Elegie melancolique

[ronde_des_sylphes]

A very (for the most part) dark, often highly chromatic improvisation. Unlike most of the improvisations I've posted here of late, this one is totally free and there have been no conscious nods to considerations of musical architecture.

It inhabits the same territory, perhaps, as Liszt's Harmonies poetiques et religieuses and sometimes later Liszt. A hesitant, questioning opening leads into a dolorous, quasi-operatic section, growing ever more impassioned with intensely chromatic harmonies. A passing torpor gives way into a brief storm which slowly resolves into an almost ecstatic middle section (I find this part reminiscent of Liszt's Cantique d'amour, which used to be in my repertoire). The major key section ends with the dominant Bb being repeated until it falls a semitone to the median of the new key as the music returns to a sense of deep despondency. A funeral march follows, before the piece ends with an ethereal passage in the treble leading to a Bb major resolution (not sure, but I might have been subconsciously a bit influenced here by the end of the Liszt Sonata).

[pianistavt]

I listened to 8 minutes of it - it's not my preferred kind of music (Liszt / ultra romantic) but I appreciate your talent and creativity (I also improvise).  Very evocative with a rich sound.  Keep up the good work!

[ronde_des_sylphes]

Glad you enjoyed it and find it evocative. That's the one thing I really want to generate with improvisations like this. It's probably not the easiest thing to listen to as it is quite dark but I've definitely moved sideways into that mood of improvisation over the last few years. Good to hear that another person on the forum improvises as it seems to be quite a rare form of musical creation amongst classical pianists.

[furtwaengler]

Very operatic, which is no surprise! And Lisztian (with a nod to Beethoven op. 26 I think).

[ronde_des_sylphes]

Thanks, definitely a hint of Beethoven op.26 around the 9 min mark.

I wrote this out because I'd like to reuse it as a formal composition, so here it is in sheet music form (with a small number of cosmetic revisions):