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Bolero from 5 Spanish Dances for piano duet (piano 4 hands)

Moritz Moszkowski (1854 – 1925) was a German composer of Polish – Jewish descent who was an exceptional pianist and well known at the end of the 1 Read More...

Moritz Moszkowski (1854 – 1925) was a German composer of Polish – Jewish descent who was an exceptional pianist and well known at the end of the 19th century as a concert pianist, conductor, composer and teacher. He was also a competent violinist. He composed many small-scale piano works of which his 5 Spanish Dances Opus 12 set are probably the best known existing in several formats. After moving to Paris in 1897 his health deteriorated from 1908 and his career quickly went into decline. From being rich and famous he soon lost all his money as a result of exchanging the copyrights on his music for government bonds which became worthless at the outbreak of the war in 1914. The Spanish sound is referenced by use of the phrygian mode which has the semi-tones between the first and second and the fifth and sixth degree of the scale - D Eb F G A Bb C D. The rhythmic shapes are from patterns associated with the Bolero which originated in Spain during the C18th as a form of ballroom dance and became a template and form used by many composers of art music. Music associated with particular countries and regions of Europe particular on its fringes became very popular towards the end of the 19th century in a movement that was known as nationalism. Moszkowski was a very well known composer artist in his own time but after his death like many composers his music disappeared from concert programmes. Score detail is in place for the whole movement simply for clarity. The suggested tempo to play this movement advised by the music editor is 104 quarter note (crotchet) beats to the minute but a realistic and equally satisfactory tempo is 96 quarter note (crotchet) beats to the minute. There are two options as to how to play the trills . Either as in the video score which can be viewed on our YouTube channel or by playing semi quavers. One of the characteristics of a Bolero is that it they speed up at the end and this feature has been retained in the realizations and accompaniments. This Bolero is a great ensemble piece offering plenty of contrast and pianistic in the sense that it quite playable. The accompaniment downloads available enable players to enjoy an ensemble music experience playing either the Primo or Secondo parts. The Primo part sounds on the one channel of the stereo signal and the Secondo part sounds on the other. Accompaniment 1 plays at 96 quarter note beats (crotchet) to the minute, Accompaniment 2 at 100 quarter note (crotchet) beats to the minute and Accompaniment 3 at 104 quarter note beats (crotchet) to the minute. There is a four bar count in that features the sound of a woodblock. When performing printing two pages of music onto one side of A4 offers a very practical solution for players. One of the characteristics of a Bolero is that it they speed up at the end and this feature has been retained in the realizations and accompaniments. This Bolero is a great ensemble piece offering plenty of contrast and pianistic in the sense that it quite playable. For those who want to explore the music of Moszkowski Étincelles (Sparks) from the Opus 72 set of Études is quite a movement often played as an encore at the end of a concert. Close