Prelude in C-sharp minor (Rachmaninoff)
Encyclopedia
Opus number
An Opus number , pl. opera and opuses, abbreviated, sing. Op. and pl. Opp. refers to a number generally assigned by composers to an individual composition or set of compositions on publication, to help identify their works...
3, No. 2, is one of Sergei Rachmaninoff
Sergei Rachmaninoff
Sergei Vasilievich Rachmaninoff was a Russian composer, pianist, and conductor. Rachmaninoff is widely considered one of the finest pianists of his day and, as a composer, one of the last great representatives of Romanticism in Russian classical music...
's most famous compositions. It is a ternary
Ternary form
Ternary form, sometimes called song form, is a three-part musical form, usually schematicized as A-B-A. The first and third parts are musically identical, or very nearly so, while the second part in some way provides a contrast with them...
(ABA) prelude
Prelude (music)
A prelude is a short piece of music, the form of which may vary from piece to piece. The prelude can be thought of as a preface. It may stand on its own or introduce another work...
in C-sharp minor, 62 measure
Bar (music)
In musical notation, a bar is a segment of time defined by a given number of beats of a given duration. Typically, a piece consists of several bars of the same length, and in modern musical notation the number of beats in each bar is specified at the beginning of the score by the top number of a...
s long, and part of a set of five pieces entitled Morceaux de Fantaisie
Morceaux de Fantaisie
Morceaux de fantaisie , Op. 3, is a set of five piano solo pieces composed by Sergei Rachmaninoff in 1892...
.
Its first performance was by the composer on September 20, 1892, at a festival called the Moscow Electrical Exhibition, which Rachmaninoff considered his debut as a pianist. After this première, a review of the concert singled out the Prelude, noting that it had “aroused enthusiasm”. From this point on, its popularity would grow.
Background
This work was one of the first the 19‑year‑old Rachmaninoff composed as a "Free Artist", after he graduated from the Moscow ConservatoryMoscow Conservatory
The Moscow Conservatory is a higher musical education institution in Moscow, and the second oldest conservatory in Russia after St. Petersburg Conservatory. Along with the St...
on 29 May 1892. He performed this new work for the first time at one of the concerts of the Moscow Electrical Exhibition on 8/20 October 1892. It was printed the following year as the second of five Morceaux de Fantaisie
Morceaux de Fantaisie
Morceaux de fantaisie , Op. 3, is a set of five piano solo pieces composed by Sergei Rachmaninoff in 1892...
(Op. 3), all dedicated to Anton Arensky
Anton Arensky
Anton Stepanovich Arensky -Biography:Arensky was born in Novgorod, Russia. He was musically precocious and had composed a number of songs and piano pieces by the age of nine...
, his harmony
Harmony
In music, harmony is the use of simultaneous pitches , or chords. The study of harmony involves chords and their construction and chord progressions and the principles of connection that govern them. Harmony is often said to refer to the "vertical" aspect of music, as distinguished from melodic...
teacher at the Conservatory. Because at the time Russia was not party to the 1886 Berne Convention
Berne Convention for the Protection of Literary and Artistic Works
The Berne Convention for the Protection of Literary and Artistic Works, usually known as the Berne Convention, is an international agreement governing copyright, which was first accepted in Berne, Switzerland in 1886.- Content :...
, Russian publishers did not pay royalties, so the only financial return he ever received for this piece was a 40 ruble
Russian ruble
The ruble or rouble is the currency of the Russian Federation and the two partially recognized republics of Abkhazia and South Ossetia. Formerly, the ruble was also the currency of the Russian Empire and the Soviet Union prior to their breakups. Belarus and Transnistria also use currencies with...
(about two months' wage of a factory worker) publishing fee.
Composition
The prelude is organized into three main parts and a codaCoda (music)
Coda is a term used in music in a number of different senses, primarily to designate a passage that brings a piece to an end. Technically, it is an expanded cadence...
:
- The piece opens with a three note motif at fortissimo which introduces the grim C-sharp minor tonality that dominates the piece. The cadential motif repeats throughout. In the third measure, the volume changes to a pianissimissimo for the exposition of the theme.
- The second part is propulsive and marked Agitato (agitated), beginning with highly chromatic triplets. This passionately builds to interlocking chordal triplets that descend into a climactic recapitulation of the main theme, this time in four staves to accommodate the volume of notes. Certain chords in the section are marked with quadruple sforzando.
- The piece closes with a brief seven-measure coda which ends quietly.
Reception
The prelude became one of Rachmaninoff's most famous compositions. His cousin Alexander SilotiAlexander Siloti
Alexander Ilyich Siloti was a Russian pianist, conductor and composer. Alexander Ilyich Siloti (also Ziloti, , Aleksandr Iljič Ziloti) (9 October 1863, near Kharkiv - 8 December 1945, New York) was a Russian pianist, conductor and composer. Alexander Ilyich Siloti (also Ziloti, , Aleksandr Iljič...
was instrumental in securing the Prelude's success throughout the Western world. In the autumn of 1898, he made a tour of Western Europe
Western Europe
Western Europe is a loose term for the collection of countries in the western most region of the European continents, though this definition is context-dependent and carries cultural and political connotations. One definition describes Western Europe as a geographic entity—the region lying in the...
and the United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
, with a program that contained the Prelude. Soon after, London
London
London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...
publishers brought out several editions with titles such as The Burning of Moscow, The Day of Judgement, and The Moscow Waltz. America followed suit with other titles, such as The Bells of Moscow. It was so popular that it was referred to as "The Prelude" and audiences would demand it as an encore at his performances, shouting "C-sharp!" Some say Rachmaninoff came to hate the work for this reason. Most, however, agree he would simply shrug in resignation and play it.
Rachmaninoff recorded the piece both electrically and on Ampico piano roll
Piano roll
A piano roll is a music storage medium used to operate a player piano, piano player or reproducing piano. A piano roll is a continuous roll of paper with perforations punched into it. The peforations represent note control data...
s.
Popular culture
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, 1937, Harpo plays the C-sharp minor prelude with such energy, the piano explodes. He takes the harp out of the wreckage and begins to play that, instead. - Ben Linus (Michael EmersonMichael EmersonMichael Emerson is an American actor who is perhaps best known for his roles as Benjamin Linus on Lost and fictional serial killer William Hinks in The Practice.-Early life:...
) is seen playing the C-sharp minor prelude in the episode "The Shape of Things to ComeThe Shape of Things to Come (Lost)"The Shape of Things to Come" is the 81st episode of the American Broadcasting Company's Lost and is the ninth episode of the fourth season. It aired on April 24, 2008 on ABC in the United States and on CTV in Canada. The episode was written by co-executive producer Drew Goddard and...
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. - The prelude formed the basis for George L. CobbGeorge L. CobbGeorge Linus Cobb was a prolific composer best known for ragtime, including both instrumental compositions and ragtime songs, although he did produce other works including marches and waltzes. Jack Yellen was a frequent lyricist for the songs.Entering Syracuse University in 1905, his first...
's Russian Rag. - In 1970 the Dutch rock/jazz band Ekseption recorded a song called "On Sunday They Will Kill The World" which is based on the C-sharp minor Prelude. The song was then covered by gothic/doom metal band Draconian.
- In 2000, the popular R&B group En VogueEn VogueEn Vogue is an American female R&B vocal group from Oakland, California assembled by music producers Denzil Foster and Thomas McElroy.The group has won more MTV Video Music Awards than any other female group in MTV history, a total of seven, along with four Soul Train Awards, six American Music...
sampled the song in their recording "Love Won't Take Me Out" on their album Masterpiece TheatreMasterpiece Theatre (album)Masterpiece Theatre is a studio album by American R&B group En Vogue, released in 2000 by Elektra Records. They took famous classical music and put their own R&B flavor on it. It was originally set to be titled "Something Old, Something New, Something Borrowed, Something Cool".The first single was...
. - The French black metal band, Anorexia Nervosa, included a recording of the C-sharp minor Prelude (which they entitled 'Hail Tyranny') on their 2001 album, New Obscurantis Order.
- The movie Weekend at Bernie'sWeekend at Bernie'sWeekend at Bernie's is a 1989 American comedy film directed by Ted Kotcheff. A comedy starring Andrew McCarthy and Jonathan Silverman features the two as a couple of young insurance agency employees who discover their boss is deceased...
used a (broken) playback of it, via stereo system for the incidental, soundtrackSoundtrackA soundtrack can be recorded music accompanying and synchronized to the images of a motion picture, book, television program or video game; a commercially released soundtrack album of music as featured in the soundtrack of a film or TV show; or the physical area of a film that contains the...
music. - The prelude is an important element of the plot of Ngaio MarshNgaio MarshDame Ngaio Marsh DBE , born Edith Ngaio Marsh, was a New Zealand crime writer and theatre director. There is some uncertainty over her birth date as her father neglected to register her birth until 1900...
's Roderick AlleynRoderick AlleynRoderick Alleyn is a fictional character who first appeared in 1934. He is the policeman hero of the 32 detective novels of Ngaio Marsh. Marsh and her gentleman detective belong firmly in the Golden Age of Detective Fiction, although the last Alleyn novel, Light Thickens, was published as late as...
novel Overture to DeathOverture to DeathOverture to Death is a detective novel by Ngaio Marsh; it is the eighth novel to feature Roderick Alleyn, and was first published in 1939. The plot concerns a murder during a village theatrical performance; Sergei Rachmaninoff's Prelude in C-sharp minor plays a prominent part in the story. So...
, written in 1939 - In the movie The Exorcism of Emily RoseThe Exorcism of Emily RoseThe Exorcism of Emily Rose is a 2005 American courtroom drama horror film directed by Scott Derrickson. The film is loosely based on the story of Anneliese Michel and follows a self-proclaimed agnostic defense lawyer representing a parish priest who is accused by the state of negligent homicide...
, Emily plays the opening of the Prelude. - The BlackaliciousBlackaliciousBlackalicious is an American hip hop duo from Sacramento, California made up of rapper Gift of Gab and DJ/producer Chief Xcel . They are noted for Gift of Gab's often "tongue-twisting", multisyllabic, complex rhymes and Chief Xcel's "classic" beats...
song "The Rise and Fall of Elliot Brown" incorporates this prelude throughout the song. - Mao AsadaMao Asadais a Japanese figure skater.She is the 2010 Winter Olympic silver medalist, the 2008 & 2010 World champion, the 2008 & 2010 Four Continents champion, a two-time Grand Prix Final champion, the 2005 World Junior champion, the 2004–2005 Junior Grand Prix Final champion and a four-time Japanese...
skated to this piece during her long program at the 2010 Vancouver Olympics. She earned a silver medal for her astounding performance. - On Mingus at the BohemiaMingus at the BohemiaMingus at the Bohemia is an album by Charles Mingus, recorded during a live concert and released in 1955. Further recordings from the concert were released under the title The Charles Mingus Quintet & Max Roach.- The music :...
, Charles MingusCharles MingusCharles Mingus Jr. was an American jazz musician, composer, bandleader, and civil rights activist.Mingus's compositions retained the hot and soulful feel of hard bop and drew heavily from black gospel music while sometimes drawing on elements of Third stream, free jazz, and classical music...
recorded "All The Things You C#", a blend of All The Things You AreAll the Things You Are"All the Things You Are" is a song composed by Jerome Kern, with lyrics written by Oscar Hammerstein II.It was written for the musical Very Warm for May , where it was introduced by Hiram Sherman, Frances Mercer, Hollace Shaw, and Ralph Stuart...
and the Prelude. - In the kid's television show ArthurArthur (TV series)Arthur is an American/Canadian animated educational television series for children, created by Cookie Jar Group and WGBH for the Public Broadcasting Service...
, the main character Arthur bluffed to his music teacher that he could play the Rachmaninoff Prelude in C-sharp minor blindfolded. When asked to perform the Prelude, he told the teacher he couldn't without a blindfold. - CanadianCanadaCanada is a North American country consisting of ten provinces and three territories. Located in the northern part of the continent, it extends from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west, and northward into the Arctic Ocean...
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, entitled Sex Tapes, which has melodies based on Prelude in C# Minor. - The Beastie Boys sampled Prelude in C# Minor in their 1998 hit Intergalactic.
- Eddie Morra {Bradley CooperBradley CooperBradley Cooper is an American film, theater, and television actor. He is known for his roles in the films The Hangover, The A-Team, and Limitless. In 2011, People magazine named Cooper "Sexiest Man Alive".-Early life:...
} plays a segment of this piece in the movie LimitlessLimitlessLimitless is one of the world's largest private superyachts. She was built in 1997 by German shipmaker Lürssen, designed under the direction of Jon Bannenberg. The overall length is 96,25 m , the width 12,50 m...
. - In 1994, the theme melody of the action strategy game Dark LegionsDark LegionsDark Legions is a 1994 action strategy game for DOS. It was developed by Silicon Knights and published by Strategic Simulations, Inc. .-Key features:Some key features of this game include:...
by Silicon KnightsSilicon KnightsSilicon Knights is a Canadian video game developer. Founded in 1992 by Denis Dyack, the company is headquartered in St. Catharines, Ontario, Dyack's hometown....
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(SSI).