I played this for my conservatoire auditions, and it was at the time the piece I knew the best and had performed the most. Lovely to hear it again after randomly being recommended on the front page!
@@TimondeNood the notes themselves are mostly fairly straightforward if not for a few fiddly bits. what i found most challenging was having good clarity (especially at the A section in the Presto) and keeping within the Mendelssohnian boundaries, if that makes sense!
No worries, you probably have a very busy schedule I can image. I have some pieces that you will defo master with ease. Some others might perhaps be quite hard, but you can check them for yourselve if you're up to it ;) if you want I can send them to your email? If you want to contact me first: timondenood@gmail.com
It’s nice doing an analysis of Prokofiev with a miniature, and one where he’s employing tertiary harmonies. I think it’s a wonderful piece, particularly the b section. It’s also constructive to think of the piano as a harp - which it kind of is - or as a hammer dulcimer. The point being to remind ourselves that the piano can be a delicate expressive instrument just as well as it can be used to bang out giant fortissimo chords.
it could be, but it’s also the shape of the scherzo motiv. so i guess that’s more likely since i do not necessarily see the connection to death or the apocalypse in this piece.
@@TimondeNood yes exactly, the notes and rhythm aren't identical, but overall the gesture, albeit different in character, looks and sounds pretty similar to me
Oh man, that's such an awesome moment! These sections couldn't be more contrasting, that's why it's such a clever transition especially with the tension created on the B dominant pedal!
I love the lyricism of Mendelssohn and the way he is so good at subtly and beautifully shifting the feel of a simple phrase in the melody by moving the harmony in the inner voices. I would love to one day see your analysis of Opus 30 No. 1, that piece is very special to me
Hi Henry, indeed he's really a melodic & harmonic wizard! I know that one from opus 30, very lyrical as well! I might do an analysis of it some day if I can find a good copyright free recording. I really like & can recommend the following pieces from him: op. 14 (this one) op. 16 (three piano fantasies), first piano concerto in G (opus 25), Lieder ohne worte opus 62 no 6 (spring song, melodic analysis on my channel), Lieder ohne worte op. 67 no 2 (old analysis on my channel), and of course the famous violin concerto. A real masterpiece from him is the op posth. 80 the F minor string quartet written 2 months before he died, his last major work. This piece is an hommage to his dear sister Fanny who died in the same year. I could go on for days praising this most darkly work from him, but it's of course better to emerge yourself listening to a good recording of it. It's really something else, something very special, you just cannot forget it once you've heard it.
Originally the Opus 14 "Rondo Capriccioso" was called an “Etude” in the first version of 1828. Two years later Mendelssohn wanted to present the work to the young piano virtuoso Delphine von Schauroth, whom he was courting at the time. He reworked it under the new title “Rondo capriccioso”, making it even more brilliant and adding a “moving introductory adagio” (thus described in a letter to Fanny). The "moving introductory adagio/andante" is incredibly beautifully written with wonderful melodies, developments and harmony. In this video, I have highlighted some of Mendelssohn's ornamental tones as well as the interesting harmonic progressions. We can find suspensions of all kinds (sus 4 example in bar 3). A passing secondary dominant chord between two tonics at 0:30 (read the F double sharp as G natural). The F double sharp is written that way because it leads to G-sharp. The A-sharp resolves to B. At 0:40 we have a classic cadential dominant chord in second inversion. E and G-sharp move to D-sharp and F-sharp over the functional bass note B. In the right hand however Mendelssohn adds a ninth (C-sharp) which is reached via the chromatic passing tone B-sharp! At 0:54 we find another 4th suspension (this time in a high register) resolving to the third, while the upper bass notes in the left hand (B-sharp and D-sharp) resolve chromatically to C-sharp and E. The cadential chord at 1:00 is full of ornaments, you can see that the logic is in the left hand there again. 1:08 consists of multiple sequential appogiaturas leading to a second inversion tonic, which does not resolve to the dominant! Also notice the interesting chromatic passing tone A-flat at 1:18 (connecting A and G natural). At 1:22 we have a 2-3 resolution: the D-sharp is taken over from the previous bar and resolves nicely to third E of C major, the new tonic. There are many more, but here were just a few examples of Mendelssoh's exquisite melodic inventiveness. Interested in more? subscribe to my patreon channel! Coming soon to exclusive content for patreons only! www.patreon.com/user?u=3320377
@@TimondeNood difference is names Three part from and contrcentric from (sorry, I don't know how it will be in english. I used to be in russian musical education.)
I want so badly to sound and write like this one day. Thank you so much for uploading this analysis! I feel a little bit closer to being like my music hero.
Prokofiev is an evil composer, in a good way. For example, his suggestion diabolique. But this is one example where his pure, good, melodic skills come into play, and I like that too. Prokofiev is one of the most beautiful melodists in the history of music
This year marks the 150th anniversary of Mussorgsky’s Pictures at an exhibition! To celebrate I made this brief harmonic summary of the Scherzo movement “Ballet of the unhatched chicks”. Much can be said about the influence of Mily Balakirev on the young Modeste Mussorgsky, one good consequence of this influence is perhaps Balakirev's exhortation to write many scherzos. I’m not sure if this actually contributed to Mussorgsky's fantastic scherzos, nevertheless the two scherzos from Pictures at an exhibition are fantastic little masterpieces. This scherzo, written in A-B-A form has a characteristic main theme consisting of rapid chord changes with the addition of grace notes. The second chord of this theme I have labelled as “Ger,” in conventional harmony this chord often appears under the form of a German augmented sixth chord: Ger 6+. Here we see that Mussorgsky deploys this “double-dominant” slightly differently. For D-flat is not in the lowest voice, we see there that F is held as a kind of pedal. It is interesting to note that the F major chord is chromatically reversed. C shifts to B, A to A-flat, the low C shifts to D-flat, and F remains. The main theme alternates with a typical chromatic adventure of Mussorgsky, note that the chords form on the weak beats, these are always preceded by an appoggiatura. B to C, D to E-flat and so on. The line starts and ends with the dominant C. The graces notes are present here as well. The main theme repeats itself, almost exactly the same. Then we get an extension of the chromatic adventure. We can consider that passage in D-flat major, but eventually Mussorgsky does move back to the dominant C, of which D-flat forms the minor ninth. Note that in the second part of this chromatic adventure the chords come on the strong beats in a descending line. The TRIO can be considered one large pedal over F, which also incorporates elements of F minor. The G-sharp can in many cases enharmonically be considered as A-flat, the C-sharp can also be considered D-flat. Again, we see that Mussorgsky continues to play with ambiguous harmony and frequent use of intermediate dominants. The chord VI6 DM at the end of the first system of the trio should be taken with a grain of salt, one could also consider it a tonic moving to F minor, possibly with an added 6. I considered the second part of the TRIO in F minor, again Mussorgsky continues to play with ambiguity, look especially at the last four chords. The speed of chord sequences is also so fast that we can consider this as one pedal over F major. In the CODA we also find D-flat, moving closely around C, the dominant. Eventually Mussorgsky does end with the classical tonic F, albeit in a high register As you can see Mussorgsky’s harmony doesn’t always fit in conventional chord progressions because Mussorgsky himself was very open in his compositional approach. In fact he was against musical institutions and Western influences in Russian music. This led to very original and beautiful compositions full of new ideas, perhaps also the reason why, later the Impressionists liked his music so much. I am not an advocate of this approach, I am certainly not against it either. I provide this information because I think it is important in approaching his music.
i should find the time to study these again, one of my favorite if not my favorite piece set. lyrical original and heavy. Tell my how gnomus or baba jaga are not metal
So to understand chord progressions you often have to look ahead. The next chord is Bflat minor with the seventh A flat in the bass, hence VI2. The dominant of Bflat is F. This is the chord in the bar before, we have F A C Eflat. This dominant F seventh chord is in first inversion (A in the "bass"), hence V65. The brackets indicate that this chord is a secondary dominant to another chord. A secondary dominant is a dominant chord which does not belong to the current keycenter, but acts as a dominant to a temporary keycentre. Hope this helps? If you want to know more about this you can always email me: timondenood@gmail.com
I don’t feel the real climax is on the forte Dominant (as it comes identically in the reprise). The point of main interest is that unexpected e-minor6 chord just before the reprise: it is basically the only sequence that comes only once. It is special and outstanding. Even if it is not as « loud » as the E-Major, it gives the whole piece a point of horizon from which to come back from in the reprise. But thanks for the great analysis and video!!! ❤
Tuileries is not a common name so you cannot translate it. This is the name of a public garden next to le Louvre in Paris. The name comes from manufacturing tiles (tiles are tuiles in French). This is a detail of course, the analysis is very interesting. Thank you!
Oops yes I assumed that wrongly without factchecking. The reason why... at 1:00 you can see that the subtitle of the piece is "Dispute d'enfants après Jeux". Thank you for pointing out!
@@clefdesoldiese, how do you think the place got its name? …from the tile kilns that occupied the location before it became part of a former royal residence. Etymology has reason. Direct English translation: tilery
@anakrousis you have misunderstood my message. Tuileries is of course based on tuile / tiles because there were kilns in this area, but does NOT mean "tile maker's place / shop". That would be "fabrique / fabricant de tuiles" (Tuileries was not a common name in old French either). That's why it is not translatable as such, contrary to what you're saying in your message. It is not because a word is based on an etymology that we can translate it. For instance, Louvre is probably based on the same etymology as "lodge", that doesn't mean we can translate Louvre as such! Etymology has reasons, but we can't translate solely upon it. In addition, in the video, it is said that Tuileries means "children's quarrelling at play", which is the under title. Please read my answer within the whole context
At some points I think yes, at other points certainly not. It's interesting to see that some of the things he did give rise to interesting harmonic patterns.
