rachmaninoff b minor prelude. help counting the sextuplets and the pentuplet

[youjean88]

near the end of the bminor prelude opus 32 (forgot number) are a few measures requiring you to count sextuplets and there is a pentuplet (?) at the very beginning of this run. how are you supposed to count this going against 8th or 16th notes?

thank you

[nanabush]

I took a look at it and this is what I kind of gathered:

There are three separate lines of music right here: the upper chords, the double dotted/32nd notes in the middle, and the sextuplets in the bottom line.

The top line has a Bm triad, then two more Bm chords; the eight + the quarter + the quarter value for the chords leave an eight value at the end of this line.  It would appear that the 5 notes in the upper line have to go against 3 of the sixteenths in the bottom line, which would satisfy the eigth value.

I wouldn't count out the fractions exactly when you play it; that would be quite impossible at the speed this short passage is at.  You should be able to play the 3 sixteenths in the eighth value no problem; just get a feel for playing 5 notes in one beat, then try putting them together.  Luckily this only comes up once in the piece, so it's only one small section with some off timing.