctive English keyboard style during the Baroque, it is not as evident in the English Suites as the French keyboard style is in the later French Suites. It is thought the title comes from a came from the earlier Bach biographer Johann Nikolaus Forkel that the suites were composed for an English nobleman.

Out of Bach’s three sets of suites for the keyboard, the English Suites follow the dance suite form the closest. The basic outline of the dance suite consisted of an allemande, a courante, a sarabande, and a gigue. Composers would then add to the outline by placing a prelude or overture before the allemande and/or any number of various dances between the sarabande and gigue. In each of the six English Suites, Bach begins each with a prelude, ironically modeled after French lute music, and inserts only one dance between the sarabande and gigue.

The first two suites is in the key of A major, the second in A minor. From there the key of each suite descends through the D minor scale and the final suite is in the key of D minor. It is possible this is an intentional key-scheme designed to give a large-scale organization from the first suite to the last. This key-scheme also follows the opening notes of the chorale Jesu, meine Freunde. Possibly this is coincidental, but knowing Bach’s penchant for musical cryptograms, it may very well be intentional.

Bach’s Inventions and Sinfonias

Johann Sebastian Bach’s Inventions and Sinfonias are well-known in the piano music world. The set consists of 15 inventions, or two-part contrapuntal compositions, and 15 sinfonias, or three-part contrapuntal pieces, making 30 pieces in all. The two groups are arranged in ascending key order starting in C major, each grouping covering the  most common major and minor keys used during the Baroque period.The inventions were composed in Köthen, and the sinfonias likely date from Bach’s early years in Leipzig.

There is really no set form for either an invention or a sinfonia. In fact, during the Baroque period, the term “sinfonia” was used to describe several different types of compositions. However, Bach’s inventions and sinfonias, tend to be structured loosely around a tripartite (ABA) form. In addition, many also rely on canons as a major compositional element.

The title Inventions and Sinfonias, or as it is sometimes seen Two and Three Part Inventions, was not the original title given to it by Bach. Instead, Bach titled the work: “Honest method, by which the amateurs of the keyboard – especially, however, those desirous of learning – are shown a clear way not only (1) to learn to play cleanly in two parts, but also, after further progress, (2) to handle three obligate parts correctly and well; and along with this not only to obtain good inventions (ideas) but to develop the same well; above all, however, to achieve a cantabile style in playing and at the same time acquire a strong foretaste of composition.” This collection of piano music was, therefore, written for Bach to use as educational pieces for his students. In fact, several of Bach’s works seem to have been written some sort of educational purpose, one of the most notable being the Well-Tempered Clavier. Furthermore, the title is interesting because, like the inscription of the title page for the Well-Tempered Clavier, it implies the use of the pieces beyond the scope of piano technique. Of importance here are the statements “not only to obtain good inventions (ideas) but to develop the same well,” and “acquire a strong foretaste of composition.” It is evident then that Bach not only intended to teach keyboard technique with these pieces, but also to use them as examples to teach composition.

Bach’s Goldberg Variations

While Johann Sebastian Bach’s keyboard works were not originally composed for the piano, they have been “adopted”, so to speak, as piano music, and form an important part of the repertoire. The piano was invented during Bach’s lifetime, yet he was more or less dissatisfied with the instrument. When Johann Silbermann, known for inventing the forerunner of the modern damper pedal, showed Bach one of his instruments in 1730s, Bach complained of the high notes being too soft for a full dynamic range. However, later in 1747, Bach was more impressed due to the improvements made to the instrument and even acted as a agent in selling Silbermann’s pianos.

One of Bach’s most well-known works of piano music is the Aria with 30 Variations, known as the “Goldberg Variations,” and it is universally considered one of the greatest examples of variation form in music history. The piece was also one of the few works of Bach to be published during his lifetime, forming the fourth part of the Clavier-Übung, or “Keyboard Exercise.” The other parts of the Clavier-Übung consisted of the Six Partitas, the Italian Concerto and French Overture, and St. Anne prelude and fugue for organ.

Though the title indicates that the work is an aria with variations, it is not the melody itself that is varied. Bach instead took the harmonic outline of the aria and constructed free variations upon it, a process more similar to the passacaglia or chaconne. The work is so constructed so that every third variation is a canon built on the harmonic basis of the theme. The first canon (Variation 3) is at the unison. By the conclusion of the piece, a canon has been presented in every interval from the unison to the ninth, or, in other words, every useful interval at which a canon can be written. The work also contains: 1) a fughetta, (Variation 10) a piece in fugue-style but not adhering strictly to the requisites of a fugue; 2) an “overture” in the French style (Variation 16) which conveniently divides the piece in half; 3) and a quodlibet as the final variation, in which the two German folk songs Ich bin solang nicht bei dir g’west, ruck her, ruck her (“I have so long been away from you, come closer, come closer”) and Kraut und Rüben haben mich vertrieben, hätt mein’ Mutter Fleisch gekocht, wär ich länger blieben (“Cabbage and turnips have driven me away, had my mother cooked meat, I’d have opted to stay”) are heard over the aria’s harmonic outlines.

Chopin’s Preludes

Frederic Chopin’s piano music contains numerous preludes, the most famous being his 24 preludes, op. 28. The 24 preludes were composed between 1835 and 1839, partly at Valledemossa, Majorca where he spent the winter of 1838-39. The set contains a prelude in each of the 24 major and minor key and has often been compared to Johann Sebastian Bach’s Well-Tempered Clavier. Unlike Bach’s set, Chopin’s prelude are not followed by an accompanying fugue. Furthermore, the Well-Tempered Claver is arranged in ascending chromatic order starting with C major with major keys preceding parallel minors, while Chopin arranged his preludes by the circle of fifths with major keys preceding relative minors. No doubt Chopin was greatly influenced by the Well-Tempered Clavier. Though being a Romantic, Chopin was brought up in the tradition of Haydn and Mozart. The Well-Tempered Clavier was also one of the few piece of Bach that was in moderate circulation before the “Bach Revival” was started by Mendelssohn. Another possible source of inspiration was the 24 preludes composed by another great name in piano music–Johann Nepomuk Hummel. Through this set is mostly forgotten today, Harold C. Schonberg states the Chopin was more than likely familiar with the set due to the striking similarities between the openings of Hummel’s A minor piano concerto and Chopin’s in E minor.

The acceptance of Chopin’s 24 preludes was mixed. Robert Schumann said that, “they are sketches, beginnings of etudes, or, so to speak, ruins, individual eagle pinions, all disorder and wild confusions.” Other critics felt the same way about the preludes due to their brevity and apparent lack of formal structure. None of the preludes are longer than 90 measures and the shortest is a mere 12 measures long. On the other hand, Franz Liszt’s opinion of the collection was much more favorable: “Chopin’s Preludes are compositions of an order entirely apart…they are poetic preludes, analogous to those of a great contemporary poet, who cradles the soul in golden dreams.”

Unlike many of Schumann’s and Liszt’s piano pieces, Chopin’s 24 preludes were not named or provided with any descriptions. The 19th century conductor and pianist Hans von Bülow gave nicknames to each prelude, however, the only one in common use to day is the No. 15 “Raindrop” prelude. Today, Chopin’s prelude are standard fare on piano recitals and are performed by pianists of various skill levels.

Chopin the Classicist

Frederic Chopin’s piano music is considered to be the epitome of Romanticism. His often intensely emotional melodic lines and innovative harmonies could hardly be anything but Romantic. Arthur Hedley said that Chopin “had the rare gift of a very personal melody, expressive of heart-felt emotion, and his music is penetrated by a poetic feeling that has an almost universal appeal…. Present-day evaluation places him among the immortals of music by reason of his insight into the secret places of the heart and because of his awareness of the magical new sonorities to be drawn from the piano.” He was greatly praised by many of his contemporaries. Robert Schumann remarked on one occasion, “Hats off gentlemen, a genius!” Schumann would also compare the genius of Chopin to that of Mozart. Felix Mendelssohn called him a “perfect virtuoso” due to technical mastery combined with extreme personal quality of Chopin’s playing. Franz Liszt remarked that Chopin “commands our highest degree of devotion.” Schumann, Mendelssohn and Liszt were, in their own ways, leading figures of the Romantic period. However, the feeling was not exactly mutual.

Despite being born in 1810 as Beethoven was ushering in the Romantic era, Chopin had been brought up in the musical tradition of Mozart and Haydn. In fact, the roots of his musical education possibly even go back to C.P.E. Bach. He considered himself a Classicist and not a Romantic. Though he had many acquaintances who were associated with Romanticism in the arts, he looked on most with indifference. Indeed, Chopin’s piano music possesses a purity and technical structure more closely akin to his predecessors Haydn and Mozart and to the later Johannes Brahms. His pieces show a high degree of contrapuntal thinking, a quality that was waning in the early Romantic period and saw its last great advocates in Johannes Brahms and Anton Bruckner.

Chopin highly regarded the composers of the previous period. He once remarked to “play Mozart in memory of me.” He was also a great admirer of the great J.S. Bach, taking inspiration from Bach’s Well-Tempered Clavier and writing his own set of piano preludes (although without accompanying fugues) in each of the 24 major and minor keys.

While posterity has placed Chopin among the Romantics, it cannot be denied that his music possessed a tremendous influence from the Classical period, possibly more so than from his own Romantic contemporaries. Along with Johannes Brahms, he stands as a unique example between the balance of Romantic emotionalism and Classical purity.