## Rachmaninoff: Etude-Tableau in E-flat Minor, Op. 39, No. 5 >[!tip] Piece at a Glance: Etude-Tableau, Op. 39, No. 5 >- Composer: Sergei Vasilyevich **Rachmaninoff** (1873-1943) >- Year Composed: 1916-1917, published 1917 >- Period and Style: Late Romantic >- Nicknames and Subtitles: (none known) >- Tonality: E-flat Minor >- Length: $4$-$5$ minutes Among the Etudes-Tableaux, this one and the subsequent one in A Minor (Op. 39, No. 6, *The Little Red Riding Hood*) are perhaps the most well-known among the two cycles Sergei Rachmaninoff composed in the 1910s. The reason for the popularity of this work is obvious; it is a colossal study in octaves and chords, all bundled together in the signature Rachmaninoff techniques: long melodic lines and often-intersecting contrapuntal material (the middle section of the Etude in particular). As the name suggests, Rachmaninoff designed the *Etudes-Tableaux* (in English, *study pictures*) to have both a technical and a programmatic pursuit. Certainly, Rachmaninoff was not the first to attach programmatic meaning to a piece intended as a technical study: the venerable Franz Liszt (1811-1886), as well as his contemporaries, wrote similar pieces. However, unlike Liszt, who was concretely programmatic, Rachmaninoff was programmatic in the abstract. He did not disclose the inspirations behind the *Etudes-Tableaux,* saying, "I do not believe in the artist that discloses too much of his images. **Let the listener paint for themselves what it most suggests**." Nonetheless, when Ottorino Respighi (1879-1936) orchestrated a selection of the *Etudes-Tableaux,* Rachmaninoff willingly shared sources to Respighi in order to help him in the arrangements, which, after word was passed around, became public knowledge. Unfortunately[^1] for us, the Etude-Tableau in E-flat Minor did not come down to us with its source of inspiration, and nor have other musicians or critics attached nicknames to it. Therefore, the work is left in the performers' and listeners' hands to interpret: it is certainly the most overtly tragic of the Opus 39, but other than this, we are reduced to doing as Rachmaninoff said: "let the listener paint" the scene in their own minds. Rachmaninoff composed the Opus 39 during late 1916, and were published before mid-April 1917; these were the last pieces that Rachmaninoff wrote before leaving Russia for the United States, on account of the October Revolution. Therefore, we should examine Rachmaninoff's personal history when studying these pieces. In April 1915, Rachmaninoff's conservatory classmate, Alexander Scriabin, passed away due to sepsis. Hence, Rachmaninoff went on a tour playing exclusively Scriabin in order to raise funds for Scriabin's widow, Tatiana. In June of the same year, Rachmaninoff's mentor Sergei Taneyev died — both losses clearly grieved him. Nonetheless, we remark that the connection between these life circumstances and the tragedy of the Op. 39, No. 5 is merely speculative.[^2] The Etude-Tableau, Op. 39, No. 5, is roughly in $ABAB$ form, with the second $B$ section functioning as a codetta. The piece opens with its famously stormy temperament, where the pianist must deliver an unsupported, chanting melody over swaths of chords, all under an E$\flat$ pedal point. The first $B$ section is significantly less stormy, but Rachmaninoff enters into a series of far modulations, going as far as C Major, before building to a series of crashing B Major triads. At this point, the re-transition takes the listener back to the $A$ section, where the roles of the left and right hands are interchanged: the right hand takes the accompanying chords, while the left hand is responsible for delivering the theme. All this builds towards a cataclysmic climax in which the pianist is presented with a technical difficulty of Herculean proportions: eight left-hand jumps, all of which are over an octave in size. Finally, the denouement occurs in the second $B$ section, and the piece ends on a Picardy third. The significance of this Picardy third, is of course, up to the listener's interpretation,[^3] and therefore, Rachmaninoff leaves us guessing. #rachmaninoff [^1]: Or fortunately? [^2]: It is noteworthy to remember that Taneyev taught Rachmaninoff at the Moscow Conservatory, and therefore, much of Rachmaninoff's work is derived from what he learned from Taneyev, though Rachmaninoff does have a voice of his own. In contrast, his classmate Scriabin broke completely away from Taneyev's style. [^3]: The performer's guess is as good as any.