Analysis Of Usher Waltz By Nikita Koshkin

Usher Waltz by Nikita Koshkin is in itself a beautiful piece with unique elements which make it very gloomy and somewhat anxious but when accompanied by the short story “Fall of the House of Usher” by Edgar Allen Poe, the music is really put into context as to what it is meant to represent and how some of the key features of the piece portray events which occur in the story. This piece has been performed by many people but these three guitarists are some of the best examples of how the piece should be played in order to get the full effect of it. The three guitarists I’m going to discuss in their style of playing this piece are John Williams, one of the greatest guitarists of the 20th century, Asya Selyutina, and Michael Partington. The …show more content…
Out of all three performers Partington had the best dynamics which helped show the contrasting points within the story to signify calmness and then terror. When the music gets more quiet you know it is meant to represent a moment of peace whereas when it gets incredibly loud you can pinpoint what part of the story it is meant to represent due to the intensity. The other performances had certain strengths as well, Williams was more precise but lacked the emotion to fully show what the song is meant to represent and Selyutina who was very enthusiastic about the song with her vivid movements, she lacked the technical skills necessary for her to be on par with Williams and Partington. Although Partington isn’t as renowned as Williams he still performs this piece because he has a quality which is sometimes lacking with Williams which is the ability to infuse emotions into their performance. Williams is very robotic and performs everything perfectly technically while Partington has multiple errors but makes up for it in his ability to give a better meaning to the