Piano Forum

Piano Street Magazine:
Watch the Chopin Competition 2025 with us!

Great news for anyone who loves Chopin’s music! Piano Street’s Chopin Competition tool now includes all 1,848 recorded performances from the Preliminary Round to Stage 3. Dive in and listen now! Read more

Topic: Le Totentanz De Cauchemar (Piano Concerto in C-Sharp Minor)  (Read 1291 times)

Offline kakeithewolf

  • PS Silver Member
  • Sr. Member
  • ***
  • Posts: 556
Recently, I finished up a short concerto for piano, Le Totentanz De Cauchemar. The concerto is a three movement concerto based on a poem I wrote, "Le Grand Jeu Du Cauchemar". However, I'm on the fence about the final movement, and do not know whether or not I should omit it.

Any feedback is quite welcome.
Per novitatem, artium est renascatur.

Finished with making music for quite a long time.

Offline kakeithewolf

  • PS Silver Member
  • Sr. Member
  • ***
  • Posts: 556
Re: Le Totentanz De Cauchemar (Piano Concerto in C-Sharp Minor)
Reply #1 on: October 15, 2013, 05:01:35 PM
Also, I forgot originally to give a little more detail on this.

The first movement is based on the description of Cauchemar and his witness of the village below. It's a small prelude that is based in a 8th that is either on the two lowest D-sharps of the piano or the two immediately above those (or both), and a shift between D#, E, and D#. It starts with a few notes on bells, and then goes into a minute or so of solo piano before using the full (small) orchestra.

The second movement is a paraphrase on the Dies Iræ. The beginning stanza is repeated twice in the beginning, once with solo piano and once with all instruments, then there is a fugue in which the rest of the Dies Iræ is played on piano, in a bass, alto (two at the end), and soprano section, whilst the third stanza of the Dies Iræ is played on organ as a slow bass line. After, the fugue is repeated with all instruments, whilst the fourth stanza is played on organ as another bass line.

The final movement is a combination of the two, with the parts of the first stanza of the Dies Iræ paraphrase replacing the D#, E, D# shift in the first movement.

I did not describe this well, due to being distracted and tired.
Per novitatem, artium est renascatur.

Finished with making music for quite a long time.
 

Logo light pianostreet.com - the website for classical pianists, piano teachers, students and piano music enthusiasts.

Subscribe for unlimited access

Sign up

Follow us

Piano Street Digicert