Arabesque (25 Easy Studies, Op. 100 No. 2)

Background

Friedrich Burgmüller brought out his 25 Easy and Progressive Studies, Op. 100, in Paris around 1851, and L'Arabesque is the second of them. It remains one of the most widely played studies for young pianists. Burgmüller followed the set with two more advanced collections, the 12 Brilliant and Melodious Studies, Op. 105, and the 18 Characteristic Studies, Op. 109.

An arabesque is an ornament of curling, interlacing lines, at home in Islamic art and later taken up all over Europe as a decorative style. Applied to music, the word suggests quick, twisting figures, and that is exactly what this study is made of: little curls of five notes that whirl up the keyboard over crisp chords. Some forty years later Claude Debussy gave the same title to two very different pieces; see his first Arabesque.

How to practise it

This study is in A minor and 2/4, 55 bars long in this version, and it is quick: the app's full speed is 126 quarter notes a minute. The left hand starts alone with two bars of short A minor chords, and the right hand joins in bar 3.

The right hand's figure is four sixteenth notes and an eighth note. Each group fits under one five-finger position, so the fingering is simple; the challenge is moving quickly from one position to the next.

In bars 5 and 6 the same shape starts on D and then on A, climbing to a high E. Use the short eighth note at the end of each figure to travel: release it, move, and land with the thumb exactly on the next beat.

Bars 7 and 9 are a contrast: they begin with a rest, and the right hand's short eighth notes come off the beat. Count the rest firmly; the surprise only works if the silence is in time.

In the middle section (bars 19 to 26, and again 35 to 42) the roles are reversed: the running figure moves down to the left hand, and the right hand plays a slower tune above it.

A plan for learning it:

1. Left-hand chords alone, short and light, bouncing from the wrist.
2. Right-hand figures at half speed (about 63), pausing on each eighth note to prepare the next position.
3. Hands together at half speed, then 84 and 104, before the full 126.
4. The middle section the same way, starting with the left hand alone.

The ending climbs to a very high A and then sends both hands racing down together, an octave apart, to the final chord. Practise that descent slowly, because it is the one place where both hands play quick notes at once.

Keep the whole piece light: fingers close to the keys, relaxed wrists and little or no pedal. For ways to make slow practice pay off, see how to practise piano.