The Happy Farmer (Album for the Young, Op. 68 No. 10)

Background

Schumann's full title is Fröhlicher Landmann, von der Arbeit zurückkehrend: "Merry countryman, returning from work". It is No. 10 in his Album für die Jugend, Op. 68, written in 1848, and it belongs to the first half of the album, the part meant for younger players. It has become one of the best-known pieces in the whole collection.

Its idea is simple and unusual: the left hand has the tune, a sturdy song in F major, while the right hand bounces along above it with short chords. The picture in the title is easy to hear, a cheerful tune striding along at a steady pace, as if someone were singing on the way home after a long day in the fields.

How to practise it

Written in 4/4 and in F major, it starts with a one-note upbeat: the left hand's low C, an eighth note, leading into the first bar.

The left hand's tune should sound smooth and singing (legato). The right hand answers each long note of the tune with two quick, short chords (staccato), so the music goes tune, chord, chord, tune.

The music has three ideas:

• The opening four-bar tune, played twice. It stops on a C major chord, which sounds unfinished.
• A short passage where the right hand takes a tune of its own (B flat, A, G) above the left hand.
• The farmer's tune again, now played by both hands an octave apart, with the little chords still fitted in between. It ends firmly in F, and this second half is repeated.

Four stages:

1. Left hand alone. Hum the tune as you play, joining every note and leaning slightly on the long ones.
2. Right hand alone. Keep the chords crisp, with a small bounce of the wrist. There are only a few chord shapes, so learn them as shapes.
3. Hands together, very slowly, saying "tune, chord, chord" in time. The chords fall between the tune's notes, never on top of them.
4. The last section hands separately again, because both hands now carry the tune. Listen that the octaves sound exactly together.

Stay at half speed until the hands fit, then move up to full speed in two or three steps. Above all, listen for balance: the tune strong and warm, the chords light and crisp. If the chords start to sound as loud as the tune, play them with less arm and more fingertip.

The intervals, first chords, legato and staccato unit uses this piece to hear legato and staccato side by side.