This a page from the score of Rachmaninoff’s Prelude in C#m. The first thing a student notices when confronted with this piece of music is it takes 4 staffs for Rachmaninoff to show all the notes instead of the normal 2 staffs. In other words there are Two Treble Clefs and Two Bass Clefs for each line of music. The first comment, after looking at their own hands, is how in the Hell am I supposed to do that. Actually it is not as hard as it looks since the notes that are far apart are played independently of the big chords. Also note the little x next to some of the “F” in the score. That is the infamous F double sharp employed so that the pianist can play a natural G – something only found in music in the key of C# minor. This piece of music features Rachmaninoff’s love of “Big Sound” something also found in Great Music – Chapter 5.5 illustrating Rachmaninoff’s 3rd Concerto.
In the lexicon of music notation there is no such thing as FFFF. Normally, there is an F (Forte) which indicates loud or FF (Fortissimo) for very loud. That was not good enough for Rachmaninoff so he came up with FFFF or even FFFFF to indicate he wanted his type of loudness. Similarly, in parts of this music he uses the indicator PPPPP which is, I guess, 5 times softer than it is possible to play.
Sergi Rachmaninoff was born in Northwest Russia in 1873 of a noble family with great wealth and multiple estates. Unfortunately, his father was an alcoholic and a gambler and most of the family wealth was lost. Nonetheless, other relatives supported the family and Sergi’s obvious musical talent earned him a place at the famous Moscow Conservatory. At least initially, many of Rachmaninoff’s early musical compositions were panned by the Russian critics and drove Rachmaninoff into a depression which he suffered from on and off for most of his life.
The upheaval of the Russian revolution drove Rachmaninoff out of Russia, first to Germany and then to the United States. He made his living mainly as a touring pianist and orchestra conductor rather than for his compositions. While Rachmaninoff wrote many great piano pieces his fame was primarily due to his famous 3rd Piano Concerto which just about every major orchestra wanted to perform, especially if it was with the composer himself at the piano.
While Rachmaninoff lived in NYC for a long time, his favorite was California and eventually moving first to San Francisco and then to Los Angeles where he died of cancer in 1943. If you study Rachmaninoff’s music, you can chart his love of Bombast in his youth to the delicate touching melodies of his later years. Yes, age does something to all of us as we age and build up a treasure of memories. Later in this series I will introduce you to a couple of Rachmaninoff’s delicate pieces of music and melodies that will send goosebumps up your spine. But first: