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Classical Music/Need Help Identifying This Piano Piece

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Expert: Pat G - 9/8/2009


Question
Hi Pat,

My name is Israel.  I studied classical piano in college and I am intimately familiar with the piano repertoire of the common practice period.  However, on the Jimmy Fallon show there was a piano track playing that I couldn't identify.  It sounds like
Ravel or Satie  but it could just be something that someone belonging to the show wrote.  I was hoping maybe you'd heard it before.

Here is the link to the video:

http://lostmediamentions.blogspot.com/2009/07/jimmy-kimmel-at-comic-con.html#com...

The timer counts downward so the music starts with 1:20 left on the clock (that at 7:04 counting forward).

If you can identify this piece, please let me know.

Thank you for taking the time to take questions; I really appreciate it.

Most appreciatively,

Israel

Answer
I'd lean toward Satie. This is because of the simplicity of the work, and the occasional dissonances (i.e. the intervals). I'm familiar with very few of Satie's works. So this one isn't familiar to me. Here's something you can do, however. Go to amazon.com and use search terms "Satie piano." You will get a list of albums. They have quite a few tracks, and you may be able to find one of that work. Good luck! Wish I could be of more help.

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Pat G

Expertise

I am no longer answering questions asking me to identify music. Most music is either on YouTube, which crashes my browser, or on another site that crashes my browser. I am available for other questions.

Experience

I have been playing piano since I was 3, and I am now 66 years old. I took formal lessons for about 11 years, and took some piano and organ performance courses in college. I also sang in the Masterworks Chorale for a number of years, and can sing anything from baritone to first soprano. We performed twice a year, usually a major choral work, ranging from requiem masses to Carmina Burana. I also attended recorder society meetings once a month. We would read compositions and perform them together. I took several children to their music lessons and rehearsals and usually stayed and watched intensely. Our children studied violin, viola, flute, guitar, clarinet, French horn, trumpet, and trombone.

Education/Credentials
I studied piano and organ in college, and took courses in music theory. I have also taken seminars in pre-Columbian folk music with Xochimoki, as well as played a short while in a gamelan, and a balalaika orchestra, where I played autoharp.

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