Traditioner af Swenska Folk-Dansar, 1st part, nr 23

Description

Unusually, it is the left hand that carries many of the sixteenth notes in this brisk G major dance, so the accompaniment keeps turning over beneath the tune. At about sixty-seven seconds, No. 23 is one of the larger pieces in the first part of Traditioner af Swenska Folk-Dansar, a Swedish collection of the early nineteenth century in three parts, which preserves anonymous traditional dances at the keyboard.

The key is G major and the metre 3/4. The MIDI is set at a brisk quarter note of 110. A feature of this piece is the large number of sixteenth notes in the left hand, so the accompaniment keeps turning over in fine detail. The right hand moves in sixteenths and eighths and reaches B5. Both hands have few rests, and the flow of notes never stops.

It is rated intermediate, and with 712 notes in 67 seconds it is fairly dense. The left-hand sixteenths are harder to keep even than the right hand's, and they are the main challenge of the piece. Check the left hand's fine movement in the hand colours, and practise it alone at a slower playback speed first so it holds together when the hands are combined. Then speed up looped sections with the A-B loop until you approach the original tempo.

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