What is difficult? Is a piece of music difficult because it’s hard to play or because of its conceptual virtuosity? Bassist Adam Neely took on the challenge to try to define what is “the most difficult piece of music,” and tries to explain what it means, and provide some examples.
It turns out it all comes down to “devilry, risk, excitement and relief” that human virtuosos posses when they play music that a computer doesn’t have (at least not yet). That said, only a computer can play something like “Black MIDI” (pictured above), although many computers even stall when trying to play it.
There are some great examples of difficult musical pieces through the ages that somehow become not so difficult as players get better and more used to the compositions (as with Frank Zappa’s infamous “The Black Page” and Van Halen’s “Eruption”). And there are examples of composers who seem to write to bedevil the finest players.
So what does Neely (and many others) consider to be the most difficult piece of music ever written? It’s Ben Johnston’s “String Quartets Nos. 6, 7 & 8.” The reason? Because it requires the players to microtune between the notes so there are hundreds of discrete pitches (see this New York Times article about the difficulty in finding players will to play it).
If you’re a player, be prepared to be amazed at what a human can both conceive and do!
