Grand galop chromatique in

E-flat major E-flat major (or the key of E-flat) is a major scale based on E, consisting of the pitches E, F, G, A, B, C, and D. Its key signature has three flats. Its relative minor is C minor, and its parallel minor is E minor, (or enharmonically ...

, S.219 is a

bravura In classical music a bravura is a style of both music and its performance intended to show off the skill of a performer. John Alexander Fuller-Maitland, ''A dictionary of music and musicians (A.D. 1450-1889)'p. 271-272/ref> Commonly, it is a virt ...

piece by

Franz Liszt Franz Liszt, in modern usage ''Liszt Ferenc'' . Liszt's Hungarian passport spelled his given name as "Ferencz". An orthographic reform of the Hungarian language in 1922 (which was 36 years after Liszt's death) changed the letter "cz" to simpl ...

, composed in 1838. This galop was one of Liszt's favorite encores which he considered a "rouser". The ''galop chromatique'' was published as a piano solo and also in a version for piano duet ( S.616). Among 20th century pianists,

György Cziffra Christian Georges Cziffra (; born Cziffra Krisztián György; 5 November 192115 January 1994) was a Hungarian-French virtuoso pianist and composer. He is considered to be one of the greatest virtuoso pianists of the twentieth century. Among ...

notably attained enormous audience success with this piece. The galop features various technical difficulties, one of the most significant being the

sixteenth-note Figure 1. A 16th note with stem facing up, a 16th note with stem facing down, and a 16th rest. Figure 2. Four 16th notes beamed together. In music, a 1/16, sixteenth note ( American) or semiquaver (British) is a note played for half the dur ...

jumps played by the right hand in bars 85 through 92, 157 through 164, and 173 through 180. Similar to the jumps studied in Liszt's étude "''

La campanella "La campanella" (Italian for "The little bell") is the nickname given to the third of Franz Liszt's six ''Grandes études de Paganini'', S. 141 (1851). It is in the key of G-sharp minor. This piece is a revision of an earlier version from 1838, ...

''" but typically played far more rapidly, these jumps reach intervals of thirteen steps (two and a half octaves) at their largest. Other technical difficulties include rapid

chromatic scale The chromatic scale (or twelve-tone scale) is a set of twelve pitches (more completely, pitch classes) used in tonal music, with notes separated by the interval of a semitone. Chromatic instruments, such as the piano, are made to produce th ...

s and sixteenth-note jumps in the left hand.

External links

Notes

{{Franz Liszt Compositions for solo piano Compositions by Franz Liszt Compositions for piano four-hands Compositions in E-flat major 1838 compositions Galops