Bells of Moscow

Background to Prelude in C# Minor

From the Internet (cant remember where)
Composed in 1892
Rachmaninovs most famous prelude
Composed when he was 19
Reminded him of church bells ringing when he was young
From Sergei Rachmaninov: A Lifetime in Music
(p. 49)
And thus one of the worlds most popular piano pieces began is long career, that was
to bring its composer everything-fame and contempt, ease and embarrassment, money
(indirectly) and annoyance aplenty)
One day the Prlude simply came and I put it down. It came with such force that I
could not shake it off even though I tried to do so. It had to be so-so there is was Rachmaninov
This is very much like Schumanns Novelletten
(p. 51)
Op. 3 (Elegy, the Prlude, Melody, Polichnelle and Serenade) were to be dedicated to
his teacher, Arensky
First performed as a group in the Kharkov concert of December 20, 1892.
(p. 53)
Tchaikovsky later wrote to Siloti that is he liked the piano pieces very much,
especially the Prlude and the Melody
(p. 162-163)
I found myself out of pocket. I needed money, and I wrote this Prlude and sold it to
a publisher for what he would give
(p. 175)
Rachmaninovs preludes differ from Chopins in that they generally incline towards
a solid and often polyphonic treatment, a broad structure, or towards clear contrasts of
musically independent sections; in a word, they approach Chopins exceptions to his
own rule, as in the famous D-flat major prelude. Yuli Engel
Instead of Chopins two page or even half page works. Rachmaninovs Prludes
grow into 4 6 or even 8 pages. This is a growth to be welcome when it derives from
th4 natural tendency of a musical idea to revel itself as fully as possible, as for
example, the beautiful Prlude-March in G minor, op. 23.
(p. 253)
He has amusingly confessed that it still pursues him everywhere, Rachmaninov is
that Prelude, just as Charlie Chaplin is a pair of baggy trousers and hypertrophied
boots, and George Robey is a pair of arched eyebrows Ernest Newman
(p. 295-296)
I really don't care anymore. Something about him playing two notes more and being
expected to play it everywhere he goes
(p. 327)
I play it without feeling like a machine Rachmaninov
From Rachmaninov: Life, Works, Recordings
(p.48)

And from its sinister ff opening through the surprising ppp continuation, the agitated
central section, the mournful tolling of its final bars, when the music evaporates, its
remains a genuinely imaginative statement, although the climax can seem too
passionate for so short a piece. Even during this there remains an indefinable sense of
fate hovering and the Prelude in C Sharp minor signaled and important aspect of
Rachmaninovs artistic personality.

(p. 87)
Which proved extremely popular in Britain and elsewhere: so much that London
publishers brought out several editions with titles such as The Burning of Moscow,
The Day of Judgment and, still less plausibly, The Moscow Waltz.
(p. 95)
(On Piano Concerto No.2) Each of the movements begins by changing key, this one
from F minor to the home key of C minor, moving a semitone at a time and ending by
empathetically expressing the works germ motif: (G) A flat F G C. This type of
chord sequence was a recurring preoccupation of Rachmaninovs, surely born out of
improvisation at the keyboard, an earlier instance being the final eight bars of the
Prelude Op. 3 No. 2.
(p. 277)
(Rachmaninov recorded his compositions on the gramophone) The Prelude is most
beautifully phrased, especially its first page.
Influences
So far, none have been listed, but as this is an early composition, influences are most
likely to be drawn from Nationalism composer Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov (The Five)
and Pyotr Tchaikovsky
Characteristics of Romantic music in general
http://www.essential-humanities.net/western-art/music/romantic/
Unrestrained emotional expression
Romantic composers burst free of the limitations imposed by classicism (balance,
harmony, clarity, simplicity), embracing whatever aesthetic techniques proved
effective in capturing a particular feeling. Throughout the Romantic age, composers
increasingly embraced abrupt shifts in dynamics and temp, an experimented with
novel melodies and chord progressions
Mainstream Romantic music came from Germany, Austria, Italy and France, whereas
regional Romantic music, which featured a distinct local flavor flourished during
the late Romantic period

Featured artistic freedom and experimentation

Featured extremities on the chromatic scale new melodic and harmonic
possibilities. Key shifting became much more frequent within manuscripts
A wide range of instrument combination and techniques were pioneered during the
Romantic age, thereby unleashing the full potential of orchestral expression.
The pianos full expressive potential was achieved

(Of the mainstream Romanticists) Full romantics pursued Romanticism

unconditionally, while the conservative Romantics retained a significant of classicism
(structure, clarity, simplicity).

Regional Romanticists infused Western art music with the folk music of their native
lands (Rachmaninov fits in the category)

Features of Russian Nationalist music

http://www.dorak.info/music/national.html
In the 1830s, a national musical style- marked with emphasis on folk songs, folk
dances, and especially folk rhythms began to emerge in Russia. This coincided with
similar nationalistic movements in other countries such as Poland, Bohemia, and
Scandinavian countries.
There was not a distinguished Russian Art Music style before the 1830s. Two
important sources of genuine Russian music as inspiration for the nineteenth century
Russian composers were church music (Russian chants) and folk music.
The Russian Five (Balakirev, Borodin, Cui, Mussorgsky and Rimsky-Korsakov) use
folk material extensively in their music.
Balakirevs symphonic poem Tamara, Borodins Polovtzian Dances from Prince Igor,
and Rimsky-Korsakoffs Scheherazade are examples of Russian orientalism.
Kamarinskaya is free variations on two Russian folk songs written by Glinka in 1848.
In this piece, he surmounted restrictions on folk songs by the additions of counter
melodies to them. The folk tunes (wedding song and dance song) are used as a cantus
firmus against which new melodies and figurations are worked. The songs used by
the composer are extremely repetitive which makes arabesque-like ornaments
inevitable.
In his second string quartet in F, he uses the combination of Russian harmony with a
Norwegian melodic contour (falling leading note) in the Scherzo (Tchaikovsky)
The Russian composers developed a unique idiom which contained the following: the
cell development technique (a short motif or phrase repeated exactly or slightly
varied), pronounced interest in orchestral colour, variety of dynamics, use of
(inverted) pedal points, drone basses, dominant hovering, use of exotic harmony
(chromatic or modal), pentatonic or modal tunes and their associated harmonies, and
additive structures resulting from the cell development on a big scale, small melodic
compass, recurring intervallic shapes) like the falling fourth in Tchaikovskys
Serenade for Strings.
In the nineteenth century, folk elements (repetition of single notes, phrases, dance like
rhythms, real or imitation folk-tunes) were integrated into Russian music. Folk tales
were used as subjects for opera and symphonic poems.
Russian music made an important contribution to the development of harmony by the
use of whole-tone elements, chromanticism and higher discords
The use of whole tones inevitably resulted in a frequent use of augmented triads as all
triads using whole tones are augmented. (Harmonic clich: chord 1 augmented
chord 1 and V1b, has for example, tonal/modal ambiguity)
New rhythmic patterns: quintuple time, five bar phrases and the general disruption of
conventional rhythmic patterns.
Polysyllabic Russian words had an obvious influence on the newly emerged rhythmic
patterns which influenced instrumental music too.
Repetition rather than motivic development produced new attitudes to form. Such
repetition or breakdown of extended phrases into small bricks (or mosaics) replaced
thematic development and created new additive structures (mosaic form)
Constantly changing rhythm, dynamics, volume and orchestral tone colour disguises
repetitiveness and prevent monotony.
The whole tone scale due to inevitable augmented triads and lack of semi tonal pull f
the leading note was a significant factor in the disintegration of tonality.
Russian Nationalist Composers

From The Rough Guide to Classical Music

Mily Balakirev (the leader)

Csar Cui
Modest Mussorgsky: (p. 366) Rimsky-Korsakov, while recognizing that Mussorgsky
was talented, original, full of so much that was new and vital asserted that his
manuscript also revealed absurd, disconnected harmony, ugly par writing,
sometimes strikingly illogical modulationunsuccessful orchestration and began a
dedicated project to make his music more performable, either by completing works
Mussorgsky had failed to finish or by the wholesale rewriting of complete
compositions. Yet these are the very elements-power, earthiness and sheer invention
that gave Mussorgsky his unique musical personality.
(p. 368) [On Boris Godunov] Mussorgsky exploits the dramatic potential of this
scenario to the full, creating a powerful contrast between the spectacle of the
Coronation Scene and Boriss inner torment as he tries and fails to come to terms with
his guilt. Composers as diverse as Debussy and Janacek were undoubtedly influenced
by Mussorgskys sill in word setting, in particular his way of setting dramatic prose
so that the music effects the inflections of the spoken text.
[on Rimsky improving the composition] While Rimskys version is undoubtedly
colourful, it misses the profundity and dark hues of the original orchestration.
(p. 369) [On his songwriting] Mussorgsky is arguably the greatest nineteenth century
songwriter after Schubert and Schumann, though this aspect of this music is not well
enough known outside of Russia.
He also, more than any other composer of the period, had o qualms about introducing
the modality of folk song into his vocal music.
Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov: (p. 445) Most of his operas are an exotic blend of
supernatural elements within a Russian folk setting.
Alexander Borodin: (p. 88) Like Tchaikovskys earlier symphonies, Borodins
employ typically Russian harmonies, melodies and rhythms against a fairly
conventional Germanic formal background. Symphony No. 1, in particular, looks
back to Schumann, one of Borodins prime influences at the time, yet is a distinctly
Russian work, particularly in the use of a folk song in the Scherzo and the oriental
lyricism of the slow movement.

The Russian Submediant in the Nineteenth Century

Russian art music grew up under peculiar conditions, partially isolated from
contemporary Western music
Closely linked with a folk-music marked by various tonal peculiarities
Russian musicians have always shown a peculiar intellectual interest in what we may
call the curiosities of harmony and that two or three of them have been revolutionary
innovators.
Russian harmony significantly increases the importance of the submediant function in
a major-mode context, by emphasizing the sixth degree as an adjunct harmonic factor
to the tonic triad, and by promoting the submediant as an alternative tonal focus to the
tonic function, even by merging the relative major and minor into a single superkey
with two tonics
We can see this mannerism, which I call the Russian sixth, first emerging as an
individual phenomenon in Glinka and Dargomizhsky, latfer achieving full flower in
Tchaikovsky and the Five

In the Western diatonic system the relationship of relative major and minor is as basic
and intrinsic as the same key signature that is used for both; at the same time, it goes
much further than mere notation or theoretical construct
Even the notation of key signatures requires that the leading tone of the relative minor
has to be indicated by an additional inflectional sign, and often this is necessary for
the sixth degree as well
The association of relative major and minor as a resource of tonality and form has
been validated by more than three centuries of tonal music even since the late
sixteenth century
[Development since the Baroque era] crowning examples of the German Baroque
chorale, which reveal numerous instances where tonal functions are guided by
various modal characteristics of the older cantus firmi, and may be unexpected; in
many instances, wen the primary tonality is minor, the stronger secondary tonal
function is the relative major
The relative minor and major tonic functions (or, alternatively, the tonic and median)
are strengthened by their preceding dominants. Notwithstanding that relative minor
and major appears within the same phrase, this is unmistakably tonal harmony.
[Classical Era] By the time of the flowering of the classical sonata form in the minor
mode, the same relationship expands to include the assurance of the relative major for
the second key area of the exposition, in nearly all cases.
Two things are primarily significant about this result. First the reverse association
does not occur; in chorales in the major mode, the relative minor is not tonicised
disproportionately to other secondary functions
Modal harmony is a term that is often used but seldom precisely defined. The early
Baroque chorales are often said to exhibit both modal and tonal harmony, and a
modal origin is often offered as an explanation of diatonic deviation from tonal
harmony within common practice.

Musical Features of Romantic Music

http://www.mostlywind.co.uk/romantic.html
The Romantic composers were able to express themselves freely and personally, thus
melodies tend to be much more emotional than that of music from the Classical Era.
Romantic music developed over the course of around a hundred years. Many new
styles of composition were created, such as the lied, which combined Romantic
poetry with voice and piano, waltz, mazurka, polonaise and etude (study piece). Other
forms of music were created, such as piano in free form eg. Fantasy, arabesque,
rhapsody, romanza, ballade, nocturnes and symphonic works eg. The tone poem.
Romanic music contained warm and personal melodies, expressive indications eg.
Dolce, con, amore, con fuoco, implied interpretive freedom (rubato) and charmonic
colour (new chords such as the ninth). Colour was intensified by the improvement of
the instruments eg. Piano, which was more commonly used in Romantic
compositions.
Prominent composers: Beethoven, Liszt etc
Melody: Long, lyrical melodies with irregular phrases; Wide, somewhat angular
skips, extensive use for chromatics; vivid contrasts a variety of melodic ideas within
one movement
Rhythm: Frequent changes in the tempo and time signature
Texture: homophonic
Timbre: a great variety of tone colour; woodwind and brass section of the orchestra
increased; many special orchestral effects introduced; rich and colourful orchestration
http://www.mostlywind.co.uk/romantic.html

Emphasis on lyrical melodies rich, often chromatic harmonies, use of discords

Sense of vagueness in tonality/ harmony, but also in rhythm and meter
Denser textures with bold dramatic contrasts, exploring a wider range of pitches and
dynamics
Shape was brought to compositions through the use of recurring themese, such as
nature, region and nationalism (what the hell)

Musical Features in Prelude in C Sharp Minor

Self Analysis
Relative major of C# minor is E major. In reference to the Russian Submediant
Very large range of dynamics, ranging from ppp to sffff
http://www.pianoworld.com/forum/ubbthreads.php/topics/425072/Rachmaninoff's
%20Prelude%20in%20No%202.html
Use of German augmented sixth chord (ADF#B#) (predominant-functioned chords)
Usage of unusual tonal chords
Contradictions in Rachmaninov
Next comes one of Rachmaninovs most characteristic gestures great leaps,
alternating octaves with chords and soucnding like a massive bell (bar 9 [First Piano
Concerto]). This figure is prominent in Rachmaninovs two most popular works the
Prelude op. 3 no. 2 and Second Piano Concerto op. 18. EMPHASIS OF
CHARACTERISTICS OF RACHMANINOVS COMPOSITION
Repetition, whether varied or not, plays a major role in Rachmaninovs music. His
supporters welcome not only frequent repetition within works a sticking point with
his detractors but also the reappearance of ideas from one work to the nest (eg. The
Dies Irae and sounds of bells). Rachmaninovs critics have identified this sharing of
motives, themes ad gestures between works as incontrovertible proof of a paucity of
ideas. In other words, recurrence of material, within or between works is, like big
tunes, a strength or weakness, depending on ones vantage point.
Guitar tab of the song (?!)
http://www.911tabs.com/tabs/s/sergei_rachmaninoff/prelude_in_c_sharp_minor_tab.htm#670
1268
Analysis of Comparison Compositions
Rimsky-Korsakov: Flight of the Bumblebee
Vigorous use of chromaticism
The first musical element that we consider is tempo. Fast tempos typically generate
excitement, energy, and action. Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakovs Flight of the Bumblebee
speeds along at a breakneck pace in order to capture the frenetic motions of a berserk
insect. In contrast, slow tempos are often, but not always, used in solemn, deeply
reflective, and brooding situations. Richard Strauss Death and Transfiguration crawls
along at a lethargic pace, transporting the listener to a room housing a man on his
deathbed
Tchaikovsky: Swan Lake, Act II No. 10
Dramatic variation in dynamics
Very lyrical and emotive melodies
Rimsky-Korsakov: Scheherazade (Second Movement) (from two websites)

This is a Russian Orientalist symphonic suite

Originally, the four movements were going to be called Prelude, Ballade, Adagio and
Finale, but as the composition tended more to the programmatic side (more detailed
than Tchaikovskys Hamlet), he changed the titles of each movement
The orchestration is very strategic: he introduces the percussion instruments
gradually, which is exceptional for some reason.
Written in 1888
This piece of work was inspired by The Arabian Nights, in which the Sultan marries
and executes a new wife, due to his loss of trust when his wife is disloyal to him. Yet,
when he meets Scheherazade, he eventually relents and falls in love with her, as she
had a plan to stop him using her brilliant storytelling dexterity. She would tell him a
story, which continued on for 1001 days. By then, he has grown to trust her.
Description of the movements (general)
The piece opens with the Sultan a big and burly theme filled with gravitas and ego,
to declare his dominance over his minors
The solo violin personifies Scheherazades voice, somewhat sounding like the sounds
made by a snake charmers. The harp plays three chords, which symbolizes the
hypnotic power Scheherazade carried in her tales.
The modulations in key symbolizes the turning points of her tales
The second movement (The Tale of the Kalendar Prince) opens with the solo violin,
which depicts the soft, flowing melody that is Scheherazades voice. The solo violin
part is more elaborate and ornamented. In this movement, Rimsky Korsakov makes
use of Middle-Eastern sounding solos in the woodwind instruments
http://www.allmusic.com/composition/scheherazade-symphonic-suite-for-orchestra-op-35mc0002364307
Rimsky-Korsakov suggested that "one might see a fight" when a martial variant of the
Sultan's theme enters, surrounded by nervous string oscillations, while a later section with
fluttering woodwinds and pizzicato string chords suggests "Sinbad's mighty bird, the Roc."

Find more about Russian Orientalism did that influence Rachmaninov at all?
EE Title(s):
Initial: How did Russian Nationalist Music melodically and harmonically influence Sergei
Rachmaninovs Prelude in C Sharp Minor?
+ Argument
Modified title: To what extent did Rachmaninov incorporate melodic and harmonic elements
from Russian Nationalist Music into his Prelude in C Sharp Minor?