# Pieces with fast constant left hand notes, and slow chordal right hand melody



## clavichorder (May 2, 2011)

I promise no more threads like this for a while from me, but another cool category: piano pieces with a lightning fast pattern in the left hand, and a very stunning right hand melody(as it works with the rapidly moving left hand harmonies). I'll start with my favorite: starting at 0:35, Medtner's fairy tale op. 34 no. 2 begins


----------



## clavichorder (May 2, 2011)

And no, this is not another Medtner advertising thread(actually, there is Medtner piece in this category that I prefer, but it doesn't illustrate this categorical point quite as cleanly as the one above). I was going to wait for someone else to mention it, but the most famous example I can think of is by Chopin: the Revolutionary Etude.


----------



## Tapkaara (Apr 18, 2006)

Sibelius's piano music has a lot of left hand activity, though it is not necessarily fast. He really had a penchant for those lower, darker sounds.


----------



## Aramis (Mar 1, 2009)

clavichorder said:


> I was going to wait for someone else to mention it, but the most famous example I can think of is by Chopin: the Revolutionary Etude.


Many others of his etudes are written this way.


----------



## clavichorder (May 2, 2011)

Aramis said:


> Many others of his etudes are written this way.


What are the others that you really like? As long as they aren't too mechanical and the left hand swarms are actually musical and harmonically riveting. The revolutionary etude is completely stunning, I don't know the Chopin etudes very well, are there any others quite like it?


----------



## clavichorder (May 2, 2011)

Here's another really famous one:


----------



## clavichorder (May 2, 2011)

Rachmaninoff's B flat Major prelude is not composed this way all the way through, but the main portion of the piece is this way.


----------



## clavichorder (May 2, 2011)

I think the amount of work for the left hand in Scriabin's op. 8 no. 12 etude makes it qualify.


----------



## clavichorder (May 2, 2011)

And Sonata Tragica has elements of this


----------

