Here's a wonderful Danse-Nocturne by Severac, a composer who is maybe a little bit more known today. I know this piece for a very long time and obviously didn't just make this recording "en passant". It's a very difficult piece in my opinion. Not only because of technique of course... the whole package. Since I think my playing is really good on that one, I give a link where you can download a 16bit wav file of this on bandcamp

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I tried to incorporate the feeling of a "danse" in certain places by playing a bit "funny" and free in rhythm. The nocturne aspect normally comes automatically. Note the tempo markings, which I tried to follow as close as possible... yep, this piece gets FAST in some passages. Without looking at the markings I think it would take twice as long for me to play it... quite interesting. The piece is written somewhere between 1908-1919. Although we're already in the 20th century, it's clear I think to hear the influences of world wide music (especially asian music) in his pieces. Take the a flat minor passage for example, mimicking certain instruments and style. Other than that, in the end there is a picture of the composer, who lived 1872-1921.

He descended from a noble family, profoundly influenced by the musical traditions of his native Languedoc.

He first studied in Toulouse, then later moved to Paris to study under Vincent d'Indy and Albéric Magnard at the Schola Cantorum, an alternative to the training offered by the Paris Conservatoire. There he took organ lessons from Alexandre Guilmant and worked as an assistant to Isaac Albéniz. He returned to the southern part of France, where he spent much of the rest of his rather short life. His native south was a region that attracted a number of his contemporaries—artists and poets he had met in Paris. His opera Héliogabale was produced at Béziers in 1910. Séverac is noted for his vocal and choral music, which includes settings of verse in Occitan (the historic language of Languedoc) and Catalan (the historic language of Roussillon) as well as French poems by Verlaine and Baudelaire. His compositions for solo piano have also won critical acclaim, and many of them were titled as pictorial evocations and published in the collections Chant de la terre, En Languedoc, and En vacances.

A popular example of his work is The Old Musical Box ("Où l'on entend une vieille boîte à musique", from En vacances). His masterpiece, however, is the suite Cerdaña (written 1904—1911), filled with the local color of Languedoc. His motet Tantum ergo is also still sung on occasion. I think he has a unique musical language, distinct from most other composers in the french late romantic style. Full of creativity and freedom in writing, without being too programmatic though, and also humour and gentleness.

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