Douce Plainte (25 Etudes faciles, Op. 100, No. 16)

Learn this piece

Composer

Johann Friedrich Franz Burgmüller

Level

Intermediate

Key

G minor

Metre

4/4

Tempo

126 BPM

Length

18 bars, about 1 minute

Hands

both

Trains

A gentle lament in G minor, Allegro moderato: a long-breathed right-hand melody over left-hand broken chords in quiet, even sixteenth notes; later the right hand takes the sixteenths and staccato thirds. Let the melody sing over the moving hand. Both halves repeated, with first and second endings.

How to practise it

• In bars 1-4 the left hand plays quiet, even sixteenth notes under long tied notes in the right hand. Practise the left hand alone at 70 BPM, then let the melody sing above it.
• In bars 5-6 the hands swap: the right hand plays the sixteenth notes and the left hand holds a long note. Keep the sixteenths quiet so the left hand can be heard.
• Bars 10 and 12 give the right hand short staccato double notes over repeated left-hand thirds. Loop bars 10-13 slowly and keep both notes of each pair exactly together.
• Bar 14 is the forte high point, on the high D; grow into it with bar 13's crescendo. Bar 15 grows again, then bar 16 falls back to p.

Where this score came from

Licence: Public domain

https://www.mutopiaproject.org/cgibin/piece-info.cgi?id=228

Credit: Typeset by Bas Wassink for the Mutopia Project (Mutopia-2013/01/12-228) from the Collection Litolff (19th century), and placed in the public domain by the typesetter.

More at this level

• Minuet in B-flat major, BWV Anh. 118
• Inquiétude (25 Etudes faciles, Op. 100, No. 18) Johann Friedrich Franz Burgmüller
• La Pastorale (25 Etudes faciles, Op. 100, No. 3) Johann Friedrich Franz Burgmüller
• Innocence (25 Etudes faciles, Op. 100, No. 5 - opening strain, arranged) Johann Friedrich Franz Burgmüller
• Für Elise (theme, arranged for this app) Ludwig van Beethoven