Hunt the Nocturne
August 28, 2016 1:04 PM   Subscribe

Can you help me find this piano piece my Mum used to play?

It's the middle bit of a Chopin Nocturne, or else it sounds a lot like one. It's in a major key at least at the beginning. It's very fast and impressive to watch due to all the hand antics required. It starts with a suspenseful trill somewhere near middle C. Then everything kicks off and the left hand goes BONG ding ding bong ding ding BONG ding ding bong ding ding (and there is well over an octave between the bongs and the dings).
The right hand part goes climbing DOOdle oodle oodle doodle oodle oodle DOOdle oodle oodle doodle oodle oodle doo.....

I'm guessing this is in 6/8.

um that's all I have. help?
posted by emilyw to Media & Arts (8 answers total) 3 users marked this as a favorite
 
Fantasie Impromptu?
posted by essexjan at 1:39 PM on August 28, 2016


It's not a nocturne, but your description made me think of the Minute Waltz.
posted by taupe at 2:07 PM on August 28, 2016


Response by poster: Now if you took the LH from the Minute Waltz and stuck it under the first little bit of the theme of the Fantasie Impromptu, and put a big long trill on the front, you would be quite close to the thing I am thinking of!
posted by emilyw at 2:12 PM on August 28, 2016


Mr Anicae says possibly the revolutionary etude or Rachmaninoff's C sharp minor prelude.
posted by arnicae at 2:27 PM on August 28, 2016


Some of the Etudes op. 10 have BONG doop doop melody in the left hand and lots of deedledeedle in the right. Is it No. 8, which even starts with a trill?
posted by fritley at 2:28 PM on August 28, 2016 [1 favorite]


Best answer: Suspenseful trill near middle C made me think immediately of the Opus 42 Waltz. Very commonly used as a great show-off piece.
posted by tillsbury at 3:35 PM on August 28, 2016 [1 favorite]


Response by poster: That is it! Not entirely how I remembered it but that is exactly it. Thank you!
posted by emilyw at 11:27 PM on August 28, 2016


Response by poster: And here is a recording that does justice to the way it sounded when my mum played it!
posted by emilyw at 1:03 AM on August 29, 2016 [2 favorites]


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