Ride of the Valkyries, theme

Richard Wagner · Level 3 (Late beginner) · Romantic · Piano

The theme of the Act III prelude of Die Walküre (1856, premiered in 1870), arranged in A minor (original in B minor): the same ride twice, climbing in thirds before falling back. It is the music of the helicopter attack in Apocalypse Now (Francis Ford Coppola, 1979), and of the neo-Nazi chase in The Blues Brothers (1980).

▶ Play this piece with the interactive score

How to practise it

• Listen first: the site plays it while the score scrolls.
• Wait mode: the score waits for you at every note, at your own pace.
• Tempo challenge: play in time, with a score and a map of the bars you got right.
• The gallop: dotted eighth, sixteenth, eighth (ta-da-DUM), then a long note. Keep the sixteenth short and crisp, like a kick of the heel. The long notes (dotted quarters) must ring out proudly, without being cut short. Left hand: one bass and two chords per bar, like the strings galloping underneath.

Source : Arrangement Note after Note d’après la réduction pour chant et piano de Karl Klindworth (Schott) · Public Domain