Alkan - Etude No. 7 Op. 35

Etude No. 7 in E-flat major "L'incendie au village voisin" (Fire in the Neighboring Village) from the 12 Etudes in all the Major Keys Op. 35 (1847)

Quoted from Ronald Smith's Alkan, The Man, The Music:

"L'incendie au village voisin is an unclassifiable extension of the genre, a kind of free-ranging, pictorial fantasy akin to the Lisztian symphonic poem of the succeeding decade. The occasional excursion into a more extravagant realism, with its inescapable twang of silent film music, falls uncomfortably on modern ears and has thrown even Alkan's staunchest admirers into disarray. 'A flat style' declares the French musicologist Georges Beck, 'and effects that are mere noise.' Could this writer have ever strayed upon a pioneering essay on the composer in Bernard van Dieren's Down among the Dead Men (1935) in which the piece is described as 'an exquisite tone painting like one of the movements in Harold in Italy'? Three years earlier Sorabji had also praised it as 'very remarkable; most original in form.' All the same, L'incendie, perhaps more than any other of Alkan's important compositions, demands the most persuasive artistry to fulfil such claims. In lesser hands it will sound faded, shallow, naive, its turbulences turned to bombast.

The work opens quietly, expansively. A gentle song of the countryside, marked 'amoroso', steals reassuringly on the ear. Romantic modulations colour the landscape. Nothing it seems can disturb the pastoral calm; not even the distant menace of eight drum strokes. They pass unheeded. The drum insists. The landscape darkens. The drum now raps out its unmistakable warning to the accompaniment of scurrying feet and the whole scene rattles into action as the flames leap, threaten and engulf. This central phase is dominated by an impetuous allegro moderato in 12/8. As the fury intensifies so the alarm signals become more desperate. All at once the distant approach of soldiers promises relief. As they draw nearer fierce trumpets herald action. At first the fire only rages with renewed ferocity but as it continues to mount it is confronted by a series of inexorable advances 'clamando' and with a final defiant burst of energy is brought under control. A few angry eruptions retreat into silence and all is calm. With simple-hearted reverence the villagers join in a six-part Cantica. This song of thanksgiving rises to its climax and the work ends with a majestic plagal cadence.

No one attempting the following piece should fail to study Raymond Lewenthal's illuminating introduction to it in his invaluable selection of piano works by Alkan. 'This is a perfect work' he claims. 'Perfect as music, perfect as the etude it sets out to be.' As music it suggests a love duet with guitar or lute accompaniment. As an etude it deals systematically with the problem of entwining a legato melody within a staccato accompaniment in the same hand. Chopin apart I can think of no other composer who could have wrung inspiration from such a constrictive device."

Category:

Music

Tags:

• alkan
• liszt

[Starbirdy9999]

It's Beethoven on steroids!

[bratzko79]

Hexameron for president!!!

[halfabeet]

Imagine how demoralised the pianist would have been if they'd hit a wrong key in one of those final two chords :-0

[shortcircuit94]

Hexameron, I really appreciate that you uploaded all this music. I would have not found these wonderful pieces for a long time had I not stumbled upon your videos! :)

[ryancalarts]

I like it a lot!

[TempodiPiano]

This etude is a monster. How ugly !

[PianoBlond]

awesome., it tells a story, and it does it in wonderfully...

(222 likes 2 dislikes lol :D)

[pingkai]

@Starbirdy9999 Sorry I can not feel a lot of "Beethoven" from this piece.

[Gerjay]

This piece is brilliant.

[LiSaiFun]

A beatiful example of absolutely needless music. Even if this piece was created 200 years ago, it would be sunk into oblivion, just as some other time.