Description
Joseph Ascher (1829-1869) was a Dutch-born pianist and composer who worked in London and Paris and wrote a great many brilliant salon pieces for the piano. Alice, Where Art Thou? is a song by Ascher himself, and it was widely loved in Britain in the second half of the nineteenth century. This piece is a work for solo piano built on its melody.
It is in D-flat major and 3/4. The theme is stated and then taken through several transformations, dressed in ornamental runs and broken chords, a design common in salon music. At about six minutes and 3,660 notes it is large, and its range spreads from C-sharp 1 to A7, nearly the whole keyboard. Passages that set the melody in a middle voice, wrapped above and below in broken chords, are a highlight.
It is rated advanced and demands stamina in both length and note count. The main challenge is keeping the theme audible at all times through the fine ornamental figuration. It reaches close to both ends of the keyboard, so a full 88-key piano is needed. Slow the playback and use the hand colours to see which hand carries the tune, and practise the brilliant runs in sections with the A-B loop, so the whole can be finished without losing its flow.
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About the Composer
Joseph Ascher (1829-1869)
Joseph Ascher was a Dutch-born pianist-composer who built his career in Paris and London. He wrote numerous elegant, accessible salon pieces favored by mid-19th-century drawing rooms. The piece featured here, "Alice, Where Art Thou?", is a salon arrangement based on a popular song melody of the era.
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