Totentanz

[thepianist42]

Hi everyone.  I need help thinking of 6 minutes of music of contrasting period to pair with Liszt's Totentanz.  I was thinking about including Jeux d'eau by Ravel, but I want to hear the other opinions.  Thanks.

[j_menz]

Possibly a little longer than you require, but how about Rzewski's Winsboro Cotton Mill Blues.  Quite a contrast in period/style but a kind of link between a dancing devil and Blake's "dark satanic mills".

[louispodesta]

I am assuming that you have had at least one composition course during your matriculation at the piano.   Some would say that is not a safe asssumption.

Nevertheless, if so, improvise a piece of your own using the same Dies Irae theme.

Absent that, a suggestion is to surprise them with a total contrast in tempo and dynamic and play the 'Schubert-Liszt Serenada."  By the end of the piece, you will actually hear some in the audience humming along.

What a whole lot of people do not realize is that the audience, at the conclusion of a performance, has the "sound" of that particular composer's harmonic structure in their ears.

That means that to switch to another period/composer would pull their minds out of the warm and loving place.  Go with the flow!

[thesixthsensemusic]

How about Chopin's op. 9 no. 1? Or in fact any really easy-going Chopin-piece of about that length? Or even more related to Liszt: Un Sospiro? Might be a hellishly difficult virtuoso piece but it is extremely tranquil too so perfect for your occasion...

[thepianist42]

All good suggestions, but unfortunately the piece has to be of a different period than that of the totentanz.

[rachmaninoff_forever]

All good suggestions, but unfortunately the piece has to be of a different period than that of the totentanz.

It hard to find something that's 6 minutes long actually, I'm surprised.   Uuuh...

Oooh there we go!

[g_s_223]

A well-played selection of some of the more sensuous of the Debussy Préludes would both serve as a warm-up and also demonstrate you are not just yet another piano-thumper.

[louispodesta]

"L'Isle joyeuse" - but in that everybody plays it (plays at it, more accurately) you had better have it down pat or you will lose the audience that you got playing the Liszt.