ALBERT LAVIGNAC “GALLOP MARCHE”

ALBERT LAVIGNAC “GALLOP MARCHE”

for 2 pianos, 12 hands

Performed by: Golden Fingers Piano Ensembles

Music Director: Jelia Megawati Heru
Venue: Taman Budaya Tegal, Central Java (March, 4, 2012)

      

     

     

  

 

The Video "Gallop Marche" by Golden Fingers

Piano I

Primo: Christine Paulina

Secondo: Keniawaty

Terzo: Clarissa Rachel

Piano II

Primo: Patrisia Trisnawati

Secondo: Angelica Liviana

Terzo: Jelia Megawati Heru  

The French music scholar and composer, Alexandre Jean Albert Lavignac, studied with Antoine François Marmontel, François Benoist and Ambroise Thomas at the Conservatoire de Paris. In March 1864, at the age of 18, he conducted from the harmonium the private premiere of Gioacchino Rossini's Petite Messe Solennelle. Albert Lavignac taught later harmony at the Conservatoire de Paris. Among his pupils were Vincent d'Indy, Philipp Jarnach, Gabriel Pierné, Amédée Henri Gustave Noël Gastoué and Florent Schmitt.

Albert Lavignac is known for his essays on theory. His condensed work, La Musique et les Musiciens, an overview of musical grammar and materials, continued to be reprinted years after his death. 

In it he characterized the particular characteristics of instruments and of each key, somewhat in the way Berlioz had done (B major: Energetic; E major: Radiant, warm, joyous; A major: Frank, sonorous; D major: Joyful, brilliant, alert; etc.). 

His more popularized works discussed the music dramas of Richard Wagner, summarized in Le Voyage artistique à Bayreuth. He was the founder and editor of the compendious Encyclopédie de la musique et Dictionnaire du Conservatoire.

The Gallop March is written for one piano, eight hands. His compositions are largely forgotten, however, Gallop March is often performed. The fact, squeezing four people in front of one keyboard is in itself quite a challenge. We had to rearrange ourselves from one section of the piece to the next, leaning far back to make room for someone else, then diving back in to make an entrance. 

But it’s a fun piece to play – getting a truly massive orchestral sound from the piano!