Description
With 660 notes in just under a minute, No. 17 is one of the densest dances in the first part: a D minor piece in which the left hand pulses in eighth notes over a bass reaching down to A1. It is part of Traditioner af Swenska Folk-Dansar, a three-part folk dance anthology that appeared in Sweden in the early nineteenth century, setting for keyboard tunes passed around the country whose makers' names were not kept.
The key is D minor and the metre 3/4. The left hand keeps up eighth notes almost throughout, here and there sounding chords of up to four notes. Its lowest note is A1, giving the bass real weight. The right hand moves busily in eighths and sixteenths and reaches up to B-flat 5. Both hands are written densely, with few rests.
It is rated intermediate, yet with 660 notes in 59 seconds it is very dense. It takes stamina to keep the left-hand pulse and the right-hand sixteenths going at once. The low A1 is not on a 61-key keyboard (C2 to C7), but an octave shift brings every note onto that instrument. Start with the playback well slowed, then raise the tempo section by section with the A-B loop for steady progress.
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About the Composer
Traditional
'Traditional' refers not to a single composer but to folk melodies and dances passed down through oral tradition across various regions. This site includes 57 such pieces, including Nordic folk dances, reflecting the distinct character of music rooted in place and community rather than individual composition.
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