What is the most difficult piece of music?

Adam Neely
Adam Neely
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Published 2017-12-11
It's hard to even begin to quantify what the "most difficult piece of music" is, but if we look at it through the lens of Physical Virtuosity and Conceptual Virtuosity, we can at least get a good idea of what difficult in music even means, and what are some contenders for the most difficult piece of music.

𝄢 Kyle Gann’s take on Ben Johnston’s 7th String Quartet
www.artsjournal.com/postclassic/2010/03/the_mount_…

𝄢 Cristina Deutekom slaying the Queen of the Night like some sort of robot synthesizer
   • Cristina Deutekom: "Der hölle rache"....  

𝄢 ALASH (Tuvan Throat Singing)
   • Alash Demonstrate Throat-Singing Styl...  

𝄢 YEFIM BRONFMAN (Rachmaninoff Piano Concerto no. 3 in D Minor)
   • Yefim Bronfman: Rachmaninoff Piano Co...  

𝄢 Paganini Caprice no. 24 performed by Alexander Markov (absolutely badass!)
   • Paganini Caprice no.24 [HQ]  

𝄢 ERUPTION covers
   • Eddie Van Halen Eruption Cover  
   • Van Halen - Eruption Guitar Cover  
   • Van Halen Eruption Cover  
   • 8th grader playing Eddie Van Halen's ...  

𝄢 Covers of THE BLACK PAGE
   • The Black Page, by Frank Zappa  
   • Frank Zappa's Black Page 2 by Gergo B...  
   • Ensemble Musikfabrik | Frank Zappa - ...  
   • The Black Page no. 1 - Frank Zappa (d...  

𝄢 Covers of Failing
   • Failing -Tom Johnson  
   • Yoshiaki Horiguchi, Failing- a very d...  
   • "Failing: a very difficult piece for ...  
   • Johnson - Failing  Susan Cahill 2014 ...  
   • Failing - A very difficult piece for ...  

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All Comments (21)
  • @vibes6326
    “what do we mean... by... difficult????” ok vsauce
  • @ssrd.
    Rest in peace Ben Johnston. He passed away at the age of 93 just on July 22, 2019.
  • @BopLouie
    It's Hot Cross buns on a Recorder in 4th grade.
  • @MisterAppleEsq
    When I was six, the F major scale was the most difficult piece of music I'd ever seen.
  • @SgtSnausages
    Musician for 40+ years here. Still can't hear a 5 cent difference ...
  • @AttitudeCastle
    Ben Johnston sadly just passed away, July 21st, 2019. RIP. His quartets are magnificent and hopefully his work becomes more widely performed!
  • @rdavidr
    "playing" a 70+ measure rest
  • @matty9460
    "can you play this midi file" "hold on a sec, need to over clock my CPU"
  • @ThePopPunkDad
    I have ADHD so definitely John Cage’s 4’33” is the most difficult for me.
  • @macomputersuck
    "Nothing in music is hard, just unfamiliar." - Kenny Werner
  • @KingOrpheus
    Dream Theater - Dance of Eternity is a great example. 108 time signature changes in just over six minutes, yet still able to maintain a tangible song "structure".
  • @JawnLam
    A philosopher once said, "If you can play something slowly, you can play it quickly."
  • @ralphg.curtis9297
    This is a rare sporty Neely. It only appears once in every 276 Neelys. Upvote in A=432 seconds for finger fitness and good health.
  • @alexdelarge5800
    me playing blues: A7 x4 D7 x2 A7 x2 E7 x1 me playing jazz: Cmaj7(b5)add9(#11)sus2
  • @iammaxhailme
    One of my music TAs said "what's the problem if we define difficulty by how hard it is to recreate something that someone else did?" so I went on the piano and literally flopped my hands around like a fish doing random things and said "by that definition I have composed the most difficult piece of all"