# Favorite perpetual motion pieces/listing off



## clavichorder (May 2, 2011)

A side note before I begin to pontificate, listing off can be our new talkclassical term. Polednice, if you ever get weary by too many lists, perhaps you can't think to yourself, oh, those perverse people are just "listing off" again.

Right, maybe that was funny, now, for an interesting new categorical list. The Perpetuum Mobile. It doesn't necessarily have to be entitled Perpetuum Mobile, but it does have to be an incessant uninterrupted fast tempo all the way through or else have a particularly constrained and consistent rhythmic structure for a long time before being interrupted. Sometimes these piece have something really catchy about them, I don't know what though, perhaps they just have to be catchy to be any good. Perhaps even if you just intuit a quality of perpetual motion in the piece, it can qualify.

Great examples to my knowledge include Carl Maria von Weber's Perpetuum Mobile finale to his C major piano sonata




And Prokofiev's 7th Sonata(War Sonata) Finale




And CPE Bach's Sonata in C, Wq 55:1




Or the more famous Solfegietto

Also, the Finale to WF Bach's E flat sonata has a quality of perpetual motion(see the finale in this video)


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## kv466 (May 18, 2011)

Does this count?


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## clavichorder (May 2, 2011)

^^^I was thinking of that one, and I'm not sure, but I don't see why not. So, yes!


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## Manxfeeder (Oct 19, 2010)

The last movement of Bartok's Concerto for Orchestra. I'm glad it's not me playing.


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## clavichorder (May 2, 2011)

Manxfeeder said:


> The last movement of Bartok's Concerto for Orchestra. I'm glad it's not me playing.


I was also wondering about that one. Good orchestral example.

I wonder if the finale to Beethoven's 7th kind of qualifies? Or the finale to Shostakovich's 6th(excepting the interruption in the middle).


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## Manxfeeder (Oct 19, 2010)

I like Poulenc's mouvements perpetual, not fast but they are perpetual.


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## Rasa (Apr 23, 2009)

Ligeti's the devil's staircase comes to mind.


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## Polednice (Sep 13, 2009)

My absolute favourite of this kind (plus probably a hundred other tarantellas):


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## norman bates (Aug 18, 2010)

the second Villalobos study for guitar






and James Tenney's For Ann (ok, i know this one is not exactly what you are looking for, but in a certain way...)


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## Dodecaplex (Oct 14, 2011)

The first thing that came to my mind was the last movement from Chopin's 2nd sonata.


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## Manxfeeder (Oct 19, 2010)

Bach's Brandenburg Concerto No. 3, Movement 3 strikes me that way, except for a few spaces for the musicians to catch their breath.


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## clavichorder (May 2, 2011)

I guess the Appasionata Finale has something to it as well. Also, though Beethoven's 7th is unrelenting, I'm not sure it qualifies, so perhaps I take it back. I'm thinking of uniterrupted 16th notes in the melodic line or something to the effect.


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## Nix (Feb 20, 2010)

Actual perpetual motion movements that are titled as such include the finale to Barber's Violin Concerto and a movement of Britten's Variations on a theme of Frank Bridge.


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## Ravellian (Aug 17, 2009)

Adams's _Short Ride in a Fast Machine_:






Absolutely the 2nd movement of Beethoven's Op. 54:






Chopin Op. 10/4:


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## Sid James (Feb 7, 2009)

The one that immeidately came to mind was taken by Nix, Barber's VC finale. Another one is THIS, J. Strauss Jnr's piece called _Perpetuum Mobile_. Rimsky the Korsakov's Flight of the Bumblebee can also be classed as this kind of thing...


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## Krummhorn (Feb 18, 2007)

Wilhelm Middleschulte - Perpetuum Mobile performed by Virgil Fox


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## tdc (Jan 17, 2011)

Played a little on the fast side for my tastes - Leo Brouwer's Simple study No. 6


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## Polednice (Sep 13, 2009)

ARGH! I only just realised that I posted the wrong Schubert link earlier. Bear with me...

EDIT: Now _this_ is what I was on about. The tension and release of this is just gut-wrenching in the most splendid way!


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## Aramis (Mar 1, 2009)

Polednice said:


> Bear with me...


Badger with us both...


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## jdavid (Oct 4, 2011)

I have watched this artist play the entire sonata several times prior to becoming a member - the third movement, particularly, is breathtaking. Excellent choice for this topic!


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## clavichorder (May 2, 2011)

Daquin's Le Coucou has an element of this


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## maxshrek (Sep 14, 2011)

Prokovief, last movement from 7th Sonata.


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