Siciliano (Album for the Young Op. 68 No. 11)

Robert Schumann · Level 3 (Late beginner) · Romantic · Piano

An A minor siciliano with a gently rocking barcarolle lilt, interrupted in the middle by a quicker episode in two beats before the theme returns. From the Album for the Young Op. 68 (1848), 43 pieces Schumann wrote for his eldest daughter’s birthday. A minor, 6/8, 64 bars (about 3 minutes), complete score.

▶ 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.
• Bring out the dotted eighth – sixteenth – eighth rhythm without making it stiff. The middle section changes meter: count two quicker beats, then find the 6/8 lilt again. Each piece tells a little scene: look for the character suggested by the title. The piece starts with a pickup: count the incomplete bar before coming in. In 6/8, count the beats as groups of three eighths (dotted beats) to keep the lilt.

More pieces by Robert Schumann

• May, Dear May, Soon You’ll Be Here Again! (Album for the Young Op. 68 No. 13)
• Untitled piece “* * *” (Album for the Young Op. 68 No. 26)
• Italian Sailors’ Song (Album for the Young Op. 68 No. 36)
• A Curious Story (Kinderszenen Op. 15 No. 2)
• Blind Man’s Buff (Kinderszenen Op. 15 No. 3)
• Happy Enough (Kinderszenen Op. 15 No. 5)
• An Important Event (Kinderszenen Op. 15 No. 6)
• Scheherazade (Album for the Young Op. 68 No. 32)

Source : Mutopia Project · CC BY-SA 2.5