La Chasse (25 Easy Studies, Op. 100 No. 9)

Background

La Chasse, "The Hunt", is No. 9 of Friedrich Burgmüller's 25 Easy and Progressive Studies, Op. 100, published in 1851. It belongs to a long line of concert pieces that imitate a hunt on horseback, with galloping rhythms and, above all, horn calls.

Hunting horns were simple coiled brass tubes with no valves, so a player could sound only a limited set of notes, most of them belonging to one major chord. That is why horn calls are made of broken chords, repeated notes and leaps rather than smooth scales, and why they are so easy to recognise. Composers borrowed the sound freely: Haydn's Symphony No. 73 is nicknamed La Chasse after its hunting finale, and Mozart's String Quartet K. 458 is known as "The Hunt" because its opening sounds like horns in the field. Many such pieces use 6/8, whose long-short swing suits a galloping horse.

Burgmüller's study gives a young pianist all of this at once: horn-call chords, a bouncing right hand that leaps between two Gs an octave apart, and a fast 6/8 that trains quick, light hands and a steady pulse.

How to practise it

The piece is in C major and opens with four bars for the left hand alone: C major chords in a long-short rhythm, like a distant horn call. Then the right hand enters with the main idea, a high G followed by two lower Gs, over two-note chords in the left hand.

Keep the hand open in an octave shape and play from a relaxed, gently bouncing wrist. The high G carries the accent; the two thumb notes are lighter. If the repeated thumb notes stiffen, practise them in pairs (high-low, stop) before adding the third note.

The piece alternates this idea with contrasting passages. In one, the right hand holds two-note chords while the left hand flicks between F sharp and G in eighth notes that start just after the beat; count those carefully, as it is easy to drift onto the beat. In another, the music turns to A minor and the right hand sings a slower line over left-hand broken chords: play it smoothly, as a contrast to the bouncing. The opening horn calls return at the end.

A plan:

1. The opening call and the main right-hand figure, hands separately.
2. The main section hands together, slowly.
3. Each contrasting passage on its own, then joined to what comes before it.

The app's full speed is 168 quarter notes a minute, which is 112 dotted-quarter beats. Set the metronome to the dotted-quarter beat and climb gradually: 60, 76, 92, then 112. Move on only when the repeated notes stay even and the left-hand chords change exactly on the beat.

Listen for a crisp, light sound with two strong beats in every bar: a steady pulse matters far more than speed.

Short, detached notes and accents are practised in the intervals, chords, legato and staccato unit.