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160 Eight-Measure Exercises, Op. 821 No. 13

Carl Czerny (1791–1857) · sheet music

  • Time 4/4
  • Levels 9
  • Passages 1

Your turn · both hands

 

 

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Carl Czerny, Austrian romantic (1791–1857). The reading release has 1 passage from this piece at level 9; the reader above opens on the easiest, bars 1–8 for both hands together.

Practice the hard bars →

The hardest stretch is bars 1–8 at level 9.

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 160 Eight-Measure Exercises, Op. 821 No. 13.

  1. Hands together · bars 1–8 level 9

How to play 160 Eight-Measure Exercises, Op. 821 No. 13

  1. Tempo:Allegro moderato asks for a lively but controlled pace; start well below it, at a speed where every grace note and every left-hand sixteenth is clear, and raise it gradually.
  2. Right hand:Each detached right-hand note is preceded by a grace note from below or above; play the grace note quickly and let the main note bounce off the key, keeping the high notes light.
  3. Left hand:The left hand turns around the same few notes in steady sixteenths; keep the wrist loose and the fingers close so the pattern stays even and quiet.
  4. Hands together:Line up each right-hand staccato note with the left-hand sixteenth beneath it, slowly at first, so the two textures do not pull each other off the beat.
  5. Fingering:Plan the fingering for the long run before you play it and keep it the same each time, so the thumb passes under without a bump.
  6. Practice:Practice the left hand alone until it is automatic, then add the right hand; because the exercise is only eight bars, repeat it several times in a row.
  7. Reading:Note the two flats and the accidentals in the run before you start, and read the high right-hand notes by their ledger lines rather than guessing.

Common mistakes

  • Treating the grace notes as full beats, which makes the right hand late. Fix: Play each grace note just before the beat so the main note still lands with the left hand.
  • Letting the left-hand sixteenths get louder than the melody notes. Fix: Play the left hand alone as softly and evenly as you can before adding the right hand.
  • Rushing the run after the held high note. Fix: Count the held note to its full length and start the run at the same tempo as the rest.

Structure: single eight-bar exercise

Like every number in Op. 821, this is one eight-bar phrase built on a single idea. The right hand plays detached chord tones, each with a grace note, while the left hand runs in steady sixteenths; the hands then trade roles, with a long high note and a fast descending run in the right hand before a short cadence.

1 · Chord tones over moving bass
Staccato right-hand notes, each preceded by a quick grace note, skip down a chord while the left hand circles in sixteenths; read the grace notes as part of the jump.
2 · Run and cadence
A held high note gives way to a fast sixteenth-note run down the keyboard, then both hands close with short chords.

About 160 Eight-Measure Exercises, Op. 821 No. 13

Carl Czerny (1791-1857), a pupil of Beethoven and the teacher of Liszt, wrote an enormous quantity of piano studies; his opus numbers run past 860. Op. 821 is a set of 160 very short exercises, each eight bars long and each built on one figure or pattern.

The set was first published in 1852 by Schlesinger in Berlin and Richault in Paris. Its German title says the exercises are meant for learning the most necessary figures and passages quickly and for building sight-reading; the French edition called it Les heures du matin.

The exercises move through all the major and minor keys. No. 13, marked Allegro moderato, is in B-flat major and pairs a light, detached right hand with a left hand that never stops moving.

  • The French title of the set, Les heures du matin, means the morning hours.
  • The widely used Peters edition of Op. 821 was edited by Adolf Ruthardt and appeared around 1888.
  • Every one of the 160 exercises is exactly eight bars long, which is why the set is known in English as the Eight-Measure Exercises.

Why the first passage is level 9

That passage is level 9 rather than 8 because a hand covers more than one position, it leaps a fifth plus an octave.

This is a single level 9 passage: read the right-hand chord tones and their grace notes first, then the left-hand pattern, because the ledger lines and the busy bass make up most of the difficulty.

Questions about 160 Eight-Measure Exercises, Op. 821 No. 13

How hard is 160 Eight-Measure Exercises, Op. 821 No. 13 to play?
Its passages grade from level 9 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 9.
Is there an easy part of 160 Eight-Measure Exercises, Op. 821 No. 13 for beginners?
Its easiest passage is level 9, so it suits a reader past the beginner stage. Start with bars 1–8 for both hands together, the level-9 passage in the reader at the top of this page; it is level 9 because a hand covers more than one position and it leaps a fifth plus an octave.
What key and time signature is 160 Eight-Measure Exercises, Op. 821 No. 13 in?
The engraving on this page is in 4/4 time.
Who composed 160 Eight-Measure Exercises, Op. 821 No. 13?
Carl Czerny, Austrian romantic (1791–1857). Carl Czerny (1791-1857), a pupil of Beethoven and the teacher of Liszt, wrote an enormous quantity of piano studies; his opus numbers run past 860.
Can I practice 160 Eight-Measure Exercises, Op. 821 No. 13 online for free?
Yes. The reader on this page plays any of the one graded passage from 160 Eight-Measure Exercises, Op. 821 No. 13 in your browser, with an on-screen keyboard or a MIDI keyboard, and marks every note as you play. No signup.
What is Czerny's Op. 821?
A set of 160 eight-bar exercises, first published in 1852, meant to teach the most common figures and passages quickly and to improve sight-reading.
Does the set cover every key?
Yes. According to IMSLP, the exercises use all the major and minor keys.
Is Czerny's Op. 821 in the public domain?
Yes. Czerny died in 1857, and the Mutopia Project edition used for this page is itself public domain; some modern editions may carry their own editorial copyright.

Every passage, easiest first

The reading release grades one passage of this piece. Open any of them in the reader:

Level 9
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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