# Composing for piano



## Hazel (Oct 23, 2010)

I have kept this question to myself for years because I feared it would be total silly, show my utter ignorance. Then, yesterday, I was talking with someone who admitted to also having the same question but not wanting to ask. I might as well stick my face out and see what breaks.

So far as I know, in piano music the left hand (bass clef) is the accompaniment and the right hand the melody. The question: Has anyone ever composed a piece wherein the left hand (bass) is the melody and the right hand (upper notes) the accompaniment? I know there are pieces play with only the left had but what about reversing melody and accompaniment?

That may not be so foolish as it sounds. I once knew a group of young boys (about 12/13) who put together a guitar band. There were about five of them playing guitars while a couple sang in the background. When I commented that I could not hear what they were singing, one told me that the voices were the accompaniment for the guitars and I wasn't supposed to hear their words. An interesting experiment? 

Haven't there always been experiments in new ways to present music?


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## Couchie (Dec 9, 2010)

Yes, the practice of melody in the left hand is not uncommon, especially in preludes and etudes:









A good many other pieces will pass the melody from the right hand to the left hand in parts, or use both hands to develop the melody. Fugues have DIFFERENT melodies in both hands, at the same time!


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## Hazel (Oct 23, 2010)

Thank you I'd wondered but never truly known.


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