This page attempts to list the longest non-repetitive piano pieces along with approximate duration. The number of pages their scores cover and their formats are listed where available.
Piece | Composer | Approximate duration | Page count | Page size | Notes |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
Beatus Vir | Jacob Mashak | 11 hours | 53 (in proportional notation) [1] | A work for two pianos. Premiered by three pianists (including the composer), who played in rotation. [1] | |
The Road | Frederic Rzewski | 10 hours | 539 (manuscript) [2] [3] | Premiered by the composer, Ian Pace and several other pianists. [4] | |
Symphonic Variations for Piano | Kaikhosru Shapurji Sorabji | 10 hours | 484 (manuscript) [5] | A3 | Variation 56 (of 81) has been recorded by Michael Habermann and performed by Chappell Kingsland. [5] |
100 Transcendental Studies | Kaikhosru Shapurji Sorabji | 8½ hours | 456 (manuscript) [6] [7] | A3 | The complete cycle of 100 études has been recorded by Fredrik Ullén. [7] [8] The études that have not been performed in public are Nos. 27, 33, 39, 42, 45–48, 51, 53–58, 60–64, 68, 74, 82, 87, 90, 91 and 93. [9] |
Sequentia cyclica super "Dies irae" ex Missa pro defunctis | Kaikhosru Shapurji Sorabji | 8½ hours | 335 (manuscript) [6] [10] | A3 | Premiered and recorded by Jonathan Powell. [10] |
Piano Sonata No. 5 (Opus archimagicum) | Kaikhosru Shapurji Sorabji | 6–7 hours | 336 (manuscript) [11] [12] | A3 | Movements 8 and 9 from the 10-movement work have been premiered by Tellef Johnson. [12] |
Inner Cities 1–14 | Alvin Curran | 6 hours | Premiered and recorded by Daan Vandewalle. | ||
November | Dennis Johnson | 6 hours | 6 (manuscript) [13] | Premiered by the composer, recorded by R. Andrew Lee. | |
The Well-Tuned Piano | La Monte Young | 5-6 hours | Premiered and recorded by the composer. [14] | ||
The History of Photography in Sound | Michael Finnissy | 5½ hours | 365 (edition) [15] [16] | A3 | Premiered and recorded by Ian Pace. [15] [17] Performed by Mark Knoop. [18] |
Piano Symphony No. 6 (Symphonia claviensis) | Kaikhosru Shapurji Sorabji | 4¾ hours | 270 (manuscript) [6] [19] [20] | A3 | Premiered by Jonathan Powell. [19] |
Piano Symphony No. 4 | Kaikhosru Shapurji Sorabji | 4½ hours | 240 (manuscript) | A3 | Premiered by Reinier van Houdt. [21] [22] [23] |
Opus clavicembalisticum | Kaikhosru Shapurji Sorabji | 4 hours | 253 (manuscript) [24] [25] | A3 | Premiered by the composer. Performed and recorded by Geoffrey Douglas Madge [n 1] and John Ogdon. [25] Performed by Jonathan Powell, Daan Vandewalle and Hiroaki Ooï. [25] |
Piece | Composer | Approximate duration | Page count | Page size | Notes |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
For Clive Barker | Matthew Lee Knowles | 26 hours (1 day 2 hours) | 1,061 (manuscript) [26] [ self-published source? ] | A4 | |
Alida No. 16f "La conscience totale" | Maurice Verheul | 12½ hours | 341 (manuscript) [27] [ self-published source ] | ||
Piano Sonata No. 5 | Maurice Verheul | 7 hours 18 minutes | 441 (manuscript) [28] [ self-published source? ] | ||
Piano Symphony No. 0 | Kaikhosru Shapurji Sorabji | 5½ hours | 333 (manuscript) [29] | A3 | |
Piano Symphony No. 1 (Tāntrik) | Kaikhosru Shapurji Sorabji | 4½ hours | 284 (manuscript) [30] | A3 | |
Piano Symphony No. 2 | Kaikhosru Shapurji Sorabji | 4½ hours | 248 (manuscript) [31] | A3 |
A nocturne is a musical composition that is inspired by, or evocative of, the night.
In music, the opus number is the "work number" that is assigned to a musical composition, or to a set of compositions, to indicate the chronological order of the composer's publication of that work. Opus numbers are used to distinguish among compositions with similar titles; the word is abbreviated as "Op." for a single work, or "Opp." when referring to more than one work. Opus numbers do not necessarily indicate chronological order of composition. For example, posthumous publications of a composer's juvenilia are often numbered after other works, even though they may be some of the composer's first completed works.
Toccata is a virtuoso piece of music typically for a keyboard or plucked string instrument featuring fast-moving, lightly fingered or otherwise virtuosic passages or sections, with or without imitative or fugal interludes, generally emphasizing the dexterity of the performer's fingers. Less frequently, the name is applied to works for multiple instruments.
Frederic Anthony Rzewski was an American composer and pianist, considered to be one of the most important American composer-pianists of his time. From 1977 up to his eventual death, he lived mainly in Belgium. His major compositions, which often incorporate social and political themes, include the minimalist Coming Together and the variation set The People United Will Never Be Defeated!, which has been called "a modern classic".
Charles-Valentin Alkan was a French composer and virtuoso pianist. At the height of his fame in the 1830s and 1840s he was, alongside his friends and colleagues Frédéric Chopin and Franz Liszt, among the leading pianists in Paris, a city in which he spent virtually his entire life.
Kaikhosru Shapurji Sorabji was an English composer, music critic, pianist and writer whose music, written over a period of seventy years, ranges from sets of miniatures to works lasting several hours. One of the most prolific 20th-century composers, he is best known for his piano pieces, notably nocturnes such as Gulistān and Villa Tasca, and large-scale, technically intricate compositions, which include seven symphonies for piano solo, four toccatas, Sequentia cyclica and 100 Transcendental Studies. He felt alienated from English society by reason of his homosexuality and mixed ancestry, and had a lifelong tendency to seclusion.
John Andrew Howard Ogdon was an English pianist and composer.
Opus clavicembalisticum is a work for solo piano, notable for its length and difficulty, composed by Kaikhosru Shapurji Sorabji and completed on 25 June 1930.
İdil Biret is a Turkish concert pianist.
Jonathan Powell is a British pianist and self-taught composer.
Atli Heimir Sveinsson was an Icelandic composer.
Geoffrey Douglas Madge is an Australian classical pianist and composer.
Ian Geoffrey Pace is a British pianist. Pace studied at Chetham's School of Music, The Queen's College, Oxford and the Juilliard School in New York. His main teacher was the Hungarian pianist György Sándor. He is currently Professor of Music, Culture and Society at City University, London.
Heather O'Donnell is an American classical pianist and psychologist living in Düsseldorf, Germany.
While a concerto is generally a piece for an instrument or instruments with orchestral accompaniment, some works for piano alone have been written with the seemingly contradictory designation concerto for solo piano.
Carlo Grante is an Italian classical pianist. Born in L'Aquila and graduating from the National Academy of St Cecilia in Rome, he performs classical and contemporary classical music. His discography consists of more than 50 albums.
A piano symphony is a piece for solo piano in one or more movements. It is a symphonic genre by virtue of imitating orchestral tone colour, texture, and symphonic development.
Alistair Richard Hinton is a Scottish composer and musicologist with a focus on the works of his friend Kaikhosru Shapurji Sorabji. He is the curator of the Sorabji Archive.
Sequentia cyclica super "Dies irae" ex Missa pro defunctis, commonly known as Sequentia cyclica, is a piano composition by Kaikhosru Shapurji Sorabji. Written between 1948 and 1949, it is a set of 27 variations on the medieval sequence Dies irae and is widely considered one of Sorabji's greatest works. With a duration of about eight hours, it is one of the longest piano pieces of all time.