19th century pianists who produced work with 'modern'-sounding structures?

[serikesati]

Hi all,

This is my first post so go easy on me, haha.

Being young and primarily interested in Electronic music, my taste has only very recently started to include anything produced before 1990. I know this is pretty shocking, but I can't help it.

I love more recent solo piano works, and especially like Philip Glass (I expect to get judged for that here) and Yann Tiersen. What I like about their work is the repetitive structures of most pieces; I suppose this comes from my background in Electronic music, where repetitiveness is very common.

Whether a smart idea or not, I recently began to learn to play the piano in a very primitive way by using https://synthesiagame.com/, which requires that I find MIDI files of each track I'd like to learn to play. The problem is that MIDI files of most performances are illegal to download. This is thankfully not the case for user-generated MIDI files of works produced before about 1923.

Thus, my question is: do you know of any pieces of work produced before 1923 that have a slight air of Philip Glass and Yann Tiersen about them? A good example of something I found already is Erik Satie's 'Gnossienne No.1' (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PLFVGwGQcB0), which was composed in the late 19th century and contains the sort of repetitive structures I am talking about (I hope I am not offending anyone's intelligence here).

I would really appreciate any leads you could give me on this as I am very keen to learn to play some piano music I can get really passionate about .

Thanks very much in advance,

SE

[serikesati]

Bump.

[serikesati]

Is there really no one here that knows anything that could help me?

I'm dying here!

[ramseytheii]

I briefly considered replying but your request is so specific that I think it is not really possible to answer, I don't think you can find what you're looking for.  Before 1923, and definitely even after, pianists were going for variety and emotional effect, not static, hypnotic forms.  I thought at first, well Schubert might fit the bill, such as in op.142 no.1, but it just seemed too far removed from what you are looking for.  I suppose you can look at Liszt's later virtuosic works, like Czardas macabre or Mephisto Waltz no.4, but again they are so far removed from Philip Glass and Gnossiennes that I can't imagine they would be that helpful.

Walter Ramsey

[drkilroy]

Satie's Gymnopedies are also similar. In my opinion try some Ravel (especially Valses Nobles et Sentimentales and Le Tombeau de Couperin - you might like the Fugue) and Debussy (Preludes). They are not that repetitive, but rather bear some resemblance to more modern pieces.

Best regards, Dr

[serikesati]

Walter,

I really appreciate your reply! I will take a look into everything you mentioned when I get home today.

Dr,

Many thanks for your contribution! I will look at everything you suggest, too. What you say here:

They are not that repetitive, but rather bear some resemblance to more modern pieces.

Is actually what I am looking for, really. I should have explained that better in the original post.



To anyone reading this: Any suggestions, not matter how far removed, are very welcome! Please do contribute anything you might have thought of.

SE