Italian composer Ludovico Einaudi has written many beautiful piano pieces. What I love about his music is that each composition tells a story. This is no different with his work Le Onde (“The Waves”):
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Background of Le Onde
Einaudi’s first big hit, Le Onde (the title of his first solo album released in 1996 along with the piano composition featured on the album) is based on the novel The Waves by Virginia Woolf.
Einaudi wrote of the album:
“If [Le Onde] were a story it would be set on the seafront of a long beach. A beach without beginning and without end. The story of a man who walks along this shore and perhaps never meets anyone. His gaze lingers occasionally to look at some object or fragment brought from the sea. The footprints of a crab or a solitary seagull. I always take the sand, the sky, some clouds, the sea. Only the waves change, always the same and different, smaller. larger. Shorter. Longer.”
Analysis
Le Onde translates to “The Waves”. In this piece, Einaudi builds a carefully crafted world by layering sound, creating a rising and falling effect (i.e. waves). Le Onde opens with an arpeggio that subtly pervades the music from start to finish. The melody is simple and repetitive, which adds to the watery atmosphere by creating images of swirling color.
Overall, the chords are simple in Le Onde. They alternate between the keys of B minor and D major, creating a sense of security in the rise and fall of the arpeggios. In the second half of the piece, however (around 1:50), Einaudi instills a little mystery by adding a B flat to the key signature while taking out the D sharp (characteristics of D minor).
The Waves
When I first heard Le Onde, I was struck by its simple beauty. I love the work’s musical description of waves and the ocean – and because the ocean is my favorite place, I incorporated it in the music video for my piano cover.
What does Le Onde remind you of?
I love how you play this piece! I haven’t listened to this composition in a while, so thank you for bringing me back to it. I didn’t know “Le Onde” meant waves! That’s so cool how you tied it all in with the video. To me the song seemed to be perfectly suited for change – like the seasons, or sunset/sunrise, or life/death. But now I know what Le Onde means, your video put it all together nicely.
I’m so glad you liked the video! I like your thoughts on how Le Onde seems like change, I can definitely hear that.
Going to the other website worked. I was able to share this post on twitter.
I’m glad it worked, I don’t know what the problem was! Hope it doesn’t happen again.
“Le onde” perfectly captures the feeling of sailing, of flow: being one with the water, waves, wind and a bit of sunshine – not a worry in the world 🙏