Talk:Prelude in C-sharp minor (Rachmaninoff)

message: Rachmaninov's works are out of copyright, right? It would be nice to have a recording in the article. This guy here has what sounds to my untrained ears like a competent performance:
http://www.hi.is/~ymir/music/
His copyright notice sounds like maybe he could be persuaded to release this file under the GFDL. If anyone else feels this would benefit the article then I encourage you to make an enquiry.
- Haukurth 16:54, 13 July 2005 (UTC)
replies: text: That's great! I haven't uploaded music before, but just in case, maybe Wikipedia:Media will be of help. --HappyCamper 18:57, 2 March 2007 (UTC)

text: Where can we find that? --HappyCamper 19:30, 2 March 2007 (UTC)
replies: text: Well, I just finished playing this at a big concert... I could record it if I had something to record it with. ♥ Fredil 23:27, 29 January 2008 (UTC)

text: I will have it finished by December/November- I'll gladly record it. ... -Panther (talk) 02:25, 5 October 2009 (UTC)
thread_title: Can we get a recording?

message: Could someone who has a Sibelius music writer program other than the demo (the only version I have) perhaps put down the first two notes + the first complete measure? - Or I can scan the music I have and upload it here...just let me know. —CliffHarris (-T|C-) 23:26, 1 May 2006 (UTC)
replies: text: This piece is out of copyright:  you should be able to upload the whole thing.  Grover cleveland 00:55, 28 February 2007 (UTC)
thread_title: First two measures

message: I have read that the music "tells a story" but I can no longer locate the source I once had or find it anyplace else (books; record jackets; CD inserts; etc.).  I don't have the music handy so I don't know the actual tempos, but here goes.
It starts (opening chords = church bells) with the slow (largo?) procession of a funeral march to the cemetery.  The casket is interred.  The fast (presto?) movement is then the desperate scratching of the person in the casket trying to get out!  The next movement (moderato?) is the recession of the mourners heading back to town or going their separate ways.  The final chords are the church bells again.
Has anyone else read that or a more reliable version anyplace?  I don't think that Rachmaninoff endorsed that interpretation but he didn't deny it, either.  
I think he said to people who asked about the meaning of his music that, "It can mean whatever you want it to mean."
Do you think a better, more reliable 'story of the Prelude in C-sharp minor' belongs in the main article? AdderUser 20:33, 11 May 2007 (UTC)
replies: text: From what I know, back then, America didn't have proper copyright restrictions, so when it spread to the western world, everyone who got their hands on the music marketed it with all the name and gusto they could. Rachmaninoff characteristically didn't like this piece, and I highly doubt he wrote it to tell a story. ALTON .ıl 06:54, 18 September 2007 (UTC)
replies: text: Well, Rachmaninoff only began to not like this piece after it became far too popular. He felt that it was overshadowing his better works. While I would agree that Rachmaninoff probably did not come up with a story for it, as that would not be in his fashion, I would not have been because he didn't like the piece. He prpbably did like it at first, until it became too popular for it's own good. Lunasspectos29 14:27, 16 October 2007 (UTC)
replies: text: For whatever it's worth and if anybody wants to try to track it down, I read the above story on a piano roll box at Steve's Ice Cream between Davis and Porter Squares in Cambridge, MA many years ago.  (Steve's Ice Cream had a coin-op player piano but it and the store are long gone.)  Every time I see piano rolls in a store or on-line listing I check for Prelude in C-Sharp Minor but have not found the story again.  The "It can mean whatever you want it to mean." quote is from a book with musician biographies that I read years ago, the title of which I don't recall and that I cannot cite in detail.AdderUser 00:42, 21 October 2007 (UTC)
replies: text: I wouldn't advise reading too far into the music to find a story not intended by the composer. I do not think that Rachmaninoff intended for the work to be a representation of some story. bibliomaniac15 23:30, 29 January 2008 (UTC)

text: Um, yeah, of course he did. That's how Romantic composers (and Neo-Romantic for that matter, which was Rachmaninoff) wrote music- Clair De Lune is about moonlight, and this song is 'flavored' the way he wanted it to be. That's the way most music is written- with something else, an influence, in mind. ... -Panther (talk) 02:30, 5 October 2009 (UTC)
replies: text: No argument here.  But can you answer my specific questions?  --  JackofOz (talk) 07:00, 5 October 2009 (UTC)
replies: text: Btw, the name of the Böcklin painting is "Die Heimkehr", and it's variously rendered in English as "The Homecoming" of "The Return" - see Wikipedia:Reference desk/Humanities#Did Arnold Böcklin paint a picture called "The Return"?.  --  Jack of Oz  ... speak! ...  20:30, 1 December 2010 (UTC)
thread_title:  Documenting the "story" of Prelude in C-sharp minor? 

message: Why in the world is an encyclopedia referencing the premiere of this piece from a forum page? I changed the errors in the premiere date, but I think a better reference with a confirmation of the true date be used. If not, then an assumption can be made from other sources. Like say, "this piece was performed in late 1891" or "in mid 1892" or whatever. Just an opinion. Borninbronx10 (talk) 02:09, 13 September 2010 (UTC)
thread_title:  Huh? 

message: A couple years ago, I removed an edit that claimed Rachmaninoff nicknamed this work "Frankenstein"; this was not confirmed in the cited source (to which this claim had been piggy-backed). This claim reappeared today, citing an online review of a recital that included this piece. Just to be sure, I pulled down the first two books on Rachmaninoff I could reach: Rachmaninoff: Composer, Pianist, Conductor by Barrie Martyn and Goodbye Russia: Rachmaninoff in Exile by Fiona Maddocks. The only mention of "Frankenstein" in either book is in reference to the composer's disgust at the film Frankenstein, which he walked out of. —CurryTime7-24 (talk) 17:36, 15 February 2024 (UTC)
thread_title:  "Frankenstein"