Funeral March
No. 7 in C minor is one of the most prominent etudes within Etude-tableau Op. 39 - composed by Sergey Rachmaninov, a Russian composer, pianist, and conductor.
Besides Op. 39, Etude-tableau also includes another cycle of etudes Op. 33. As Rachmaninov described the "Etudes-tableaux" means picture-study.
Certainly, there are stories reflected behind each of the etudes.
"Etude-tableau" Op. 39, no. 7 in C minor
Rachmaninov himself described the etude no. 7 in C minor as a "funeral march", which reflects the composer's uncertainty of his last period residing in Russia.
In 1915, Rachmaninov along with his teacher Taneyev, attended the funeral of Scriabin. This was followed by Taneyev's own death shortly after, from a cold contracted whilst attending Scriabin’s funeral.
One year later, Rachmaninov's father (an amateur musician) died, the continuous deaths deeply affected Rachmaninov, and he was suddenly feeling confounded by death: "there - if there is something else there behind the grave - if it's very frightening...what I fear is uncertainty".
Apart from being threatened by his father and friends' death, Russia's social instability and his increasing worry towards Bolshevik Communist's take-over were also the seeds to result in producing such a heavy and dark texture of work.
Rachmaninov incorporated a funeral march into Op.39 no. 7, which endeavoured the piece more lyrical and expressive.
The rhythmic and heavy chords in the music perfectly guide the audience hearing a man in the grip of death, the weeping of mourners, the Russian Orthodox Church singing at the burial service, the rain on a funeral procession, the grandiose pealing of church bells, and the last beat of a heart.
Picture study
The title of the two sets of etudes suggests picture in sound, in other words a picture-study. However, Rachmaninov was reticent about revealing exactly what pictures he had in his mind.
"I do not believe in the artist disclosing too much about his images. Let them paint for themselves what they most suggest. "
Rachmaninov demonstrated the evolution of etude as a genre, which had gone further than Czerny and Clementi - Consisting mainly of mechanical finger exercises - to Chopin and Liszt who transformed them into miniature tone-poems.
Sergey Rachmaninov
Sergey Rachmaninov was regarded as one of the finest pianists of his day, And as a composer he was the last great representative of Russian late Romanticism in classical music.
Childhood
Rachmaninov was born on 1st April, 1873 in Semyonovo. His aristocratic family had a strong musical and military leaning, and both of his parents were amateur pianists.
As a composer
In 1891, he completed his piano Concerto No.1, following it a year later with his most celebrated work for solo piano, the Prelude in C Sharp Minor.
His opera Aleko also met with similar acclaim in 1893. However, his first symphony in 1897 was a complete disaster.
In the meantime, his reputation as a pianist continued to blossom, as since 1897 he dedicated almost all of his energies into his conducting position with the Moscow Private Russian Opera Company.
It was this capacity under which he was able to make his first professional trip to London in 1899.
Encountering self-doubt
Around this period Rachmaninov began to suffer severe bouts of self-doubt, which nearly halted his capacity to be a composer.
Dr. Nikolai Dahl, a pioneer Moscow hypnotherapist came to the rescue with hypnosis, through which Rachmaninov recovered self-confidence and overcame his insecurity.
His second Piano Concerto (dedicated to Dr. Nikolai Dahl) premiered in 1901 with an enormous success.
In the following years he remained his enthusiasm and interest in opera.
Settling in the US
Before the 1917 Russian Revolution, he became extremely worried about the circumstances that inspired and nurtured his composing capacity, as Russia would no longer be the same land in which he used to live.
After a couple of tours in the US he finally settled in California. After 1917 he remained mainly as a concert pianist for the rest of his life, through which he found financially supportive and steady.
Rachmaninov died at his home in Beverly Hills, California on 28th March, 1943.