# Piano composers who dealt(most personally/orginally) in character(program) pieces?



## clavichorder (May 2, 2011)

This thread could be construed and an appreciation thread for the category stated in the title.

I have recently become obsessed with the short story in literature. I realized that this fascination seems to translate into my music interest as well. Despite my fascination with the earlier absolute forms and respect for the later composers who strove to adhere to said forms, I think the pieces that hit me the most, are those that tell a story. Sometimes these pieces aren't necessarily inspired by a work of literature or conceived with concrete imaginative associations, and thus don't get credit for their inherent story-like quality due to their generic label. Such pieces can be found in all eras. They seem to occur most frequently in composers who make conscious efforts in other pieces as well to have programmatic elements. Anyway, this bit of rhetoric is losing focus...I guess I'm most interested in pieces by composers who really had a knack and specialty for crafting program/character pieces for the piano. Who are the big names of these composers? The big ones that come to mind are Schumann, Liszt, Alkan, Debussy, Ravel, Medtner. Liszt was extremely versatile and often dealt in absolute music but certainly always has a story telling element. Schumann really is evocative to me, his imagination shapes his pieces in unique ways. Alkan sometimes was a bit of a troll, but really the man had an imagination, rough edged though he could be in his expression. Debussy and especially Ravel often reach a higher level of imaginative refinement it seems, especially since they possibly free themselves from the distractions of common practice harmony. And a favorite of mine, Medtner cannot be neglected a mention due to his knack for original short forms in his skazki and like pieces, though he took on a straighter edge when he became fixated on the sonata form. Additionally, there are many high quality compositions from more minor Russian, French and even German romantic. Chabrier, Lyapunov, and Raff to name a few. Also, the lighter yet refined efforts of Mendelssohn in the Songs Without Words should be considered. Scriabin is perhaps with them as well, and certainly not minor, though I neglected to think of him right away because he seems to also have a very solid basis in abstract romantic colorful-ness.


Anyway, I thought I'd throw out my thoughts on this attempt at a category. I must admit that its sort of a way of finding a way to justify why I like what I like and find meaning maybe where there isn't any. What do you think?

I'd ultimately like to have my own compositional style have its strongest tendencies in this vein. But my ideas are perhaps not as concrete about what it is as I would like. Perhaps that's not possible and I'm groping for an imaginary category, the way I attempt to configure it anyway...


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