Fast octave pieces

[notturno]

I'm looking for some pieces that will help develop octave speed.  I want to develop my speed with both LH and RH octaves, but they don't have to be in the same piece. I'd prefer short pieces, one or a few pages. My current skill level floats around 4-6, perhaps 7 if I have a good tailwind.

I had been trying to learn "The Hut of Baba Yaga" from "Pictures at an Exhibition" and one of the biggest stumbling blocks are the LH octaves, so I thought I'd work on some octave pieces and put Baba Yaga on the back burner.

Thanks.

Joseph

[dnephi]

Schubert-Liszt Der Erlkonig.  That'll blast you into next january :p. 

Liszt- Orage from annees de pelerinage

Chopin op. 25 no. 10 octave etude.

Liszt Mazeppa.

[ahinton]

Octave study from Alkan's 12 studies in major keys; you may end up wishing that you'd never seen an octave after that...

Best,

Alistair

[Kassaa]

There are a lot of pieces with octaves, like the Hungarian Rhapsody No. 6, it might be better to do excercises.

A very good one, that has helped me a lot is playing chords in octaves, like:

C1 - E1 - C1 - G1 - C1 -C2 and then back: C2-G1-C2-E1-C2-C1, but in octaves. Try to stay in the keys for the longest time possible, and make the moving to the other octave as fast as possible. This should be repeated in every chord, major minor, diminished etc.

Already after a few days of doing this excercise, my octaves where way faster.

[kreso]

Liszt- Funérailles, Hungarian Rapsodies no.4 and 6, octave part of La Campanella, Rigoletto (Verdi)

Chopin Etude op.25/10, Polonaise op.53 (especialy second part with octaves in the left hand)

[pooguy77]

If your up for the challange, you can try:

Rodrigo Piano Concerto (Heroica), the last movement is a powerful octave extravagenza.

[psaiko]

Try ballad of revolt ("kjempeviseslåtten") by Harald Sæverud. The piece is starting quite, constantly building up to a huge climax in the end. There are a lot of crazy octaves in both right and left hand. My octaves improved a lot after playing this, it is also a really nice piece with a lot of aggression. I would say the difficult level is grade 7/8 depending on how fast you play it.

The piece was originally written for the norwegian resistance army who fought the germans during ww2.

[nicco]

Try ballad of revolt ("kjempeviseslåtten") by Harald Sæverud. The piece is starting quite, constantly building up to a huge climax in the end. There are a lot of crazy octaves in both right and left hand. My octaves improved a lot after playing this, it is also a really nice piece with a lot of aggression. I would say the difficulty level is grade 7/8 depending on how fast you play it.

The piece was originally written for the norwegian resistance army who fought the germans during ww2.

Excellent suggestion

[thalbergmad]

The octave etude by Schulz Evler is a great workout.

He didn't just compose flashy waltz stuff you know.

Thal

[verywellmister]

Mendelssohn Rondo Capriccioso.  not has hard as the other pieces posted, but not easy.

Chopin's Nocturne in C minor Op.48 no.1 has fast octaves.  But it is HARD.

[jre58591]

alkan's le peux is one of the best octave pieces ive seen. very hard though.

[pianistimo]

pooguy77, that's a great idea - that rodrigo piano concerto.  very cool sounding.  but, that's more than two pages.  i'd do it anyway.  i mean - if you want technique, you could pick two different pages per day.

brahms paganini variation (whichever one has the octaves)