Für Elise, WoO 59

Learn this piece

Composer

Ludwig van Beethoven

Level

Advanced

Key

A minor

Metre

3/8

Tempo

72 BPM

Length

106 bars, about 3 minutes

Hands

both

Trains

The whole rondo as Beethoven wrote it: the A theme over broken-chord bass, the F-major episode with its grace notes and 32nd-note figures, the agitated C section over a repeated bass pedal, and the triplet arpeggio run up under an 8va and back down chromatically.

How to practise it

• In bars 1-9 the hands take turns: the left hand's broken chord rises while the right hand waits. Play pp and let the two hands sound like one smooth line.
• Bars 33-37 are the hardest: right-hand 32nds climb under a repeated high G in bars 33 and 35, and run down from C in bars 34 and 36. Loop them at 40 BPM until they are even, then raise the tempo.
• From bar 62 the left hand keeps striking a low A in 16ths. Keep it soft and even under the right hand's chords.
• In bars 80-82 the right hand climbs in triplets, then bars 83-84 come down by half steps. Practise them slowly with the left hand's chords before you play them at tempo.

Where this score came from

Licence: Public domain

https://www.mutopiaproject.org/cgibin/piece-info.cgi?id=931

Credit: Typeset by Stelios Samelis for the Mutopia Project (Mutopia-2015/08/18-931) from the Breitkopf & Härtel edition of 1888, and placed in the public domain by the typesetter.

Limitations: written pedal is not played; The first-ending bar and the final bar are two eighths long (together with the pickup they make a full bar, as printed), so opening the piece shows an information notice about measure length.

Other versions

• Für Elise (theme, arranged for this app) Intermediate
• Fur Elise (opening motif, easy arrangement) Intermediate

More at this level

• La Candeur (25 Etudes faciles, Op. 100, No. 1) Johann Friedrich Franz Burgmüller
• Ballade (25 Etudes faciles, Op. 100, No. 15) Johann Friedrich Franz Burgmüller
• l'Arabesque (25 Etudes faciles, Op. 100, No. 2) Johann Friedrich Franz Burgmüller
• Prelude in C minor, Op. 28 No. 20 Frédéric Chopin
• Prelude in E minor, Op. 28 No. 4 ("Largo") Frédéric Chopin