http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QHQfe4jM ... 6A&index=0

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OVacAeAT ... 6A&index=1

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t6OQpkOU ... 6A&index=2

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=blRNIX_4 ... 6A&index=3

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uy8GFclw ... 6A&index=4

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SrZmkbth ... 6A&index=5

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7VvRcfH1 ... 6A&index=7

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ju3rZWS3 ... 6A&index=6

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xwd_dMyM ... A&index=13

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iyQ1QPLO ... A&index=12

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fhJiLLcU ... A&index=16

Forgive me for the gigantic selection but this composer gives me a kind of hysteria, depression, nostalgia, and awe stricken set of emotions that only a few others do in the whole realm of music. Does anyone think he is too brash?

His Knight etude is purely demonic for the hands.

You would think Alkan did nothing but play scales all day and keep speeding up until reaching pure madness with a metronome. It's hard to believe that some people find his compositions repulsive.

What is very "mindblowing" (any composer for that matter) is to hear the music, which once completed is to be played "presto" or requires fast-moving hands and timing, when playing a few notes at a time, then writing them down, playing a few more at a slow pace, and then writing them down, repeating this process over and over and over again.

Case in point: the Knight etude. Each note had to be written down and it takes a genius to hear the music at such a slow pace.

This is why I regard Alkan to be in my top 10 composers.

Well, that may not necessarily be the case. I use the sketch method, as if i were a painter. I come up with several motifs generally as a result of me being a student of Scriabin and his wonderful flightiness, a set of themes, very often a scripture for help with the them(Alkan was rather fond of the old testament, and the Super Flumina Babylonis was his best old testament based composition). I take a little while working out rhythmic device, seeing as there is a wide berth between the ingenious and the ingenuine. After getting a wide sketch i normally flesh things out, maybe add 1 or 2 semi motifs, and find a way to combine the either the main themes(in an atonal piece) or motifs. Hysteria just isn't as hysterical without a semblance of structure, in my opinion.