page_title: Six moments musicaux (Rachmaninoff)
section_title: 3. Andante cantabile, B minor
hierarchical_section_title: Six moments musicaux (Rachmaninoff) / Composition / 3. Andante cantabile, B minor
caption_attribution_description: A section in Six Moments Musicaux, No. 3. The piece, composed by Sergei Rachmaninoff in 1896 was published before 1923, and thus is in the public domain.
context_page_description: Six moments musicaux, Op. 16, is a set of solo piano pieces composed by the Russian composer Sergei Rachmaninoff between October and December 1896. Each Moment musical reproduces a musical form characteristic of a previous musical era. The forms that appear in Rachmaninoff's incarnation are the nocturne, song without words, barcarolle, virtuoso étude, and theme and variations.
  The individual pieces have been described as "true concert works, being best served on a stage and with a concert grand." Although composed as part of a set, each piece stands on its own as a concert solo with individual themes and moods. The pieces span a variety of themes ranging from the funeral march of number three to the canon of number six, the Moments musicaux are both Rachmaninoff's return to and revolution of solo piano composition. A typical performance lasts 30 minutes.
  In an interview in 1941, Rachmaninoff said, "What I try to do, when writing down my music, is to make it say simply and directly that which is in my heart when I am composing." Even though Moments musicaux were written because he was short of money, the pieces summarize his knowledge of piano composition up to that point.
context_section_description: The continual gauntlets of number two are relieved by the third piece in the set, an "introspective rêverie [daydream]." Drawing on the previous illustration of a "generic hybrid," this piece is described as a mixture between the song without words and funeral march genres, to create what is called the "most Russian" piece of the set, containing both sonorous bass and a solid melody, characteristics of Russian music.
  Comprising only 55 measures, this piece is one of the shortest but has one of the longer playing times of about seven minutes (4:30 if the repeat is not taken). The piece is structured as a three-part form. The theme of the first and second sections are played entirely in minor thirds, accompanied by a left hand figure of open fifths and octaves. The third section has the melody in minor sixths, alongside a staccato octave bass. The lament of the opening theme transforms into an explicit funeral march as the left-hand octaves become regular.
caption: The entire Andante Cantabile has low, dark, and thick melodies reminiscent of a funeral march.[9]
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