The Prince's Tale

A stunning animation


The Prince's Tale - Animation by *RandomMumble on deviantART

Beethoven Sonata no.28, op.101

This sonata was one of my choices for the sonata selection for ARCT. It was pretty much between this one, and the Pathetique. Unfortunately, with my teacher, Pathetique obviously won. And the reason was quite simple - that one, is so much easier.

But I've always liked this sonata. It's not that well known, it's super hard, but I think it's very fun to play with, and it sounds incredibly grand.

That, and kind of typical of Beethoven, it does not follow the typical sonata structure. In this one, The first movement is the relatively 'slow' one. The second movement is atypically fast, with a smoother middle section. Then, there's this tiny, I guess we could call it the 3rd movement, or some inbetween movement thing that leads right into the final, monstrous final movement. Despite it's monstrosity, I love this movement...

There's just so much play around with. (In terms of play, you're still following the music, but the way he wrote it and everything, it's just so interesting/fun to read and play.) That, and the second movement's awesome sounding too. The first one... I'm not a very big fan of that.

Here's a version of it, played by the Maestro Barenboim. It's fantastic. (Split into three parts, because it's too epic for youtube, though not split by movement)







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DD: Alexander the Great

ARCT

My song list for my ARCT in Piano Performance
(Which I should start focusing on... or my theory credits will expire in ... 2-3ish years... I don't know why, but they do expire <.<)

The repertoire requirements are as such:
(The numbers in the front are the percentages that they're worth)
20 - One selection from List A: Works of J.S. Bach
25 - One selection from List B: Sonatas
15 - One selection from List C: Romantic Repertoire
15 - One selection from List D: Post-Romantic and Early 20th-century Repertoire
15 - One selection from List E: 20th- and 21st-century Repertoire
10 - One Concert Etude

Theory Co-requisites:
Counterpoint (Grade 4 Counterpoint)
Advanced Harmony (Grade 5 Harmony)
History 3: 19th Century to Present (Grade 5 History)
Analysis (Grade 5 Analysis)

I have finished all of my theory co-requisites, which took a lot of time and costed a pretty buck, so now I must get the stupid performance exam done >.<

List A:
Johann Sebastian Bach
English Suite no. 1 in A major, BWV 806
-Prelude, Sarabande, and Gigue

Each English Suite is made up of several different dances, Allemande, Sarabande, Minute, etc. Luckily, we only have to do 3 of those dances. And I can't find a suitable youtube link for these dances - so lets just say, that they're very.. baroque and Bach sounding.

List B:
Ludwig van Beethoven
Sonata in C minor, op. 13 (also known as the Pathétique Sonata)

(The entire sonata is around 20 minutes, so the video is cut into the three movements [Youtube doesn't alow 20min songs])

Movement I


Movement II


Movement III


List C:
Johannes Brahms
Ballade in D major, op. 10, no. 2


List D:
Claude Debussy
Préludes, 1 - La danse de Puck (no. 11)

(Also, check out the Michelangeli version, it's brilliant, but doesn't allow me to embed)

List E:
Sergei Prokofiev
Four Pieces, op. 4 MAS - Diabolical Suggestion


Concert Etude:
Frédéric Chopin
Etude op. 10, no. 12 (also known as the Revolutionary Etude)


And here you have it, my goal for this century =.=
It seems like an impossible mountain to climb.


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BD: Alessandro Scarlatti, Heinrich Gustav Magnus, Donatella Versace
DD: Leonardo da Vinci