Little Morning Wanderer (Album for the Young Op. 68 No. 17)

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

A cheerful little walker in the morning: “fresh and vigorous” chords in dotted rhythms, then a gentler episode over a pedal A. From the Album for the Young Op. 68 (1848), 43 pieces Schumann wrote for his eldest daughter’s birthday. A major, 2/4, 32 bars (about one minute), 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.
• Keep the dotted rhythms crisp and the chords short; soften the sound in the middle episode. The piece starts with a pickup: count the incomplete bar before coming in. One hand sometimes plays two voices: hold the long notes for their full value and let the main line sing louder than the accompaniment. Triplets and other tuplets must be perfectly even: count them aloud with the metronome.

More pieces by Robert Schumann

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

Source : PDMX / MuseScore · CC0 1.0