Help me identify this piece of piano music

Cafe Society
1

Well, I’m stumped.

I consider myself fairly knowledgeable about music, classical music in particular, but there’s this one piece I can’t id and I feel it’s something I ought to know. I seem to hear it most often playing in bookstores alongside famous pieces of classical piano music. I’m pretty sure that when I find out what it is, I’m going to slap my forehead, but here goes:

[ul]
[li]The style is romantic.[/li][li]It’s in a minor key, I’m tempted to say D minor.[/li][li]The single most obvious feature of this piece is an ostinato which consists of nothing but the tonic repeated as eight-notes in the right hand. (D above middle C?) About halfway through it changes to the dominant, and then goes back to the tonic.[/li][li]Whilst the right hand obstinates, the left hand plays a simple and ominous tune, an octave below. If we are to assume it’s really in D minor, it goes something like Bb A Bb A F D… [/li][/ul]

Does that ring a bell for anyone?

2

How long are the notes you listed for the left hand?

Also, by “halfway through” do you mean halfway through the piece, or halfway through a phrase? If the second, how long’s the phrase?

And when does it return to the tonic?

None of this is ringing a bell for me yet.

-FrL-

3

Counting in numbers of notes played by the right hand: 2 - 6 - 2 - 3 - 1 - 4

I meant the piece, it’s a really simple structure: A A’ A, where A’ is just A played a fifth higher.

4

If my description of the piece above sounds too arcane, you can listen to me trying to hammer it out here:

It’s only a short excerpt, but I think anyone familiar with the piece should be able to recognize it.

5

I know exactly the piece you mean.

Give me a few, it will come to me.

6

That’s better than the ‘fucking hell’ you told me, Elly. It’s right on the tip of my tongue, too. Goes up a bit in the next phrase.

7

Alright – what I was thinking of was a Chopin Prelude (Op. 28 No. 6), which may or may not be right. Give that a shot. :slight_smile: It could also be the middle section of the Raindrop Prelude.

8

It’s not the Raindrop, but that sound is reminiscent.

9

Sounds like Chopin to me too.

10

Is it Mozart’s Fantasy in d minor? The repeating note section certainly sounds close to what you recorded.

There is a sample of the sheet music on this page, click “See larger image”. The repeating note section starts at the bottom of the page. Later on it repeats in d minor (I think).

11

Yeah, that’s what the fragment sounds like to me.

12

I’m going with one of the Chopin preludes still. I suppose it COULD be the Mozart Fantasy, but that would be a really odd part of it to have stick in one’s memory.

A good place to go dig is the Classical Music Archives (http://www.classicalarchives.com/), online, where you can find thousands of midi and live recordings of the classics. A non-member can dig through 5 a day, while a member has unlimited access to the files. Nifty place for music lovers and educators alike (says the person who falls into both categories.)

13

Actually, it is. Thanks to all. As is turns out, I need to work on my ear training. It’s not in D minor, but in C# minor, and the repeated note is not the tonic, but the dominant: G#.

However, the version I heard yesterday is somewhat different from the original: the opening and closing sections in D-flat major were removed, which lead me to believe the structure of the piece was different from what it actually is.

I was right about one thing, though, it’s really, really, something I should have known: I have it on CD somewhere.

For anyone who wants to hear the actual thing, here’s a pretty decent version:

14

::: bows ::: Go me!

:wink:

15

I got the score as soon as I found out what the piece was. I played it through as soon as I got home: now I’m not forgetting what you are!