Product Description
The Prelude in C# minor was the bane of Rachmaninoff's existence as a performer. Audiences could NOT get enough of it, and he could not bear to play it one more time! Such is Fame and Success.
Well, we Normal Humans have had to look at the traditional setting of it, in two grand staves, with enough double-accidentals to blind a scribe, and try to emulate The Master from that pirate's treasure map. No longer. Here is a single-grand staff setting, with only the most minor modifications to accommodate the average hand, and spellings that show the true nature of the chords.
The single best aspect of our setting here is the Total Elimination of the crossed-hand octaves throughout. When I realized these were only three or four-note triads, and not a pile of interlocking harmonies, I determined to make things clearer, for myself, and other players. The low notes all correspond to Rachmaninoff's bassline, except for one passage near the end. Only TWO octave doublings have been removed to make a smaller leap from the former lower grand staff to the upper. When I was a young student, this sort of music was baffling to my eyes, but not my ears. Now we can all see it and play it for what it is, an early masterwork, based on S.R.'s training in harmony from the Moscow Conservatory. A note can be the root, 3rd, 5th, 7th, and even 9th of some chord. They are all on display here, with a nice summation at the end, in quietude. MBB
This product was created by a member of ArrangeMe, Hal Leonard's global self-publishing community of independent composers, arrangers, and songwriters. ArrangeMe allows for the publication of unique arrangements of both popular titles and original compositions from a wide variety of voices and backgrounds.