Peasant Playing the Accordion (Album for the Young Op. 39 No. 12)

Piotr Ilitch Tchaïkovski · Level 2 (Beginner) · Romantic · Piano

A peasant tries out his accordion: chords opening and closing like the bellows, over one insistent harmony. From the Album for the Young Op. 39 (1878), twenty-four easy pieces Tchaikovsky wrote for his nephew, on the model of Schumann’s Album for the Young. B♭ major, 2/4, 23 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.
• Place the chords exactly together without harshness, and let the little accents sound like the instrument’s breath. 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. For chords, shape the hand in the air before landing, all notes together.

More pieces by Piotr Ilitch Tchaïkovski

• Swan Lake: Neapolitan Dance (piano arrangement)
• The Seasons: January (O 37,1)
• The Seasons: February (Carnival)
• The Seasons: August (Harvest)
• March of the Wooden Soldiers (Op. 39 No. 5)
• Morning Prayer (Op. 39 No. 1)
• Old French Song (Op. 39 No. 16)
• Swan Lake, swan theme

Source : PDMX / MuseScore · CC0 1.0