Gaspard de la Nuit III. Scarbo

I'm not sure what to say about Scarbo other than its craziness! The piece is based from a poem written by Aloysius Bertrand and is the last piece from the Gaspard de la Nuit set. When I decided on a theme of evil, I knew that I had to include this piece because of its creepy sound and context to the actual poem. I will admit, that at first I learned this piece because of its reputation and to have something good to play for competitions. However, as I started learning it, I began seeing that it's a great piece, amusingly challenging, and something that I think helped me grow as a pianist. When I was learning the piece, I was telling my professor that Scarbo is CRAZY hard and his advice to me was:

"Just play all the notes!"

We just laughed because Scarbo has notes everywhere to the point where I'm not sure if the composer dropped his ink jar on the music or if he was having seizures while jotting down the notes. Either way, the difficulty makes it all the more fun to learn. And for Omaha people, you may know what I'm talking about if you remember the side of the Schmidt's music building before they painted over it. That's the second to the last page of Scarbo!

Honestly, I'm not sure if most people will like this one because it's very abstract sounding. I think Ravel is so good at turning concepts or words into music. Since the poem describes this little fiendish creature running around playing tricks on some guy, that's exactly what you'll hear in the music. Fast runs all over the place, dynamics all over the board... yet throughout it all, Ravel still makes gives it the romantic feeling with his chord progressions. I remember performing Scarbo once for a recital that was filled with students of all levels with their friends and families. I'm sure they are all use to hearing the Mozart stuff and Sonatinas because after I was done, there was this mass of people staring at me like "What did you just effin' play?!?!" as they shyly clapped their hands out of obligation. I mean... it's not for everyone.

ALL THE MORE REASON TO PLAY IT!

Piano music isn't just Fur Elise and Chopsticks so I'm always happy to play more contemporary literature! So I hope everyone who is listening to this for the first time doesn't find it too strange!

Below is the English version of the poem:

Oh! how often have I heard and seen him, Scarbo, when at midnight the moon glitters in the sky like a silver shield on an azure banner strewn with golden bees.

How often have I heard his laughter buzz in the shadow of my alcove, and his fingernail grate on the silk of the curtains of my bed!

How often have I seen him alight on the floor, pirouette on a foot and roll through the room like the spindle fallen from the wand of a sorceress!

Do I think him vanished then? the dwarf grows between the moon and me like the belfry of a gothic cathedral, a golden bell shakes on his pointed cap!

But soon his body becomes blue, translucent like the wax of a candle, his face pales like the wax of a candle end - and suddenly he is extinguished.

Category:

Music

Tags:

• Dennis McNulty
• denisu33
• Gaspard de la Nuit
• Scarbo
• Maurice Ravel

[pianochrisseh]

i love ravel's music, and usually when i google ravel, all the videos that aren't argerich or rachter, lisistsa or someone else who's really up there, are usually pretty bad, but i think this was excellent. i've only really started learning more modern music, doing ravel's sonatine, and some prokofiev visions fugitive pieces (:

[Nefertari155]

Thank you very much, it's wonderful! The scariness of this piece and the easiness with which you play it are amazing.