La Pastorale (25 Easy Studies, Op. 100 No. 3)

Background

La Pastorale is No. 3 of Friedrich Burgmüller's 25 Easy and Progressive Studies, Op. 100, published in Paris in 1851 (the Innocence page tells the story of the set). Its title places it in one of the oldest traditions in Western music: the pastoral, music that pictures shepherds and the countryside.

Pastoral music has a recognisable sound, built up over centuries. Shepherds were associated with bagpipes and simple pipes, so composers imitated them with a drone, a low note or chord held or repeated under the tune, and with little piper's grace notes. Pastorals also tend to sway in a gentle compound time such as 6/8 or 12/8. In the Baroque period they were linked with the shepherds of the Christmas story: Corelli's "Christmas" Concerto ends with a Pastorale, and Handel's Messiah has a short instrumental "Pastoral Symphony". Beethoven later called his Sixth Symphony the "Pastoral".

Burgmüller packs the whole tradition into a page for small hands: a rocking 6/8, a left-hand drone, a piping call to open, and tiny grace notes in the tune.

How to practise it

The study is in G major, 29 bars long. It opens with two bars for the right hand alone, like a shepherd's call:

Count six quick eighth notes to the bar at first, then feel just two beats: ONE-and-a, TWO-and-a. That swing is the heart of the piece.

From bar 3 the left hand enters with its drone:

Keep this chord soft and level, fingers resting on the keys, so it hums rather than knocks. Above it, the tune has small ornaments: in bars 3 and 7 a very quick grace note (F sharp) slips in just before the E, and in bar 5 two tiny notes lead into the C. Learn the main notes first, then add the grace notes as lightly as you can.

The middle (bars 9 to 18) wanders away from the drone. In bars 11 to 14 the left hand holds a pair of notes (F sharp and C, then G and B) while repeating a D just above them: hold the pair with fingers 5 and 2 and repeat the D with the thumb. Bars 15 and 16 bring chromatic notes (A sharp, D sharp), so read them slowly.

Bars 19 to 27 return to the opening, and bar 28 climbs a G major arpeggio to a high G. Practise it in hand positions: G, B and D with fingers 1, 2 and 3, then the thumb passes under to the next G and the pattern repeats. Learn the piece in that order (opening, middle, return), each part hands separately before together.

Set the metronome to the dotted-quarter beat at 40, then 52, then the full 64 (the app shows this as 96 quarter notes a minute). Listen for calm: an even drone, a singing tune, and a gentle sway rather than a march.

G major and its F sharp are introduced in the sharps, scales and G major unit.