Description
Lasting only about nineteen seconds, No. 18 is one of the shortest pieces here, an A minor dance with a dotted tune over left-hand eighth notes. It appears in the first part of Traditioner af Swenska Folk-Dansar, published in three parts in early nineteenth-century Sweden to put anonymous traditional dances into a form playable at the keyboard.
The key is A minor and the metre 3/4. The left hand is entirely in eighth notes, keeping a steady walk with occasional two-note chords. The right hand has a short melody of quarter notes and dotted eighth plus sixteenth figures. The range runs from C3 to G5, with little low bass, so both hands gather around the middle of the keyboard. Short as it is, it has the basics of a dance: a springing tune over a steady accompaniment.
It is rated beginner, with 127 notes. Because it is so short, the time can go not into getting through it but into evening out the left-hand eighths and making the right-hand dotted rhythm exact. Listen through a few times at a slower playback speed and check the notes in the score view before you start. It is easily playable on a 61-key keyboard, and it suits a first attempt at feeling a dance pulse.
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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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