Six moments musicaux, D. 780 (Op. 94) is a collection of six short pieces for solo piano composed by Franz Schubert. Along with the Impromptus, they are among the most frequently played of all Schubert's piano music, and have been recorded many times. No. 3 in F minor has been arranged by Karl Tausig, Leopold Godowsky and others.
It has been said that Schubert was deeply influenced in writing these pieces by the Impromptus, Op. 7, of Jan Václav Voříšek (1822). [1] [2] These pieces have been described as "akin to Beethoven’s Bagatelles in their brevity and quixotic character." [3]
They were published by Leidesdorf in Vienna in 1828, under the title "Six Momens [sic] musicals [sic]". The standard French forms are now usually used – moments (instead of momens), and musicaux (instead of musicals). Because the title is not Schubert's own, it has been argued that we "might reasonably conclude that these are not really 'moments' of music at all, as some of the six pieces last more than five or six minutes." [4]
The sixth number was published in 1824 in a Christmas album under the title Les plaintes d'un troubadour. [2]
The movements are as follows:
The entire D. 780 set has been recorded by András Schiff (for Decca), Claudio Arrau, Alfred Brendel, Imogen Cooper, Emil Gilels, Paul Lewis, Radu Lupu, Artur Schnabel, Mitsuko Uchida and Maria João Pires. Individual pieces from the set have been recorded by Sviatoslav Richter, Stanislav Ioudenitch, Daniel Barenboim, and Vladimir Horowitz. The set was recorded on fortepianos by András Schiff (for ECM), Melvyn Tan, Lambert Orkis, Peter Katin, Jan Vermeulen, Trudelies Leonhardt, Olga Tverskaya and Ghislain Potvlieghe.
Isadora Duncan choreographed a dance to No. 3 in F Minor (Allegro moderato) around 1908 [5] .
Franz Schubert's Impromptus are a series of eight pieces for solo piano composed in 1827. They were published in two sets of four impromptus each: the first two pieces in the first set were published in the composer's lifetime as Op. 90; the second set was published posthumously as Op. 142 in 1839. The third and fourth pieces in the first set were published in 1857. The two sets are now catalogued as D. 899 and D. 935 respectively. They are considered to be among the most important examples of this popular early 19th-century genre.
Songs Without Words is a series of short lyrical piano works by the Romantic composer Felix Mendelssohn written between 1829 and 1845. His sister, Fanny Mendelssohn, and other composers also wrote pieces in the same genre.
Rosamunde, Fürstin von Zypern is a play by Helmina von Chézy, which is primarily remembered for the incidental music which Franz Schubert composed for it. Music and play premiered in Vienna's Theater an der Wien on 20 December 1823.
Thirteen Preludes, Op. 32, is a set of thirteen preludes for solo piano, composed by Sergei Rachmaninoff in 1910.
Franz Schubert's last three piano sonatas, D 958, 959 and 960, are his last major compositions for solo piano. They were written during the last months of his life, between the spring and autumn of 1828, but were not published until about ten years after his death, in 1838–39. Like the rest of Schubert's piano sonatas, they were mostly neglected in the 19th century. By the late 20th century, however, public and critical opinion had changed, and these sonatas are now considered among the most important of the composer's mature masterpieces. They are part of the core piano repertoire, appearing regularly on concert programs and recordings.
The Op. 33 String Quartets were written by Joseph Haydn in the summer and Autumn of 1781 for the Viennese publisher Artaria. This set of string quartets has several nicknames, the most common of which is the "Russian" quartets, because Haydn dedicated the quartets to the Grand Duke Paul of Russia and many of the quartets were premiered on Christmas Day, 1781, at the Viennese apartment of the Duke's wife, the Grand Duchess Maria Feodorovna. Some scholars theorize that the "Russian" quartets were the inspiration for Mozart's six string quartets dedicated to Haydn, but no direct evidence has been found.
Legends, Op. 59, B. 117, is a forty-minute group of ten pieces by the Czech composer Antonín Dvořák. They were written in early 1881 for piano duet and reset later that year for a reduced orchestra (B. 122).
Dmitry Kabalevsky's Preludes, Op. 38 are a set of 24 piano pieces in the Chopinian model, each based on a folksong and each in a different key. It was composed in 1943–44, and dedicated to Nikolai Myaskovsky, his teacher. It is one of a number of examples of music written in all 24 major and minor keys.
August Winding was a Danish pianist, teacher and composer.
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).
Joseph Haydn's String Quartets, Op. 64, is a set of six string quartets composed in 1790. Along with six earlier quartets published under the opus numbers 54 and 55, they are known as the Tost quartets, after the Hungarian violinist and later merchant Johann Tost who helped Haydn find a publisher for the works. Unlike the earlier quartets, Haydn actually dedicated the Op. 64 set to Tost in gratitude for his efforts.
Sonatas, duos and fantasies by Franz Schubert include all works for solo piano by Franz Schubert, except separate dances. They also include a number of works for two players: piano four hands, or piano and a string instrument.
From March 1816 to August 1817, Franz Schubert composed four violin sonatas. All four were published after the composer's death: the first three, D 384, 385 and 408, as Sonatinas in 1836, and the last one, D 574, as Duo in 1851. Schubert composed two more pieces for violin and piano, in October 1826 and December 1827 respectively: a Rondo, D 895, which was published during the composer's lifetime (Op. 70), and a Fantasy, D 934, which was premiered in January 1828, less than a year before the composer's death.
The Impromptus, Op. 90, D. 899, are a set of four impromptus for solo piano composed by Franz Schubert in 1827. They were written in the same year as the Impromptus, Op. 142, though only the first two pieces were published during Schubert's lifetime. Together with the latter set, they have become a cornerstone of the piano repertoire.
The Impromptus, Op. posth. 142, D. 935, are a set of four impromptus for solo piano composed by Franz Schubert in 1827. They were written in the same year as the Impromptus, Op. 90, but were not published until 1839, more than a decade after his death. Together with the preceding set, they have become a cornerstone of the piano repertoire.