How to Sound Like Rachmaninoff

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A video in celebration of the birthday of Sergei Rachmaninoff (born April 1, 1873) by breaking down elements of his compositional style and recognizable traits. And of course, I wrote a "Happy Birthday" in the Style of Rachmaninoff, which is at the end of the video. Enjoy!

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As always, thank you so much for watching, and thank you to all of you that leave comments.

[jorgemoran]

What I got from this: Rachmaninoff was indeed a pianist

[MusicalBasics]

I watch this every 3 months to remind myself of what mastery truly is

[biggtk]

Rachmaninoff helped me to fall in love with Classical music (as an overall genre). His Piano Concerto #2 will always be my first love.

[RickBeato]

Thanks Nahre! This is my favorite series on YouTube. Love the graphics and everything about this! Happy Birthday Rach!!

[ernestofredrich]

The Idea, the script, the playing and the vídeo editing are master.... congratulations....

[ParkerTwin]

I am absolutely blown away at this, your ability to break down key compositional elements of classical composers is ridiculous. Take my like!

[travenator]

I can't even begin to describe how incredible this is. With this kind of abilities, i'd probably never stop playing haha
That part starting from 2:27 is so goddamn beautiful.

[ilyapetoushkoff]

the world urgently needs a full-scale piano concerto out of this

this is amazing

[cziffrathegreat]

2:27
Who else wants a full piece based on this wonderful dialogue

[petter_rylen]

I would love to hear How To Sound Like Nahre Sol! :)

[AlessandroSistiMusic]

4:30 FINAL PRODUCT: Happy Birthday in the style of Sergei Rachmaninoff

0:12 Left-hand arpeggios
0:43 Dotted rhythms
1:09 Harmony: pedal note in the bass, lots of chromaticism and augmented chords
1:38 Triplet rhythms with big chords
1:50 Chromatic runs
2:10 Inner lines
2:25 Lines interacting with each other (polyphony)
2:39 "Grandiose, expressive, and soaring melodies"
2:59 Polyrhythms (2 against 3, 6 against 7)
3:16 Secondary dominants (3:30 over a wide register)
3:53 "Sparkling passages" in the upper register
4:03 Momentum and energy
4:13 Big endings

[belin-teamdjokovic]

5:26 Bom-bombom BOM: Rachmaninoff's signature.

[KarlRKaiser]

I studied harmony under Easely Blackwood at the University of Chicago. He seemed to know the first time every (once) novel harmony appeared in a work in the European musical tradition, with its dogged exploration into novel sonorities, and he considered Rachmaninoff's chromaticism to be the most advanced tonal harmony in this tradition.

[kanelbullenochkakan]

Now i must practice 40 hours everyday to reach this point

[kunk]

It's supranatural how musicians can experience things in life beyond than any other, like you smoke some arpeggios and get high on creativity. Truly grandiose !!

[sergeirachmaninoff]

Happy birthday to meeee.
Thanks for the videos :)

[Bati_]

Although it’s April 1 today, this magnificent video is no joke at all!! Rachmaninoff would be proud of you Nahre! As always, such an amazing work and a wonderful birthday gift! This thoroughly enthralling series truly expands my musical horizons and it's my absolute top/first pick on YouTube ever! Big love and respect and kudos to your artistry and influence! 🎉💥🧠👏❤️🙏 P.S. As an avid jazzhead and hepcat, I agree with your notion that Rachmaninoff’s music sounds like Jazz in a sense that he influenced Jazz and vice versa, here are some of the things, examples I’ve noticed after doing some quick research (some of them could be myths or false information, please correct me if I'm wrong): 

Once, Miles Davis, when he was asked about the inspiration behind one of his pieces said: “Well, we were really into Rachmaninoff that week.” 

Another example comes from the greats such as Art Tatum and Duke Ellington, they all embraced Rachmaninoff’s influence and he admired their music, too, when writing his "Piano Concerto No. 4 in G Minor" which can be described as jazzy to some degree, Rachmaninoff was listening to lots of Jazz ranging from big band orchestras of Duke Ellington to solo recordings of Tatum whom he became a devoted enthusiast and even it has been said that he, after hearing the magnificent Tatum play live, claimed that "he is the greatest piano player in any style" and also Oscar Peterson was classically trained as well and it's said that he drew a wealth of influence by playing Rachmaninoff concertos and not to mention that some have noted Rachmaninoff’s inspiration from George Gershwin’s “Rhapsody in Blue” in this fourth concerto. Even, his friend, tenor John McCormack remembered Rachmaninoff playing jazz for his own amusement. 

In addition, owing to his close relationship with Scriabin, I've just learned that Rachmaninoff studied Scriabin’s music for the memorial recitals and he was influenced by them and also one and only Glenn Gould described Classically-influenced great pianist Bill Evans as “The Scriabin of Jazz”. Therefore, in that regard/sense, along with French impressionists (although they hated the term a lot, apologies to my heroes, one and only Debussy and Ravel!) and my other heroes Stravinsky and Bartok, it seems both Rachmaninoff and Scriabin influenced Jazz giants deeply too both directly or indirectly and vice versa, hence, Rachmaninoff’s music indeed sounds like Jazz due to extended harmonies, unique voicings and lots of inspirations etc. and Jazz sounds like Rachmaninoff in part, too!!

Btw, his music reminds me of the words, adjectives "epic", "sublime", “immense”, "thematic" and "conceptualist" and his style seems "uncompromising" as well! I'm new to his music and thanks to you I'll be listening to them more closely from now on!! 🤯😃 

Currently, I'm listening to his "Prelude in B-Minor" (I've just discovered it and what a composition!! Totally awe-inspiring, my favorite composition by him now, I truly love Classical music and Jazz intersections in music a lot, it's most likely my favorite thing in music!!) played by one of my top favorite Russian music interpreters and pianists, one and only Yuja Wang, and I think this composition really sounds like Jazz and this supports your view/notion about this jazzy aspect of Rachmaninoff’s music, too.

I think Rachmaninoff’s preludes, in general, are reminiscent of Jazz, even I've heard some Keith Jarrett-like phrases such as the ones in his iconic solo concert recordings and especially Paris and Vienna concerts; as it seems Jarrett has been influenced by him in his improvisations, too! 

On the other hand, the music of Rachmaninoff has a certain amount of distinctive, recognizable features as you broke down really well in the video and even though I've tried to find some commonalities between Jazz and his music, I think it's necessary to emphasize that there are a remarkable amount of differences between them as well, for example, it seems he was a true admirer of Tchaikovsky since his childhood and he was considerably conventionalist in terms of his compositional style, too, his music was also highly folkloric in terms of unique Russian melodies and themes and this is probably one of the solid indicators of his composing style just like in Stravinsky's case.

Also, I’ve noticed some of his reflections in inspiring folkloric tone poems/works by Fazıl Say and Tigran Hamasyan as well. In particular, Say’s “Cello Sonata: I. Sivas” from “Four Cities” and "Achilleus" from "Troy Sonata" reminded me of Rachmaninoff’s music to some degrees but I might be wrong so I’ll try to be more familiar with Rachmaninoff’s music in the future.
 
Thank you so much again Nahre! I really love this top-notch quality series, it's really informative, insightful and effective for me to learn and improve myself in composition and theory and thanks to this thoroughly fascinating video, hopefully, one day I'll be able to analyze this outstanding "Prelude in B-Minor"! Btw, I really wonder what's your favorite Rachmaninoff composition and who's your favorite interpreter of his music and Russian Classical movement in general?

To conclude, truly brilliant work as expected and as always Nahre!! I am looking forward to listening to your own albums consisting of your own distinguishable and enchanting compositions too, I think you would be one of the top, world-class interpreters of French music with your sonorous, unique and dynamic playing but now, after this magnificent video, it's clear that you would play and record Russian music repertoire amazingly as well!!

And lastly, today in 1917, one and only Scott Joplin died penniless in a tragic way, in a psychiatric hospital and all but forgotten. I can’t even imagine how incomplete would music history be without his inspirational legacy and Ragtime! Rest in peace. We can’t thank these great artists enough and I hope they will always be remembered not only in their lifetimes but to eternity!

I'd like to finish my words with Rachmaninoff's this enchantingly beautiful quote which I couldn't agree more: 
"Music is enough for a lifetime, but a lifetime is not enough for music."

Thank you for your immense inspiration which cannot be overstated Nahre!✨💥💫🎶🙏❤️👏😊

[kreitzerova]

Brilliant video. As a jazz pianist with a classical background, I often look at Rachmaninoff's piano music for inspiration, which I think is second-to-none from a pianistic perspective. The subtle interplay between the accompaniment and the melody, the multi-layered writing, the rich harmonies, just ingenious... Thanks for breaking it all down so marvelously. I'll surely keep coming back to this video for reference!

[weijie_wang]

I've been watching this video for more than ten times. Absolute genius! Thank you for showing us how talented a professional composer can be. Music is something so magical and fantastic!

[AMomentousMori]

"How to Sound Like Rachmaninoff"


After watching this video, it looks like I can't.... (yet)