Esquisses (Sketches), Op. 63, is a set of 49 short piano pieces by French composer Charles-Valentin Alkan and published in 1861. The pieces are divided into four books; the first pair of books and the last pair each comprise between them pieces in each of all the major and minor keys. Book 4 ends with an extra, unnumbered, piece, Laus Deo, in C major. Four pianists have recorded the set in its entirety: Laurent Martin, Osamu Nakamura (now Osamu Kanazawa), Steven Osborne, and Yui Morishita (twice).
Unlike many other of Alkan's pieces, such as the Op. 33 Grand Sonate and the Op. 39 set of etudes in all the minor keys, these 49 pieces do not focus mainly on virtuosity and transcendentalism and instead contain more of Alkan's sentimental and evocative writing. Alkan's innovation is also vividly present in the pieces. The 45th piece, Les Diablotins, features wrenched cluster chords and the 48th piece, En Songe, is a dreamy and quiet piece all except for the very final chord, which is a sudden F major chord with the dynamic ff. The 39th piece, Héraclite et Démocrite, features two sharply contrasting themes for the respective philosophers, and at some passages Alkan overlaps the themes to create a solemn and sad theme in the left hand and a bouncy and joyous theme in the right.
The Esquisses
Book 1
La Vision in C major
Le Staccatissimo in F minor
Le Legatissimo in D major
Les Cloches in G minor
Les Initiés in E major (features a quote from Aristophanes' The Frogs instead of a title in some editions)
Fuguette in A minor
Le Frisson in F♯ major
Pseudo-Naïveté in B minor
Confidence in A♭ major
Increpatio in C♯ minor
Les Soupirs in B♭ major
Barcarollette in E♭ minor
Book 2
Ressouvenir in C minor
Duettino in F major
Tutti de Concerto dans le genre ancien in D minor
Fantasie in G major
Petit prélude à trois in E minor
Liedchen in A major
Grâces in F♯ minor
Petit marche villageoise in B major
Morituri te salutant in G♯ minor
Innocenzia in D♭ major
L'homme aux sabots in B♭ minor
Contredanse in E♭ major
Book 3
La poursuite in C major
Petit air, Genre ancien in G minor
Rigaudon in D major
Inflexibilité (also known as Rigidité) in A minor
Délire in E major
Petit air dolent in B minor
Début de quatuor in F♯ major
Minuetto in C♯ minor
"Fais dodo" in A♭ major
Odi profanum vulgus et arceo, Favete linguis in E♭ minor
Musique militaire in B♭ major
Toccatina in F minor
Book 4
Scherzettino in C minor
"Le ciel vous soit toujours prospére" (also known as Les bons souhaits) in G major
An octatonic scale is any eight-note musical scale. However, the term most often refers to the ancohemitonic symmetric scale composed of alternating whole and half steps, as shown at right. In classical theory, this symmetrical scale is commonly called the octatonic scale, although there are a total of 43 enharmonically inequivalent, transpositionally inequivalent eight-note sets.
In music, modulation is the change from one tonality to another. This may or may not be accompanied by a change in key signature. Modulations articulate or create the structure or form of many pieces, as well as add interest. Treatment of a chord as the tonic for less than a phrase is considered tonicization.
Modulation is the essential part of the art. Without it there is little music, for a piece derives its true beauty not from the large number of fixed modes which it embraces but rather from the subtle fabric of its modulation.
An augmented triad is a chord, made up of two major thirds. The term augmented triad arises from an augmented triad being considered a major chord whose top note (fifth) is raised. When using popular-music symbols, it is indicated by the symbol "+" or "aug". For example, the augmented triad built on A♭, written as A♭+, has pitches A♭-C-E:
Anatoly Konstantinovich Lyadov was a Russian composer, teacher and conductor.
D-sharp minor is a minor scale based on D♯, consisting of the pitches D♯, E♯, F♯, G♯, A♯, B, and C♯. Its key signature has six sharps.
F minor is a minor scale based on F, consisting of the pitches F, G, A♭, B♭, C, D♭, and E♭. Its key signature consists of four flats. Its relative major is A-flat major and its parallel major is F major. Its enharmonic equivalent, E-sharp minor, has six single sharps and the double sharp F, which makes it impractical to use.
E-flat minor is a minor scale based on E♭, consisting of the pitches E♭, F, G♭, A♭, B♭, C♭, and D♭. Its key signature consists of six flats. Its relative key is G-flat major and its parallel key is E-flat major. Its enharmonic equivalent, D-sharp minor, contains the same number of sharps.
A-flat minor is a minor scale based on A♭, consisting of the pitches A♭, B♭, C♭, D♭, E♭, F♭, and G♭. Its key signature has seven flats. Its relative major is C-flat major, its parallel major is A-flat major, and its enharmonic equivalent is G-sharp minor.
The Ballade No. 3 in A♭ major, Op. 47, is the third of Chopin's ballades for solo piano. It was composed in 1841 and published the same year.
Grande sonate: Les quatre âges, Op. 33, is a four-movement piano sonata by Charles-Valentin Alkan. The sonata's title refers to the subtitles given to each movement, portraying a man at the ages of 20, 30, 40, and 50. The work was published in 1847, dedicated to the composer's father, Alkan Morhange.
Trois morceaux dans le genre pathétique Op. 15 is a three-movement suite for piano composed by the French composer, Charles-Valentin Alkan, published in 1837. The suite also bears the title Souvenirs (Memories). The 3 movements are Aime-moi, Le vent, and Morte.
The Piano Quartet No. 3 in C minor, Op. 60, completed by Johannes Brahms in 1875, is scored for piano, violin, viola and cello. It is sometimes called the Werther Quartet after Goethe's The Sorrows of Young Werther. The premiere took place in Vienna on November 18, 1875, to an anxious public. Richard Wagner and his wife Cosima were in attendance.
Le festin d'Ésope, Op. 39 No. 12, is a piano étude by Charles-Valentin Alkan. It is the final étude in the set Douze études dans tous les tons mineurs, Op. 39, published in 1857. It is a work of twenty-five variations based on an original theme and is in E minor. The technical skills required in the variations are a summation of the preceding études.
Sergei Rachmaninoff wrote a number of preludes, all for solo piano. His most important works in this genre are the 24 preludes that cover all 24 major and minor keys. These were, however, written and published at different times, not as a unified set. Of all the composers who wrote sets of 24 pieces in all the keys, Rachmaninoff seems to be the only one who did not originally set out with such a goal in mind. There is not an order to the tonalities of the preludes, like that seen in Bach or Chopin's preludes Rachmaninoff also wrote three other individual preludes.
Alexander Scriabin's 24 Preludes, Op. 11 is a set of preludes composed in the course of eight years between 1888–96, being also one of Scriabin's first published works with M.P. Belaieff in 1897, in Leipzig, Germany, together with his 12 Études, Op. 8 (1894–95).
Charles-Valentin Alkan wrote 25 preludes for solo piano or organ in 1844; they were published as his Op. 31 in 1847. These preludes span all 24 major and minor keys, plus an additional 25th prelude in C major.
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