What are some characteristics of sergei rachmaninoff's music?

Answer 1

Here's an excerpt from New World Encyclopedia. I bolded in the parts that i though answered the question best.

"Rachmaninoff's style is fundamentally Russian: his music shows the influence of the idol of his youth, Tchaikovsky. His harmonic language appeared to expand above and beyond that of Tchaikovsky, and his pianistic stylistics made his piano works very difficult to perform, due to a high level of the mastery of many grand and virtuosic techniques. Performing a Rachmaninoff piano concerto is akin to practicing extreme calisthenics on the keyboard. Rachmaninoff's frequently used motifs include the Dies Irae,

often just the fragments of the first phrase: this is especially prevalent in The Bells, The Isle of the Dead, the Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini, and the First and Second Symphonies. The Second Symphony, in particular, has a marvelous and little known occurrence of the Dies Irae:

in the second movement he uses it as the basis for the harmony in counterpoint to one of his archetypal soaring melodies.

Also especially important is the use of bell-like

sounds: they occur in many pieces, most notably the Second Piano Concerto and the B minor prelude. It is no coincidence that he wrote a cantata entitled "The Bells." He was also fond of Russian Orthodox chants. He uses them most obviously in his Vespers, but many of his melodies found their origins in these chants. The opening melodies of the Third Concerto and the First Symphony are both derived from chants.

In scherzo

like movements, he often used a modified rondo form, usually opening with a light, swift rhythmical idea, then supplying a breath of fresh air in the form of a beautifully romantic melody, ending in a similar scherzo-fashion.

Examples of this may be found in the last movement of the Second Concerto, the scherzo of the Cello Sonata, and the scherzo of the Second Symphony.

Rachmaninoff had great command of counterpointand fugalwriting. The earlier mentioned

occurrence of the Dies Irae

in the Second Symphony is but a small example of this. Very characteristic

of his writing is chromatic counterpoint.

His later works, such as the Piano Concerto No. 4 (Op. 40, 1926) and the Variations on a Theme of Corelli

(Op. 42, 1931), are composed in a more emotionally detached style, making them less popular with audiences despite their striking originality. In these later compositions, Rachmaninoff sought a greater sense of compression and motivic

development in his works at the expense of melody.Nevertheless, some of his most beautiful (nostalgic and melancholy) melodies occur in the Symphony No. 3, Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini, and Symphonic Dances, the latter of which is considered his swan song and has almost metaphysical references to the Alliluya

of the Vespers and the first theme of his Symphony No. 1."

Answer 2

There are many characteristics of Sergei Rachmaninoff's music. His music was generally instrumental being played on piano and very complicated.

Answer 3

Rachmaninoff's music contained very large fast aggressive chords and large finger stretches. lovely to listen too, hard to play.