Classical Music | Piano Music

Recorded on 10/05/2011, uploaded on 03/27/2012

Musician's or Publisher's Notes

Sergei Rachmaninoff’s Vocalise is one of his most beloved and well-known creations—a piece that has taken on a life and reputation separate from its thirteen companion pieces that make up the composer’s Fourteen Songs, op. 34. In technical terms, the vocalise is to song much in the same way the étude is to a piano piece, and its history dates back to the mid-18^th century. While the étude underwent a radical transformation during the 19^th century that began with Frédéric Chopin, the vocalise did not. However, a few composers of the early 20^th century, searching for new means of expression, found in the vocalise all the potential of a blank canvas. Fauré and Stravinsky both composed their own songs without words, but it is Rachmaninoff’s 1912 composition that is the vocalise for many admirers of his work and classical music in general.

In the plaintive key of C-sharp minor, the voice weaves its melancholy and longing melody over a slowly descending bass and a pulsing accompaniment of chords. The melody gracefully unfolds across a rounded binary form as the piece progresses. A wealth of material is presented in its opening section from which Rachmaninoff then draws upon and plays out in both the voice and accompaniment during the latter section, in particular as the piece’s emotional climax is reached. A brief coda concludes the piece where the voice soars above the accompaniment before coming to rest on the tonic and fading away into the final cadence.

Though Rachmaninoff indicated the work can be sung by a soprano or a tenor, it is generally performed by the former, and like many songs, is transposed to different keys to best match the range of the vocalist. The composer himself also scored the work for voice and orchestra, in which form it is often heard. As with many well-known compositions, it has also been transcribed for a myriad of solo instruments and ensembles by various hands.        Joseph DuBose

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Rachmaninoff's Vocalise is one of his most famous songs and this transcription was made by the great American pianist Earl Wild. In Wild's typical style, the arrangement is extremely elaborate and virtuosic, with interweaving countermelodies and dense harmonies, whereas the original is simple and understated.      Igor Lovchinsky

Courtesy of International Music Foundation.