Hardest piece you know?

Jingle Bells.

19char

not suprised


Bach's Chaconne for solo violin must be the most difficult piece to play that I know of,
besides all the double stops and physical demands (it lasts 14 minutes),
It is in my opinion the best piece of written music,
so to master its overall beauty and power takes hours and hours of practice....

Its a piece that I seldomly attempt to play, just glimpse at it now and then

Heh, I was kidding. I find Moonlight sonata pretty hard for me (2nd year guitar).

Those barred chords are hard! (did i spell that right?)

Xenakis' "Evryali" for solo piano. Some parts of it are unplayable, and when a pianist asked Xenakis what he's supposed to do, Xenakis answered that he must decide which of the notes which can't be played are less important than the others and ignore them.

Other difficult piano pieces are Boulez's "Structures" for two pianos and his piano sonatas (notably his 2nd and 3rd) and Stockhausen's "Klaviestucke" (notably, the first movement is to be played "as fast as the player can play it").

Concerning more "conventional" repertoire, I'd say Balakirev's Islamey or some of the Godowsky's arrangements of Chopin's etudes. He did crazy things, such as taking the right hand of two etudes and assigning them to the left and right hand respectively (must be really difficult to play..).


Of course, I don't know how to play all these pieces, but I do know them So, in case you were wondering what's the most difficult piece I can play, I'd say the first movement from Beethoven's Piano Sonata No.15, but then again I am not a pianist

Liszt's Rhapsody #2, but really bad.

Its not too bad, but in some areas, but its the second clarinet's enemy. O_o...

The Marching Band Show, Music of the Day by Key Polan (SP?!?!?). Add a few measures of 16th note runs at 180... and moving... If the fingerings were easier, it wouldn't be too bad, but I had complete hand shifts and things for it. The first part's fingerings were easier, but the notes were harder to play...

When I used to play clarinet in concert band at my previous high school, we played a piece, I don't remember the name, but it had something to do with American this or that. Amercian Faces, or something like that maybe. It had some combination 32nd and 64th notes runs in D major crossing the break and going up as far as high F# above the staff as far as I remember. They were just rips, not really in time, but ending on the right beat while still getting all the notes in was DEAD hard. And it was so fast, that if you weren't fast enough at the break, all the rest of the notes would just be that ever familiar SQUEEEEEK, so you had to be extra careful that didn't happen. My clarinet didn't have the best sealing pads, either, so it was quite a challenge.

Anybody know any challenging pieces for horn and trumpet that I could try out? I don't own any trumpet-specific music, but on horn I can play the Mozart concertos, the first Strauss concerto, and most of Morceau de Concert, an arrangement of a Saint-Saens violin concert piece. Unfortunately, that's the only horn-specific music I have. Since I don't have any horn exercises, I've been playing violin études by Kayser, Weiss, Wolfhart, Danca, Mazas, and de Beriot. I transpose down some of the higher ones down to whatever key I feel like that day since I can't well play violin études in the seventh position on horn.... so it becomes a transposition exercise.

I don't know if anyone's mentioned this, but:

The Ligeti Etudes. Especially The Devil's Staircase. They're fine when you have two people playing the piano - well, most of them - but for one, it's HORRIBLE.

You mentioned them yourself, on the second page.

Amercian Faces, or something like...

American feces? Having a profound knowledge of american culture (there is no such thing), I'd say that my guess is a better one.

Letehn, somehow I feel a strong urge to not disagree with you.