the Fantasia one in C# Minor, by Beethoven, which is really fast, that i may try to learn next year, when i'm a more advanced.

Are you referring to the last movement (Presto agitato) of the Moonlight Sonata? If so, great piece - but hardly the most difficult ever.

Yeah, I can't even imagine how people can play it, plus theres the huge task of actually reading all the notes

I think i'm writing some significantly difficult pieces right now, i should have some PDFs up in a few weeks since now i'm back in the good ol composition classes again.

my vote for hardest piece would definitely have to be The Faeries's Aire and Death Waltz by John Stump.

(To whoever knows the piece i'm talking about)...Who wants to dare me to try and score it into Finale/Scorch and see what it sounds like!?

Oy, kcoul, that piece is a monster!

Yeah, the O.C. is really ridiculous, but it's actually not his longest or hardest work. The Symphonic Variations for solo piano supposedly takes 540 minutes and is even more consistently difficult, but I don't think anybody has ever played it.

no, i'm not referring to the last movement of the Moolight sonata. it's really fast. if you go to http://www.musicnotes.com/ , then you'll know what i'm talking about.

what are you referring to then? musicnotes helps me not.

me either - a little more help...

My guess is you are referring to the third movement of the Moonlight Sonata. It's the only thing that makes sense. I think you just misunderstand the term movement.

Piana Justice, I searched that website, and found four pieces called "Adagio and Presto", by four different composers. Are you referring to one of these?


That website doesn't list any piece by Beethoven called "Presto adagio"


"Presto" and "adagio" are simply tempo markings, and they are used in many, many, many compositions. They generally aren't the title of the piece, so a number of us on this forum are a little confused about which piece you are referring to!

The last movement of the Moonlight Sonata (Sonata quasi fantasia in C-sharp minor) by Beethoven is very fast. And it's marked "Presto agitato".

Since the question is "what is the most difficult", not "what is the most difficult but still quality?", i will have to say Sorabji. As far as technical difficulty goes, it's nigh impossible, but i personally think his music is crap quality-wise. To me, the BEST difficult piece is the Hammerklavier. It's musically awesome, not just technically grueling.

just went and found this. IMPOSSIBLE!!! some of that stuff is just him making pretty patterns with notes on pages (surely?!?). NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!! it can't be!!! I REFUSE to believe it (or something). Anyway, point is I'm not going to be playing THAT piece. Would love to hear it though...

oh dear... that didn't work out... how do i get the pic to display properly?!? but in any case... go search google for "The Faeries's Aire and Death Waltz by John Stump sheet music." take the first link you find with a .jpg extension. NOOOOOOOOOO... KCOUL058... i def dare u to test it with finale. it'll crash!! sorry for all the lines of babbling, but i am completely dumbstruck!!

there!! that naaaaaaasty piece of music! (i hope)

"Remove cattle from stage"

"Water pedal"

"Release the penguins"

"Insert peanuts"

"Balance your chair on two legs"

"Moon walk"

"Spam"

...

That was simply wonderful. I liked the "arranged by accident" part. Even my 9 year old got a kick out of reading all the instructions. But, pianojerome, you left out my favorite: "begin turning flame higher and higher".

I have no idea how you would go about plating that, geqo.

I think only "light explosives now ... and ... now" can top that.

umm....riiiight.....

what the heck does it sound like? in the second measure youre laying your arms down across the kayboard to play it :p

you wouldnt. Its a joke piece. At least I certainly hope nobody would take that seriously and attempt a performance in earnest.

There are stories of parties where VIPs like Cowell, Cage, Partsch, etc would gather and collaborate on works where each one would write a few bars, and pass the staff paper to the left, whereas the next composer adds a few bars, etc. In music school we did the same thing at a few parties (very 'dead poet society'), only we'd include more typical college party indulgences as well. The resulting scores looked very similar to this one above. Its novelty, and a lot of fun, but thats all.

I'm no prude, and all for experimentation and pushing the envelope, but when this sort of "composition" (while fun) is mistaken for a legitamate gesture, I think that contributes to a VERY bad name for contemporary music.

now back to the fun.....

(Edit: I remember in that party piece we wrote, two performance indications that I added were "Bleed Profusely" and "Expose the most intimate part of your body you dare")

LOL. Yes, I gathered that much. I think it was after reading the instructions to "release the penguins" and "moon walk" that I figured that one out. My comment was also intended to be sarcastic. I guess that is one of the disadvantages of communicating through a computer - it can't express voice inflection.

Oh, I know, but there ARE people who DO take that seriously . In fact one of the music students in on our party piece totally took that seriously, and tried to stage a performance of it and everything. That same guy got totally into the Cage chance music thing, and wrote loads of pieces by rolling dice for notes, or holding blank staff paper up to the light and putting a note anywhere he saw an imperfection in the paper stock. Ridiculous. But he was serious, and thought he was writing brilliant music, and would force feed us recordings of it at parties, etc.

I think he was heinously misguided, but one must ask himself, what separates that misguided music student from John Cage's own chance music? (well, ignoring all of Cage's legitamate compositions for the purpose of the exercise :p )

must say I actually didn't look that closely at the directions. If I had, I think I might have realised that it was a joke. wow! glad that's sorted. Still... I think one day when I'm a billionaire (WHEN, not if!! ), I'll create an award for anyone who plays that piece exactly according to the directions indicated. Hmmmm... penguins... "Smile and wave boys, just smile and wave"

You guys will just have to remind me 15 years from now (or so) about this idea...

You can keep your money, geqo. How would someone play the 24-note chord at the end of the first line?

Behold... the wonders of genetic engineering.

I've seen orchestral reductions that looked like that. A composer asked me to make a recording of his own reduction of his new work so the soloist who was to premiere it could play along. The problem was, it wasn't a reduction. It looked like every note the orchestra plays was crammed onto the page.

I have an alternative for mrenaud's suggestion of how to play the 24-not chord at the end of the first line. It comes from a well known children's song...

♪Head, shoulders, knees and toes, knees and toes...♪ (and fingers i suppose)...

I can't believe nobody's mentioned the Allegro Largo!!!???