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La Pastorale, Op. 100 No. 3

Friedrich Burgmüller (1806–1874) · sheet music

  • Key G major
  • Time 6/8
  • Levels 6–8
  • Passages 2

Your turn · both hands

 

 

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Friedrich Burgmüller, German-French romantic (1806–1874). The reading release has 2 passages from this piece at levels 6–8; the reader above opens on the easiest, bars 1–4 for both hands together.

Practice the hard bars →

The hardest stretch is bars 1–8 at level 8.

Your practice path

Learn it the way teachers do: each hand on its own, then together, then the hard bars. Each step is a real graded passage of La Pastorale, Op. 100 No. 3.

  1. Hands together · bars 1–4 level 6
  2. The hardest bars · bars 1–8 level 8

How to play La Pastorale, Op. 100 No. 3

  1. Tempo:Count two broad beats per bar and keep them calm, because the lilt disappears if 6/8 becomes six separate eighth notes. The Collection Litolff edition marks it Andantino, a gentle walking pace.
  2. Right hand:Shape each slurred phrase as one breath, with its highest note as the goal. Let the wrist sink slightly into the first note of each slur and lift off the last.
  3. Left hand:The left hand repeats the same chord shape in a steady rhythm, so find the hand position once and let it ride. Play with a fingertip touch, noticeably lighter than the right hand.
  4. Hands together:Listen for the right-hand tune above everything else. A good test is to play the left hand at half the volume you think is needed and then check that the melody still carries.
  5. Dynamics:The dynamics here are small, from piano to mezzo forte and back. Practice the swell into the middle section and the fade back out so the whole piece breathes.
  6. Practice:Practice the right hand alone as a song, singing or humming along, then add only the first chord of each left-hand group before filling in the repeats.
  7. Reading:One sharp is all the signature asks, but the middle section adds E-flat and B-flat for a bar or two. Mark them lightly in pencil on the first pass.

Common mistakes

  • Left-hand chords as loud as the melody. Fix: Practice the chords with the fingers close to the keys and aim for half the melody's volume.
  • Treating 6/8 as six equal beats. Fix: Tap two beats with your foot and feel the first and fourth eighths as the strong ones.
  • Playing the final arpeggio too fast. Fix: Use the same slow lilt as the opening and let the last note ring for a full breath.

Structure: ternary (A–B–A)

After a short right-hand lead-in, a long tune is played and repeated. A contrasting middle grows to mezzo forte over a held D in the bass and borrows E-flat and B-flat for a moment of darker color, then the opening tune returns. The piece closes by thinning out to a rising G major arpeggio and a final G marked pianissimo.

A · The shepherd's tune (G major)
A smooth right-hand melody in long slurs over steady left-hand chords, after two bars of right hand alone. Marked dolce cantabile; this is the section you will hear most.
B · Contrasting middle
A step louder (mezzo forte), with the left hand tapping a repeated D under the tune and a brief turn to E-flat and B-flat before settling back. Watch the accidentals.
A · Return and fade
The opening tune comes back and the dynamics shrink, ending with a rising arpeggio to a soft final G.

About La Pastorale, Op. 100 No. 3

La Pastorale is the third of the 25 Études faciles et progressives that Friedrich Burgmüller published in Paris in 1851. He was a German-born pianist who settled in Paris in 1832 and wrote salon pieces and two ballets as well as studies for young players. The full French title says the studies were composed and fingered for small hands.

A pastorale is music of rural, shepherd-like character, usually in 6/8, 9/8 or 12/8 at a moderate pace, and the Baroque kind sets a melody over a drone bass. Burgmüller's version has a long-breathed G major tune in the right hand, marked dolce cantabile in the Collection Litolff edition, over a left hand that repeats soft chords, and in the middle a held D like a drone. That edition adds the German title Hirtenlied, shepherd's song.

Each study in Op. 100 trains one idea under a picture title. Here the idea is balance: the right hand sings while the left hand stays light, so tone control matters more than speed.

  • The Op. 100 set is cataloged in IMSLP as having been published in 1851 by Benoît aîné in Paris, with later editions from Schott, Schirmer, Peters and Wiener Urtext.
  • The piece ends with a rising G major arpeggio that dies away to a final G marked pianissimo.
  • Of the 25 studies, La Pastorale is one of only a handful written in G major; others are Le courant limpide (No. 7), La styrienne (No. 14), L'harmonie des anges (No. 21) and L'hirondelle (No. 24).

Why the first passage is level 6

That passage is level 6 rather than 5 because a hand plays several notes at once, a hand plays full chords, it is in 6/8, not 4/4, its chords go beyond simple triads.

One sharp (F#) marks G major. The melody lives in the right hand's treble clef and the left hand mostly repeats one chord shape, so read the left hand by pattern and the right hand by contour.

Questions about La Pastorale, Op. 100 No. 3

How hard is La Pastorale, Op. 100 No. 3 to play?
Its passages grade from level 6 to level 8 on Real Sight Reader's ten-level reading scale, so the full piece is intermediate to advanced reading. The hardest stretch is bars 1–8 at level 8.
Is there an easy part of La Pastorale, Op. 100 No. 3 for beginners?
Its easiest passage is level 6, so it suits a reader past the beginner stage. Start with bars 1–4 for both hands together, the level-6 passage in the reader at the top of this page; it is level 6 because a hand plays several notes at once and a hand plays full chords.
What key and time signature is La Pastorale, Op. 100 No. 3 in?
La Pastorale, Op. 100 No. 3 is in G major, 1 sharp. The engraving on this page is in 6/8 time.
Who composed La Pastorale, Op. 100 No. 3?
Friedrich Burgmüller, German-French romantic (1806–1874). La Pastorale is the third of the 25 Études faciles et progressives that Friedrich Burgmüller published in Paris in 1851.
Can I practice La Pastorale, Op. 100 No. 3 online for free?
Yes. The reader on this page plays any of the 2 graded passages from La Pastorale, Op. 100 No. 3 in your browser, with an on-screen keyboard or a MIDI keyboard, and marks every note as you play. No signup.
What is a pastorale in music?
It is a calm piece that evokes shepherds and country life, often with a gently rocking compound meter like 6/8. Burgmüller's Op. 100 No. 3 follows that tradition in miniature.
What is the German subtitle of La Pastorale?
Some editions print Hirtenlied, which means shepherd's song.
Is La Pastorale part of a larger work?
It is the third of 25 separate studies in Burgmüller's Op. 100. They are independent pieces rather than a suite, though they are arranged in rough order of difficulty.

Every passage, easiest first

The reading release grades 2 distinct passages of this piece. Open any of them in the reader:

Level 6
bars 1–4 both hands
Level 8
bars 1–8 both hands

More pieces to sight-read

Score: public-domain engraving from the corpus (mutopia-ly), graded by the piano-reading-v2-20261023-identity-audit reading release.

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