''Comme le vent'' (''Like the wind'') is the first of the Études in the minor keys, Op. 39 for solo piano by the French
composer
A composer is a person who writes music. The term is especially used to indicate composers of Western classical music, or those who are composers by occupation. Many composers are, or were, also skilled performers of music.
Etymology and Defi ...
Charles-Valentin Alkan
Charles-Valentin Alkan (; 30 November 1813 – 29 March 1888) was a French Jewish 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 Lisz ...
. It is in
A minor
A minor is a minor scale based on A, with the pitches A, B, C, D, E, F, and G. Its key signature has no flats and no sharps. Its relative major is C major and its parallel major is A major.
The A natural minor scale is:
:
Changes ...
. The tempo marking is ''prestissimamente'' ( = 160), and the unusual time signature further encourages a fast performance. Its continuous triplet melody evokes a tarantella, and has a fleeting Mendelssohnian scherzo character, but is marked by Alkan's obsessive melodic development and unusual harmonic progressions.
The piece is technically demanding, requiring extreme digital velocity and dexterity, as well as stamina: lasting less than four minutes if played at tempo, its 23 pages contain long passages of perpetual triplet-32nd notes (triplet demisemiquavers) for the right hand. At the notated metronome marking, this corresponds to 16 notes per second throughout much of the piece, and in one section containing 64th notes, more than 21 notes per second. This speed is near to or beyond the physical limits of most all pianists.
The piece is not to be confused with Alkan's earlier ''Le vent'', one of the ''
Trois morceaux'' op. 15.
Kaikhosru Shapurji Sorabji considered the earlier piece to be better, making the later piece 'rather anticlimactic and redundant.'
The piece was in the repertoire of
Sergei Rachmaninoff
Sergei Vasilyevich Rachmaninoff; in Russian pre-revolutionary script. (28 March 1943) was a Russian composer, virtuoso pianist, and conductor. Rachmaninoff is widely considered one of the finest pianists of his day and, as a composer, one o ...
in the 1919/1920 concert season.
"Performance diary October 1919"
on Rachmaninoff Society Performance Diary website, accessed 30 March 2015.
Notes
External links
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Performance by Jack GibbonsDigital rendition by Youtube user celach
{{Alkan études
Études by Charles-Valentin Alkan
1861 compositions
Compositions in A minor