Les Deux Anges

Description

Jacques Blumenthal (1829–1908) was a composer and pianist born in Hamburg who, after studying in Paris, made his career in London. He was popular for his songs and salon pieces for piano, and "Les Deux Anges" (The Two Angels) is one of those salon-style pieces.

It is in G major. Centred on a singing melody, it has the approachable harmony typical of salon music, its sweet melodic line carried forward over an accompaniment. Its range in this data spans exactly five octaves, from G1 to G6, with the lowest notes falling below the range of a 61-key keyboard (C2 to C7). A rich sound spread over a wide range is also characteristic of pieces of this kind.

Rated intermediate, it lasts about 3 minutes 53 seconds with 1,038 notes in this data. The task is to make the melody stand out clearly above the accompaniment while letting the chords sound soft rather than heavy. The pedal often joins the sound together, so clean changes that avoid blurring are important. Check which hand carries the melody with the hand colours, and listen with slower playback, and how the sound is built becomes much clearer.

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