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I'm studying Rachmaninoff's Prelude in C# minor and towards the end, the staff lines are joined together, with two ending lines.

Do I need four hands? :)

Prelude in C# Minor Last Page

Mihai Danila
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Thankfully, four hands are not necessary. Nor are (both) feet.

The two lower staves are for the left hand, and the two upper staves are for the right hand: from bottom to top LH LH RH RH. Notice that in most cases, when the lower LH and RH staves have chords, the upper LH and RH staves have rests. Play the left-hand chords, then jump up to play the right-hand ones, then back down for the left-hand ones.

This arrangement is used to indicate two distinct parts: the lower, more ominous chords; and the upper bell-like chords. By splitting the staves, it can help illustrate the distinction. See also When does one use an extra stave for piano music?

In the case where the chords are simultaneous — the first and third in the indicated excerpt — treat the lower staff chords like grace notes slightly before the beat, and play the upper chords on the beat.

This is not a rule, but it is a strong convention. When arpeggiating chords, for example, the assumption is to start from the bottom. Similarly, when playing chords as in this piece, the working assumption is to go from low to high. The low-first convention is evident throughout this particular piece, with no indication in should be changed in these particular measures. As one example of many, here is Evgeny Kissin. The video is timed to the measures in question.

The below edition (Ray Alston, ISMLP) illustrates this explicitly.

Two-staff edition of OP segment

For more on this notational convention/technique, see When does one use an extra stave for piano music?

Mihai Danila
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Aaron
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  • Umm… why was it coded that way? – Mihai Danila Feb 28 '23 at 02:20
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    @MihaiDanila Because there are two distinct parts: the lower, more ominous chords; and the upper bell-like chords. By splitting the staves, it can help illustrate the distinction. See also When does one use an extra stave for piano music?. – Aaron Feb 28 '23 at 02:25
  • Also, why are the lower-staff chords the grace notes and not the other way around? Is that the rule, or is it a case-by-case situation? – Mihai Danila Feb 28 '23 at 04:05
  • @MihaiDanila Not a rule, but a strong convention. When arpeggiating chords, for example, the assumption is to start from the bottom. Similarly, when playing chords as in this piece, the working assumption is to go from low to high. The low-first convention is evident throughout this particular piece, with no indication in should be changed in these particular measures. As one example of many, here is Evgeny Kissin. The video is timed to the measures in question. – Aaron Feb 28 '23 at 04:18
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    How dare you leave such valuable information out of the answer? :P Joke aside, I've added both to your answer; feel free to edit to a more suitable form. And thank you for these great insights and contributions. – Mihai Danila Feb 28 '23 at 05:14
  • Note: The convention to arpeggiate from the bottom up is true for most classical-to-modern music, certainly including Rachmaninoff. However, in Baroque era music and earlier, the reverse was true. J.S. Bach, for example, would default to arpeggiating from the top down. (There are cases where he would arpeggiate from bottom up, but these were explicitly notated with an arrow on the arpeggio ornament.) Just pointing out that it's not a hard rule on older music. – Darrel Hoffman Feb 28 '23 at 14:30
  • @DarrelHoffman I've always wondered about that. Can you point me to a source for further reading? – Aaron Feb 28 '23 at 17:08
  • I've mostly seen it in the performance notes at the beginning of any sheet music books of Bach et. al. If you want an online source, Wikipedia covers some of it. It turns out many ornaments were "flipped" from what we expect in more recent music, e.g. mordents and trills default to using the note below the principle instead of above, etc. – Darrel Hoffman Feb 28 '23 at 19:23
  • When the dynamic marking is ffff on each pair of staves, does that mean the total is really ffffffff? – Theodore Feb 28 '23 at 20:51
  • @Theodore I believe it's exponential, not additive. – Aaron Mar 01 '23 at 04:03
  • @MihaiDanila Thanks for putting in those edits. They really improve the post. Also preserved the info in case the comments are ever deleted. Much appreciated. – Aaron Dec 15 '23 at 06:02
  • Of course! Your consistent selfless, high-quality help (not just with this question) is quite a motivator, though. I think you deserve much of the credit. – Mihai Danila Dec 16 '23 at 21:07
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It is just easier to read as separate staves. But no, you don't need 4 hands. 2 hands lower staff, 2 hands upper staff.

Adrian Bartholomew
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