Single Handed Piano Music

[guendola]

I had a small accident by nearly cutting off the tip of my right middle finger and so I am forced to reduce piano playing to the left hand for a little while.

Starting with the first prelude of Op. 9 by Scriabin, I am amazed to see how much playing a complete piece with only one hand makes things totally different, not only on the technical side. So I am looking for more music for one hand - also for the right hand. This is a field worth exploring!

[richard black]

There's lots for left hand only (most notably Godowsky, but also Blumenfeld, Wittgenstein, Ravel, Strauss, Stevenson, Alkan and others) but almost nothing for RH alone. I once managed to count up all of three pieces and offhand I can only remember one of them - Alkan's Op.76, which is three studies, one for LH, one for RH and one for both hands.

[guendola]

Alkan keeps appearing in the most interesting places

[richard black]

Alkan keeps appearing in the most interesting places

Funny, that! The bad news is that those Op76 pieces I mentioned are damn near unplayable. The good news is that many of Alkan's pieces are entirely playable by normal mortal.

[guendola]

The first piece of Alkans Op. 76 is Largamento, so I suppose that it is to be played extremely slowly. I will give it a try and see what will happen. These pieces are called "Trois Grandes Etudes" (three great studies) and they are certainly written for those who want to learn more

By the way, the second prelude of Scriabin's Opus no. 9 is for the left hand as well but it is a bit harder than the first one.