The Fastest Piece

[nanabush]

I did a search and didn't find much, but what is the fastest solo piece for piano?  I'm not talking a piece you can play fast, but a piece that is meant to be played fast.

[etudes]

not fastest but prestissimo from waldstein has written to be as fast as possible and still faster (H.Neuhaus said in his book)
sad that almost everyone play the first too fast and the last too slow

[steinwayguy]

Well the first movement of the Hammerklavier has a  metronome marking.

[mlsmithz]

Well, there's always 'Comme le vent', the first of Alkan's etudes in the minor keys; written in 2/16, with triplets on almost every beat, and intended to be played at 160 bars per minute for over 650 bars.  The only time I've ever heard it performed at such a speed was on a MIDI, and the notes blur into near indistinction. (Rumour has it that the metronome marking is Alkan's record of how quickly HE could play it.)

[JCarey]

Undoubtedly something written by Lubomyr Melnyk. The music he writes can only be played by him. He is currently the fastest pianist in the world, capable of playing up to 19 notes per second in each hand! Go to www.lubomyr.com for information about him.

[joell12068]

Alkan's "Le chemin de fer" is mostly right hand sixteenth notes played at a marked tempo of half note = 112 (which equals quarter note = 224). 

[nanabush]

Oh right le Chemin de Fer, I heard a recording of it somewhere, IT"S INSANE!!!  Comme le vent, hmm i'll have to look into that one...

[mlsmithz]

I think 'Comme le vent', if played at speed, just narrowly edges out 'Le chemin de fer' in terms of frequency of notes (I've never heard either played at speed outside MIDIs; for 'Comme le vent', Jack Gibbons comes closest but still takes 4'30" where a performance at speed takes 4'06"); where 'Le chemin de fer' is in mostly 16th notes at 224 beats per minute for 896 notes per minute, 'Comme le vent' has six triplet 32nd notes per bar for most of the piece at 160 bars per minute for 960 notes per minute, or 16 notes per second, sometimes in both hands at once!  You end up hearing the general shape of the melodic line rather than each note except when the triplet 32nds are the accompaniment to the secondary theme.

I wonder if Melnyk has recorded either piece?

[presto agitato]

Undoubtedly something written by Lubomyr Melnyk. The music he writes can only be played by him. He is currently the fastest pianist in the world, capable of playing up to 19 notes per second in each hand! Go to www.lubomyr.com for information about him.

Im listeting right now to some of his sound samples and i can tell that Art Tatum played much faster.

[Bouter Boogie]

There was this piece, I think it was composed by Liszt.. I forgot the name, but it's really really fast  Bugger I can't remember its name anymore 

[frederic]

Cziffra's transcription of ''the flight of the bumblebee"
boy can he cut wind...

[etudes]

Cziffra's transcription of ''the flight of the bumblebee"
boy can he cut wind...

played by Cziffra

[pianote]

ravel's toccata is pretty fast also

[pokeythepenguin]

Im listeting right now to some of his sound samples and i can tell that Art Tatum played much faster.

nooooo sorry.  Lubomyr Melnyk is the fastest pianist ever recorded.  He makes up for it with his really crappy music though ^^  One of the worst composers I've ever heard.....

Any piece can be the fastest piece as long as it says "presto posible" on it.  Which literally means "as fast as possible"  so this is kind of dumb.  Also anything with "trill" in it could be the fastest piece ever written depending on how fast you trill.  I think Finnissy's all.fall.down. is rediculously fast, as is Xenakis's Herma, which requires at some points more than 20 notes per second.  Alkan's Comme le Vent is not meant to be played as fast as that midi; look at the sheets =P 

Pianists such as Mei-Ting Sun (not trying to start a fight about MT here) will take pieces like the Chopin Etudes and random Liszt compositions, most famously Feux Follet, and play them rediculously fast, probably beyond the speed of any of the aformentioned pieces.  The Prokofiev Toccata has also been recorded at incredible speeds; as has the Schumann Toccata Op. 7.

But in actuality, the fastest piece outside of theoretical music probably was written by Lubomyr, and the fastest playable (if you want to call it that) piece is probably Xenakis's Herma.

[pokeythepenguin]

Here are two measures from Herma.  Don't forget to scroll to the right =)

[pita bread]

I'd really like to hear what that notorious piece sounds like.

[pokeythepenguin]

I have two recordings of this piece.

[musicsdarkangel]

Moskowski's etude in a major?


Listen to the Horowitz rendition...probably the fastest thing i've heard.


Other than that, I would say Mephisto waltz is up there.


Rachmaninoff prelude op 23 no 7

Beethoven sonata op 10 no 1 first and third movements are both ridiculously fast.

[2xtreme619]

wow, lol anyone got sheet muisic to that cziffra flight of the bumblebee, crazy :|

[stevie]

technically,the fastest acheivable speeds on the piano depend upon the type of technique used.

id say the fastest possibly single-note figuration would be one using this fingering-

LH 54321 RH12345 and repeating up the keyboard, and doing the opposite downwards

using this fingering it is possibly to surpass 30 notes per socond, im pretty sure

but are there many pieces that use this kind of figuration for extended periods?

[musicsdarkangel]

La Campanella is blazing.

[nanabush]

Try doing the 54321 in a piece constantly, while making it sound good... That'd be the most boring thing to listen to, some pieces are near that fast with different combos of notes..

[stevie]

Try doing the 54321 in a piece constantly, while making it sound good... That'd be the most boring thing to listen to, some pieces are near that fast with different combos of notes..

well the idea of chopin's 10/1 is very dull, same technique over and over, and yet it manages to be a musical masterpiece..

[chromatickler]

Undoubtedly something written by Lubomyr Melnyk. The music he writes can only be played by him. He is currently the fastest pianist in the world, capable of playing up to 19 notes per second in each hand! Go to www.lubomyr.com for information about him.

i have known about this individual (and his 'music') for a while now, and it's fair to say that his technical claims are a total and absolute JOKE. does he seriously believe that hamelin, libetta, berezovsky, rudenko, uematsu, langlang, meiting etc can't destroy that speed with continous swipes consisting of 5 fixed notes? in fact, rudenko already plays well above that speed with perfectly even SCALES, around 30nps in the nutcraker transcription. if he was allowed some audible bumps 40nps should be within reach, EASILY.

false advertising pisses me off

[Skeptopotamus]

The Tchaikovsky-Pletnev Concert Suite from the Ballet "Nutcracker"?


I play this piece and I am unaware of any part in it where playing 30 notes per second is required, or even that doing so wouldnt ruin.  Unless you're saying he trills 30nps in Chinese Tea, I am a bit sceptical of this claim.  Could you possibly share this recording?  I would be very interested in hearing it.

[nanabush]

well the idea of chopin's 10/1 is very dull, same technique over and over, and yet it manages to be a musical masterpiece..

I would love to see someone write a masterpiece of 54321 constantly...

[chromatickler]

The Tchaikovsky-Pletnev Concert Suite from the Ballet "Nutcracker"?


I play this piece and I am unaware of any part in it where playing 30 notes per second is required, or even that doing so wouldnt ruin.  Unless you're saying he trills 30nps in Chinese Tea, I am a bit sceptical of this claim.  Could you possibly share this recording?  I would be very interested in hearing it.

https://www.pianostreet.com/smf/index.php/topic,11260.msg118039.html#msg118039 

[Skeptopotamus]

dis is normal tempo fo dis piece.


I is not quite sure how u think dis is so amazin.

[i_m_robot]

i have known about this individual (and his 'music') for a while now, and it's fair to say that his technical claims are a total and absolute JOKE. does he seriously believe that hamelin, libetta, berezovsky, rudenko, uematsu, langlang, meiting etc can't destroy that speed with continous swipes consisting of 5 fixed notes? in fact, rudenko already plays well above that speed with perfectly even SCALES, around 30nps in the nutcraker transcription. if he was allowed some audible bumps 40nps should be within reach, EASILY.

false advertising pisses me off

think this refer to a single note rather than a group

could be wrong tho

[Skeptopotamus]

yez.  19.5 single notes per hand per second

[chromatickler]

dis is normal tempo fo dis piece.


I is not quite sure how u think dis is so amazin.

the overall tempo is similar to other recordings i've heard. but the individual scale passages (eg at 0'36) slightly exceeds speeds of 30nps. im also a bit puzzled as to why you believe such speeds would RUIN this piece and then simultaneously considering it normal tempo. perhaps you were only refering to the general tempo in this case?

[Skeptopotamus]

it's not even 30nps though =(


and when you said scales i was thinking March, which would be ruined.




but that's not 30nps as far as I can tell.

[chromatickler]

the 2 ascending scale figurations one with 27 notes and one with 32 (each repeating once). the 27 is done in a fraction less than one second (after the 0'35/0'36 change and before 0'36/0'37)  and the 32 in just or a fraction more. 30nps would be the right estimate here.

of course it's also clear that he can play faster than this if he wanted. and even faster still if he was to do it LUBO stylee in one fixed position using all 5 fingers instead of scales. in fact, it's a bit childish of me to take the argument THIS far when in actual fact ANY halfassed conservatory pianst can play faster than the LUBO using 'his technique'.

[sevencircles]

What is the fastest prestissimo movement in Waldstein recorded?

Fastest tastefull and clean I should say

[musicsdarkangel]

played by Cziffra

or Volodos.

[musicsdarkangel]

OK,

screw that composer......seriously.


How many notes per second do you think Cziffra did in his scales in the Heroic Polonaise?


At least more than 19.

BTW, although it sucks, there's something in his very bottom sound clip that I like.

My god, is it repetitive.

[prokomozart man]

I'll have to check out Cziffra. Feux Follet and some of Chopin's Etudes takes my for the fastet pieces.

[mephisto]

i am not sure if I understand the question. The fastes piece I know of is a piece I have composed my self wich last about 0.0000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000004 seconds. I am not sure if there are any other pieces that are that fast.

Fastest sections in a piece has to be the grace notes in my sonata no 43 opus 49 no3 14th movement(Prestisimamento possiblle humaniticion lugubre transcendentalus furiosos con fuco possible) Played at the corrct tempo you play basicly 1234567890 notes per second.

This is way faster than your choices. Your ignorance suprises me.

-da Meph

[viking]

i am not sure if I understand the question. The fastes piece I know of is a piece I have composed my self wich last about 0.0000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000004 seconds. I am not sure if there are any other pieces that are that fast.

Fastest sections in a piece has to be the grace notes in my sonata no 43 opus 49 no3 14th movement(Prestisimamento possiblle humaniticion lugubre transcendentalus furiosos con fuco possible) Played at the corrct tempo you play basicly 1234567890 notes per second.

This is way faster than your choices. Your ignorance suprises me.

-da Meph

You're cool.  I wish I was as cool as you. 

[pita bread]

Don't mind mephisto, he has a history of making a fool of himself.

[da jake]

Alkan - Comme le Vent opus 39, #1.

8th note = 160.

End of debate.

[llamaman]

There was this piece, I think it was composed by Liszt.. I forgot the name, but it's really really fast  I can't remember its name anymore 

Are you thinking of La Campanella?

What about the minute waltz. Quarter note has to be at 350 to play it in a minute.

[stevie]

liberace plays that iin 37 seconds, apparently.

[brewtality]

liberace plays that iin 37 seconds, apparently.

Bugs Bunny does it in 30 seconds

[thierry13]

Bugs Bunny does it in 30 seconds

He's not a human 

[pita bread]

Are you saying animals can't play music?

[thierry13]

... It was simply a joke, and I know there are SOME RARE animals who can play music... they're quite funny to watch ^^

[Bouter Boogie]

Liszt's Grand Chalop Chromatique

[Souza]

E. MacDowell - Witches' Dance (Hexentanz) -  op 17 n 2

Presto - 3/8 - metronome = 126 per measure.

Finale - Prestissimo  - metronome = 152 per measure.


{}s Pedro