# Program music for piano



## Aramis

Soup. This is thread in which you can help me. Don't waste this opportunity. You will regret it till your death and even more. On your deathbed you will cry upon this waste. 

So.

I'm looking and snuffing for recommendations of program music written originally for piano. Prefered form would be shorter (less than 10 minutes) pieces like preludes or ballades and prefered style would be late romantic and impressionist. Early romanticism would be kewl as well. Or contemporary stuff.


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## Edward Elgar

"Pictures at an Exhibition" springs to mind, but that's a bit too long.

How about Schumann's "Scenes from childhood"?

Debussy's "Preludes" have strong extra-musical narratives, although they don't really tell a story.


There should be more program music written for piano.


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## Aramis

Pictures at an Exhibition? I thought that it's obvious I know them =Z

I also know Schumann and Debussy but didn't know that these Preludes have some non-musical background. So thanks. I'll try to dig this.


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## Dim7

I suppose you have already heard the more famous Ravel/Debussy piano pieces? My favorites are Jeux d’eau and Miroirs by Ravel and L'isle Joyeuse, Preludes and Estampes by Debussy. Someting you probably haven't heard: Out of Doors, one of the rare programmatic pieces by Bartók.


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## emiellucifuge

How about a large bulk of Lisztz Piano music,

Totentanz(with orchestra), the Mephisto Waltzes (arranged), the Bagatelle Sans Tonalité, Les Anees des Perilange, and the Dante Sonata.


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## TWhite

Definitely a lot of Liszt--the sets of "Years of Pilgrimage" are quite excellent. I'd certainly reccommend "Sposalizio" out of set 2: "Italy". Incredibly beautiful piece. 

An early Richard Strauss piano work: "Stimmungsbilder" is quite delightful--it's fairly similar to Schumann's "Forest Scenes" and very nicely laid out for the hands. It makes you wish that Strauss had written more for solo piano.

Many of the Rachmaninov "Etude-Tableaux" have extra-musical connotations, and his large-scale Sonata #1 in d minor is supposedly based on the "Faust" legend--in fact at one time he referred to the three movements as "Faust", "Gretchen" and "The Ride to Bremen".

The Liapunov "Transcendental Etudes", written in homage to Liszt, all have extra-musical connotations. One of them, entitled "Lezghinka" is right up there with Balakirev's "Islamey" as a premier example of Russo/Oriental pianistic showmanship. A terrifically exciting piece.

Tom


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## Air

Here are some excerpts from Hans von Bülow's "program" for Chopin's Preludes, Op. 28:



> No. 9 in E Major: Vision
> 
> Here Chopin has the conviction that he has lost his power of expression. With the determination to discover whether his brain can still originate ideas, he strikes he head with a hammer (here the sixteenths and thirty-seconds are to be carried out in exact time, indicating a double stroke of the hammer). In the third and fourth measures one can hear the blood trickle (trills in the left hand). He is desparate at finding no inspiration (fifth measure); he strikes again with the hammer and with greater force (thirty-second notes twice in succession during the crescendo). In the key of A flat he finds his powers again. Appeased, he seeks his former key and closes contentedly.





> No. 10 in C sharp minor: The Night Moth
> 
> A night moth is flying around the room - there! it has suddenly hidden itself (the sustained G sharp); only its wings twitch a little. In a moment it takes flight anew and again settles down in the darkness-its wings flutter (trill in the left hand). This happens several times, but at the last, just as the wings begin to quiver again, the busybody who lives in the room aims a stroke at the poor insect. It twitches once...and dies.


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## TWhite

Air said:


> Here are some excerpts from Hans von Bülow's "program" for Chopin's Preludes, Op. 28:


Good old Hans. Does he ever mention how or if Chopin cleans the blood off of the keyboard, LOL?

Tom


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## Aramis

As a Liszt fan I know all his mentioned works.

Richard Strauss piano pieces and Debussy preludes are what I didin't dig yet.

I've decided to pick up this:










Thanks.


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## Jeremy Marchant

Some of the pieces in Messiaen's _Catalogue d'oiseaux _are under ten minutes, and they're all highly programmatic and descriptive.


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## TWhite

Aramis said:


> As a Liszt fan I know all his mentioned works.
> 
> Richard Strauss piano pieces and Debussy preludes are what I didin't dig yet.
> 
> I've decided to pick up this:
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> Thanks.


Aramis:

Personally, I think you chose well. Zimerman's recording of the Preludes is outstanding, at least IMO.

Another work of 'program' music would be the Albeniz "Iberia" suite. Very descriptive and extremely complex (for the pianist) 'sketches' of Spain--mainly Andalusia. deLa Roccha's recording is pretty monumental.

Tom


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## altiste

*the dancer...*

Well, seeing that you mentioned contemporary and less than 10 minutes, I've got just the piece for you. It's called "the dancer leads the procession". There's a programme note on the webpage that tells a bit about what's behind it. Probably one of the better titles I've managed to come up with - always a difficult job, but in this case it really just invented itself as all I had to do was recall the scene and describe it.


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