Entr'acte

Description

Bridging the change of scene between two acts, this orchestral entr'acte from Bizet's Carmen is heard here in a solo piano arrangement. Carmen, an opera in four acts, was first performed at the Opéra-Comique in Paris in 1875, and an orchestral entr'acte stands before each of Acts 2, 3 and 4.

It is in 2/4. Because the orchestra's melody and accompaniment have to sound together on one piano, the writing sets the melody above the accompaniment. Its range in this data is very wide, from G1 to A6, more than five octaves, so it does not fit on a 61-key keyboard.

About 1 minute 50 seconds long with 854 notes in this data, it is rated intermediate. The task is balance: imagining the orchestral sound, letting the melody sing while the accompaniment stays delicate beneath it. With such a wide range, you also need to get used to large hand shifts across the keyboard. Check which hand has the melody and which the accompaniment with the hand colours, and repeat passages with many shifts using slower playback and an A-B loop, and the whole becomes easier to grasp.

A broad collection of standalone piano pieces not belonging to any specific set, offering hundreds of varied character pieces to explore and compare.