help with cpllege work.

[shas]

Hey everyone.
I need to pick two peices to study of like form but writen 100 years apart. I would rally like to study some of Rachmaninov's piano work and compair it with some of Besthoven's. would piano preludes be good. did Beethoven write many preludes? if so what are some Op's numbers?
If not, what else would be a good comparison beetwean composers?
thanks?

[sharon_f]

Does it have to be piano literature?Two musical forms that span centuries are the sonata and the symphony. You could compare one of Beethoven's piano sonatas with the Berg sonata. Or you could compare a Beethoven symphony with Stravinsky's Symphony of Psalms.

[bernhard]

I am afraid Beethoven did not write preludes.

A very interesting comparison of preludes would be J. S. Bach, Chopin, Debussy, Shostakovitch (op. 87 rather than op. 34), and Rachmaninoff, since the composers themselves (Bach excepted of course) acknowledged links. It has of course been done before.

Sonata form again is a promising form, since you can trace its evolution through all periods of music.

Another interesting form is the dance suite (e.g. Baroque: Handel suites and Bach’s partitas – Romantic: Grieg’s Holberg Suite – Impressionist: Debussy’s Suite Bergamasque & Suite pour le Piano – Ravel’s Le Tombeau de Couperin -  Modern: Rakov’s Classical Suite)

Fantasias and Impromptus are again another interesting form (formless?) that can be found in all musical periods.

Best wishes,
Bernhard.

[xvimbi]

I am afraid Beethoven did not write preludes.

Woohoo!!!! That's a rare one!

Yes, Beethoven did write a couple of Preludes (e.g. WoO55). Very nice in fact, sounds like Bach!!!

[bernhard]

WoO= Works ompletely Obscure.

[worov]

Sorry to bump this thread, but like xvimbi, I could not resist to the temptation to disprove bernhard's words (Bernhard is almost always right, so one doesn't have the chance to do this often, so when he has, he doesn't miss this chance, hehe )

I am afraid Beethoven did not write preludes.

Beethoven did write Preludes, Opus 39. See :

https://imslp.org/wiki/2_Preludes_Through_All_12_Major_Keys_for_Piano%2C_Op.39_(Beethoven%2C_Ludwig_van)

I have never heard a recording of this. I don't if this exist at all.