Click to continue

Rachmaninov

SergeiSergeiRachmaninov

Please NoteYou can also move forwards and backwardsthrough the slides by using the arrow keys

on your keyboard.

MUSICWORKS

1873 - 1943

Sergei Rachmaninov

Sergei Rachmaninov1873 – 1943

Rachmaninov was a multi-talented musician;brilliant at composing, playing pianoand conducting.

He started to compose at the age of 13 whilst a student at the St Petersburg Conservatoire. During his teenage years his home life became quite unsettled, and he ended up failing all his exams at school.

Luckily Rachmaninov managed to win a place to study music in Moscow. He threw himself into his studies, getting up at 6am every day to practise.

He ended up graduating with the conservatoire’s highest possible mark and gold medal.

Rhapsody on a Theme of

Paganini

In 1934 Rachmaninov composed Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini.

Paganini was born almost 100 years before Rachmaninov and was a phenomenal violin soloist. He was a truly outstanding musician with the most incredible playing technique.

Rachmaninov used Theme and Variation form for his composition.

He took the melody of Paganini’s 24th Violin Caprice and used it as the basis of a new composition for solo piano and orchestra.

Theme &Variations

This is the theme borrowed from Paganini’s 24th Violin Caprice.

You can hear this theme played by the violin section of the orchestra on Track 5 of the MUSICWORKS CD. Fast forward to 00:27.

Variation- a musical form in which

a composer takesa melody and modifies it.

Variations

Rachmaninov composed 24 different variations on Paganini’s theme.

Some of the variations are very straightforward and are closely linked to the original theme.

Others are more complex and sound like entirely new pieces of music.

Look at Paganini’s theme once more.

Here is an example of a simplevariation Rachmaninov made.

You can hear this variation played by the piano on Track 5 of the MUSICWORKS CD. Fast forward to 00:47.

Theme by Paganini

Variation by Rachmaninov (No.2)

Rachmaninov gave the music a quirky character by adding some crushed notes to the theme.

Acciaccatura- a type of grace note indicated

by a small note with a line through the tail. The acciaccatura

is played so quickly it is literally crushed into the note it precedes.

Inversion

The most adventurous variation Rachmaninov made was number 18. Variation 18 sounds like an entirely new piece of music with no relation to Paganini’s theme.

However, it is absolutely connected to Paganini. Rachmaninov was just incredibly clever in his approach.

Variation 18 is an inversion of Paganini’s theme. Rachmaninov literally turned Paganini’s themeupside down.

Inversion- to turn a musical element

upside down, e.g. a chord, interval or melody.

Rachmaninov took Paganini’s theme,

To make Variation 18,

selected the accidentals,

and removed them.

He set a line of symmetry andthen flipped the staves over,

so that the music is upside down.

He selected some notes,

moved them down an octave,

and added a couple of flats.

He joined repeating notes together,

and raised one note from C to D.

Finally, he re-scored the music in 3/4

adding some triplets.

This is now Variation 18.

You can hear Variation 18 on Track 5 of the MUSICWORKS CD. Fast forward to 02:00.

Theme by Paganini

Variation by Rachmaninov (No.18)

Inversion

For such a mechanical process, it is amazing how beautiful this new music is.

Variation 18 became one of Rachmaninov’s most popular melodies, but it’s simply an inversion of Paganini’s Violin Caprice.

Rachmaninov

Serg

ei