What is the left hand doing in classical music?
If we take a classical piece on the piano, what is the left hand doing?
I find that figuring out the right hand, the melody, to be easier -- I am mainly playing by ear and improvising. But the left hand, I understand it's harmony. But it seems trickier than pop music. Are they primarily arpeggiating chords? I thought harmony was just chords. Or maybe it isn't? Or are they just randomly picking notes from the scale that sound nice with the melody?
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Ravel and Prokofiev both wrote piano concertos for the left hand only. So, in those cases, the left hand was doing everything.
Both were written for the same pianist, Paul Wittgenstein, who lost his arm in the First World War but he did not ever play the Prokofiev. I used to have it on vinyl but I have given up all of my vinyl and hence I have not heard it for a long time.
Ravel Piano Concerto for the Left Hand at Wikipedia
Prokofiev Piano Concerto 4 at Wikipedia
Are actual chords being played in classical music?
Of course they are. But I sense that the title of your question doesn't really show what you're actually asking.
What is the left hand doing? Is it primarily arpeggiating chords, or is it doing something trickier?
This is the better question, but the answer isn't too helpful: the left hand can do whatever the the composer wants it to do.
Sometimes it just provides the harmonies by playing chords in the left hand, like in Beethoven's Piano Sonata Op. 10/2, first movement:
Other times it lends harmonic support by only playing one pitch in the left hand, as in Beethoven's Piano Sonata Op. 13, second movement:
Other times it arpeggiates the harmonies with what we call an Alberti bass, like in Mozart's Piano Sonata K545, first movement:
It can also just play a melodic line, causing the right hand to play the harmonic support, as in Liszt's Consolation No. 4:
Or why not multiple melodic lines at once, like in the first fugue from Bach's Well-Tempered Clavier? Here the melodic line in mm. 4--5 is added in in mm. 6--7 while the earlier line continues.
And then some composers just said screw it and put the whole damn piece in the left hand.
I once went through "The International Library of Piano Music" studying left-hand patterns. There were several; in fact, most pieces had several.
Block chords
Bass and block chords
Bass and arpeggiated chords (bass being heavier)
Arpeggiated chords (Alberti bass)
Counterpoint (more complex that a bass line)
Several part counterpoint (including some in the right hand)
The melody itself with the other mentioned ideas in the right hand.
Rests.
A (perhaps modified) copy of the melody.
An organ point (or pedal point), a long held note usually the tonic or dominant note or both.
All of these can be blended into each other; they all can be played smoothly or percussively. Parts can be exchanged among "voices" in either hand.
Examples can be found at IMSLP.
imslp.org/wiki/Category:Frescobaldi%2C_Girolamo http://imslp.org/wiki/Sonate_per_pianoforte_(Beethoven,_Ludwig_van) imslp.org/wiki/Category:Chopin%2C_Fr%C3%A9d%C3%A9ric http://imslp.org/wiki/Category:Brahms%2C_Johannes
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