Signature Piece

[Skeptopotamus]

Does anyone here have a signature piece that they play especially well or perform at every competition?  Like as Horowitz had Etincelles and the Rachmaninov Concerto 3, what piece do you have that you really pride yourself on?

[pianobabe56]

Well, I don't know. I'm pretty good at Chopsticks. 

[Inscape]

Definately the Db major scale for me.

[Motrax]

In general, I would say that a signature piece should be something you play better than everyone else... thus, I think for most people here it would be something obscure. It's' saddening to name a Chopin nocturne as your "signature" when there are a dozen recordings which are all better than your performance.

The other option is to play something nobody else plays, and thus you play it the best even if you don't play it well at all. 

My signature will be a piece that I'm currently transcribing to piano. I don't believe it has been transcribed nicely by anybody else, so it's unique, sortof.

[jazzyprof]

My signature piece is one of my own compositions called "Spirit Dreams"...and that's because nobody else in the world plays it.

[m1469]

I don't think that other people playing the piece really has anything to do with whether one could consider it a "signature piece" or not, in and of itself.

There are 2 pieces for me that fall under this sort of category which should be played together.

I don't know exactly what label I would give them as far as "signature piece" words go.  But for me, they became so close to me that I literally would not know what came first, me or the music.  I would forget where I started and the music began.  I would walk around in them and them in me.   They were no longer anything that somebody else anywhere in the world could play.  It became impossible because what they became to me could not be found anywhere else in the world but in my soul. 

It is shy talking of it actually, but I felt like responding with this, so I am.

m1469

[jazzyprof]

There are 2 pieces for me that fall under this sort of category which should be played together.

Care to share what those two pieces are?

[nanoc]

The other option is to play something nobody else plays, and thus you play it the best even if you don't play it well at all. 

Just like Hamelin!!!!

Well, I used to play Piazzola's suite "Las Estaciones Porteñas" and nobody ekse I know plays them as well as me (nobody else I know plays them at all). I even made an arrangement in the Otoño Porteño, since it is written for piano and bandoneon, and I don't know any bandoneonista.....

 

[chopin_girl]

Well, that would be Chopin's Nocturne no.20 c sharp minor, op.posth.

Aah, yes. Twinkle twinkle little star (and by this I mean Mozart's variations on the theme )

[m1469]

Care to share what those two pieces are?

***(Mozart:  Fantasia and Sonata in C Minor K 475 and K457) ***

[Rach3]

My signature piece is the Schumann Humoreske, op. 20 - I am one of about three people in the world who know what it is ( ). That is, it will be my signature piece as soon as people learn who I am...

[Bacfokievrahms]

My signature piece is the earl king, there are probably people that play it better than I do but I sing it and play it at the same time, it's pretty ridiculous actually.

[chopin_girl]

ah, yes.About the pieces nobody else plays...
There's a sonata by a bosnian composer from the 20th century (he's a professor in our school) and noone I know plays it...Noone in my country, or the world to be exact. Well, except my mom. But she was the first person to play it. I'm the second. Yay

[ahmedito]

Chopin Fantasie-Polonaise
Grieg Lyric pieces op. 68

[jlh]

Prokofiev Toccata Op. 11

I love that piece!  Especially since I won some money last year at a competition by playing it...  The piece is not for everyone, as it has a nagging tendency to be plain frustrating to learn.

[chopinguy]

Well, that would be Chopin's Nocturne no.20 c sharp minor, op.posth.

Aah, yes. Twinkle twinkle little star (and by this I mean Mozart's variations on the theme )

Haha I sorta can say the same about the Chopin Nocturne 20a in c sharp minor.  The performance I made actually was the best one I've ever had for a piece like that.  The first time I heard it something about it pulled me into it, and I can say that it has been one of my defining pieces last year.  I've heard other recordings of it, none too many that I like as much, but that's probably because I'm too attached to my own interpretation =P

Well, I'm learning the Chopin Polonaise-Fantasie and hopefully I might make it into a signature piece, somehow.

[chromatickler]

A signature piece is one which u can play fastah den everyone else, innit?

 

[chopinguy]

I don't really see how that's true for any piece.  it's one where you can play better than anyone else, and faster is not necessarily better...

[etudes]

for now maybe 2nd Ballade from Chopin

[Glissando]

Chopin: Polonaise in G Minor
Not heard very often. I learned this a couple years ago and have never forgotten it. It's a great easier impressive piece. iLike.
And I love the Mozart Twinkle Twinkle Little Star variations, my favorite I think is variation no. 3- very pretty.

[offenbach]

Gottschalk's "The Union"....not often played. When it is, I'm sure many play it
better than I, but doubt anyone shares my passion for this piece!

O

[dj]

do signature pieces serve any particular purpose if ur not spectacularly famous?? lol i mean what good is a piece that everyone knows you for if nobody knows you to begin with?

[dinosaurtales]

do signature pieces serve any particular purpose if ur not spectacularly famous?? lol i mean what good is a piece that everyone knows you for if nobody knows you to begin with?

Oh NO!  Don't bring reality into this - that's no fun!

[chopinguy]

well, a signature piece could be something that you could show to anyone, a piece that defines you!   

[Asho]

My signature peice used to be Rach's Prelude in c#minor op 3 no2 before i ruined it in a performance, and have never touched it again since then.  I had learnt it really well, but it was still on the edge of my technical knowledge.  Now however... is a different matter.

But at the moment my signature piece is Le Ocean, its easy and fun to play (which is good when your asked to played 1 hour before a school assembly)  A friend at college told me of it.  But I'll replace it with the prelude in time.

[jason2711]

i'd say my main signature piece would be poulenc's second novellette in b flat minor, its won me two of the last three competitions i played it in (ok not big ones... but still)

however, as a piece that i play better than everyone else, only one exists.  My own ballade in g minor, alone.  It isn't even written down on a score, and since it changes every time i play it, depending how i feel, no one else can quite do it haha

[Ludwig Van Rachabji]

Opus Clavicembalisticum 


No, seriously, my signature piece would be my own compositions - Sonata in E Minor. It is not published (yet) so I do indeed play it better than anybody else in the world. And I don't even play it. I use Garritan Personal Orchestra, which is quite a remarkable program. I actually got everyone on the GamingForce forums to think it was I playing it, and they actually made comments regarding my 'performance', saying that my playing was uneven!

Anyway, most people who I have played this piece for find the 2nd movement the most memorable. Soon, I shall reveal my website to everyone (and my real name, which, believe it or not, is not Ludwig Van Rachabji!) so that they can hear most of my compositions.

[steinwayguy]

Hammerklavier
Mephisto Waltz
Chopin 4th Ballade
 

[Sketchee]

Chopin-Liszt, "The Maiden's Wish" (Zyczenie) I guess.

[lostinidlewonder]

Holsts The Planets. Although it was first written for piano duet I love them so much i studied the duet score and altered it here and there. I havent actually found piano solo redution for it, none which keeps the complete sound of the peice together. There is always a big response from Mars Bringer of War, Neptune The Mystic and Uranus The Magician. They are just such perfect music for piano i reckon, im suprised people dont play it more.

[klavierkonzerte]

a transcription me and my teacher made of two russian folk pieces called dark eyes and 2 guitars
i combined them togther and wrote an introduction and added some other parts to it and my teacher made it alittil harder.
i played it a month ago along with the fantasie impromptue, every one loved it
some liked it more then the impromptue.

[DarkWind]

Eventually, it might be my own Toccata, Ravel's Toccata, and Ravel's La Valse. Now, to learn them...

[lostinidlewonder]

Urrg, the speed in that Ravel's Tocatta is insane. That piece made me a little depressed with my chord to single note control. noooooo lol

[steinwaymodeld]

Chopin etude Op.10 No.1 and La Campanella now.

[lenny]

i plan for it to be various pieces from alkan's op39

also some chopin etudes i would like to be known for

[anda]

In general, I would say that a signature piece should be something you play better than everyone else...

define better.

[lenny]

john rusnak's signature pieces are the chopin etudes....

[rachmaninoff_969]

Beethoven's "Rage over a Lost Penny" and Brahms F# minor sonata (no. 2)  No one plays this one...every one plays 1 or 3...grrr!!!!

[steinwaymodeld]

Beethoven's "Rage over a Lost Penny" and Brahms F# minor sonata (no. 2)  No one plays this one...every one plays 1 or 3...grrr!!!!

Rage over lost penny is so funnnn~~~~~

Do u know the story behind it? Or is there any?

[lenny]

beethoven dropped a penny, lost it

and tried to look for it for a while

then finally went home, unleashed his fury, and this piece was born