piano improvisation
Al does a piece of piano improvisation in this movie and then a drunk gives him a "10-spot", does anyone know what he was playing variations on? I've heard it before but can't quite place it.
shareit's Chopin
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MovieChat Forums > Detour (1946) Discussion > piano improvisation
The piano piece was excellent! Did you notice how Tom Neal never looked at his hands or the piano keyboard once while "playing"? Very unbelievable.
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The piano piece was excellent! Did you notice how Tom Neal never looked at his hands or the piano keyboard once while "playing"? Very unbelievable.
Where did you get the idea that a professional pianist needs to look at his or her hands or the keyboard? Anyone able to play piano as well as Al does in this film can play most things in their repertoire with their eyes closed if they want to.
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Did you notice how Tom Neal never looked at his hands or the piano keyboard once while "playing"? Very unbelievable. - mozartmessiah
Yeah, Ray Charles and Stevie Wonder are both big fakers--someone else played their parts.
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"We hear very little, and we understand even less." - Refugee in Casablanca share
The first piece played alone in the film is Chopin, but later he improvises on Brahms' waltz op. 39, no. 15, adding boogie woogie to it in an imaginative fashion. This is the improvisation that engenders the generous tip. It sounds good the first 2 or 3 times, but wanes in contrast to the original piano composition. It would be interesting to know who played the piece and whose hands were shown in the film playing.
shareThanks Joelson, good knowledge.
my ymdb page: http://www.shompy.com/steppenwolf/l42849_ukuk.html
Since the score was done by Leon Erdody (credited only as "Erdody"), who studied under Max Bruch (composition) and Joseph Joachim (violin), it seems a fair bet that the "improvisation" was also written by him.
Thomas
Thanks for the background on Erdody.
That little piano bit was my favorite part in the film. It was also the only spot where the hands on the keys were actually playing the right notes.
This makes me wonder: did Erdody write that? Or did they hire a very hot studio player who could improvise like a madman? Oscar Levant could have pulled it off.
One of the pieces played is the Fantasie-Impromptu, by Frederic Chopin. The "B" section of the piece was adapted into a popular song called "I'm Always Chasing Rainbows" in 1917, and several recordings of the song were released in 1945. That same melody appears extensively in several variations in the underscore throughout the rest of the film, which was written by Leo Erdody.
shareThanks bleak, 2 1/2 years later the puzzle is complete. Good things come to those who wait eh?
"He was pink and white, and all the colours you'll never see."
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add three zeros and you've got a small fortune. I think Al was thinking bigger.
"Une catastrophe, c'est la première strophe d'un poème d'amour"
To save on production costs,'Leo Erdödy', the film's composer, was recorded and filmed playing two classical piano pieces, Chopin Waltz No. 7 in C# minor and Brahms Waltz Op. 39 no. 15 in Ab Major as a favor for the director,Edgar G. Ulmer. Al Roberts (Tom Neal) "performs" the piano pieces during scenes set in the "Break of Dawn" nightclub. Erdödy's hands, in close-up, can be seen playing during the Brahms.
shareBefore getting the $10 tip, he plays:
Mendelssohn "On Wings of Song"
then into Brahms Waltz in A flat--with a boogie woogie accompaniment in the left hand
then an improvised spot that sounds non classical
and then returns to the Brahms Waltz in A flat with a different accompaniment rhythm
and closes with a chromatic scale in interlocking octaves
where he stumbles and hesitates slightly before playing the final octave of the chromatic scale.