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Elementary Study, Op. 176 No. 1

Jean-Baptiste Duvernoy (1802–1880) · sheet music

  • Time 4/4
  • Levels 2–9
  • Passages 15

Your turn · both hands

 

 

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Jean-Baptiste Duvernoy, French romantic (1802–1880). The reading release has 15 passages from this piece at levels 2–9; the reader above opens on the easiest, bars 11–14 for the left hand alone.

Practice the hard bars →

The hardest stretch is bars 3–26 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 Elementary Study, Op. 176 No. 1.

  1. Right hand alone · bars 9–12 level 3
  2. Left hand alone · bars 11–14 level 2
  3. Hands together · bars 13–16 level 5
  4. The hardest bars · bars 3–26 level 9

How to play Elementary Study, Op. 176 No. 1

  1. Tempo:Choose a speed at which every eighth note is even, including the thumb crossings; the study only works if the runs sound like one smooth line.
  2. Right hand:On the climbing runs, tuck the thumb under after the third finger and bring the third finger over on the way down, keeping the wrist level so the crossing makes no bump.
  3. Left hand:Place each three-note chord all at once and hold it for its full value; the only change between the two shapes is the middle note moving from E to F.
  4. Hands together:Play the left-hand chord exactly with the first note of each run, then keep listening to it as the run continues so it does not fade from your attention.
  5. Fingering:Pencil in the thumb-crossing points on the octave runs once and use the same fingering every time the run returns.
  6. Dynamics:Keep the opening soft, shape the octave runs with a gentle swell, and save your loudest sound for the forte runs near the end.
  7. Practice:Practice the octave runs alone, slowly, stopping on the note after each thumb crossing to check that the hand is relaxed before going on.

Common mistakes

  • Letting the left-hand chord go before the bar is over. Fix: Count the full four beats and keep the keys down while the right hand runs.
  • Speeding up as the run climbs into the high register. Fix: Keep the same finger speed all the way up and let the shape of the line, not the tempo, carry the climb.
  • Accenting the note played by the thumb after it passes under. Fix: Move the thumb under the hand early and quietly so it arrives without a push.

Structure: scale study over held chords

Study I is built from short scale figures in the right hand over two alternating left-hand chords, C-E-G and C-F-G. The scale figures grow from five-note turns into full octave runs, the left hand begins to repeat its chords more often, and a louder passage with accented chords leads to rising runs and closing C major chords.

A · Five-note turns
Each figure climbs five notes of C major and falls back, then repeats a step lower, while the left hand holds a whole-note chord. The hand stays in one place, so this part teaches evenness before any thumb crossing.
B · Climbing octaves
Each run now starts a step higher and climbs a full octave, so the thumb has to pass under on the way up and the line reaches the ledger lines above the staff.
A' · Turns with moving chords
The five-note turns return while the left-hand chord is struck twice in each bar, then octave runs rise and fall under a swell and fade.
C · Forte runs
The music gets louder: runs start high and fall through the scale over accented left-hand chords.
Coda · Rising runs and final chords
Two long rising runs from the middle of the keyboard lead to short, loud C major chords in both hands.

About Elementary Study, Op. 176 No. 1

Jean-Baptiste Duvernoy's Op. 176 is a beginner's course of 25 short, graded studies, and this is where it starts. IMSLP records the set's German subtitle as an elementary course for first beginners in 25 easy and progressive studies, and notes that it was already in print by 1848.

Study I is a pure scale exercise. The right hand plays nothing but stepwise eighth notes in C major, first turning around a five-note group, then stretching up to a full octave, while the left hand mostly holds a chord for a whole bar. It is the simplest possible way to practice passing the thumb under without a second job for the other hand.

Duvernoy is remembered mainly for two teaching sets, this one and The School of Mechanism, Op. 120. Op. 176 has been re-edited many times, by Hans von Bülow, Adolf Ruthardt and Luigi Finizio among others, and Schott still publishes an edition by Hans-Günter Heumann.

  • IMSLP hosts four complete historical editions of Op. 176: Kunkel Brothers in St. Louis (1887), Schirmer in New York (1895), Peters in Leipzig (1903) and Curci in Milan (1944).
  • Wikipedia names Op. 176 and Op. 120 as the two works Duvernoy is best known for.
  • In the 1895 Schirmer edition the whole first study fits on a single page, with Study II beginning underneath it.

Why the first passage is level 2

That passage is level 2 rather than 1 because it leaps a minor third.

The right hand stays on the treble staff but climbs into ledger lines; the left hand reads two simple chord shapes, so almost all of the reading effort is in the scale.

Questions about Elementary Study, Op. 176 No. 1

How hard is Elementary Study, Op. 176 No. 1 to play?
Its passages grade from level 2 to 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 3–26 at level 9.
Is there an easy part of Elementary Study, Op. 176 No. 1 for beginners?
Yes. Start with bars 11–14 for the left hand alone, the level-2 passage in the reader at the top of this page; it is level 2 because it leaps a minor third.
What key and time signature is Elementary Study, Op. 176 No. 1 in?
The engraving on this page is in 4/4 time.
Who composed Elementary Study, Op. 176 No. 1?
Jean-Baptiste Duvernoy, French romantic (1802–1880). Jean-Baptiste Duvernoy's Op.
Can I practice Elementary Study, Op. 176 No. 1 online for free?
Yes. The reader on this page plays any of the 15 graded passages from Elementary Study, Op. 176 No. 1 in your browser, with an on-screen keyboard or a MIDI keyboard, and marks every note as you play. No signup.
What is Duvernoy's Op. 176?
A set of 25 easy, progressive piano studies for beginners, known in French as École primaire. Each study focuses on one technical idea, and this first one is about scales.
How long does it take to learn Duvernoy Op. 176 No. 1?
A student who already knows the C major scale can usually read it hands separately in one sitting and put it together within a few days of short practice.
Is Duvernoy Op. 176 in the public domain?
Yes. The 19th-century editions are public domain and IMSLP has scans of four of them; modern edited versions can carry their own copyright.

Every passage, easiest first

The reading release grades 15 distinct passages of this piece. Open any of them in the reader:

Level 2
bars 11–14 left hand
Level 3
bars 9–12 right hand
Level 5
bars 13–16 both hands
Level 8
bars 1–4 both hands · bars 1–8 both hands · bars 1–12 both hands · bars 5–8 both hands · bars 9–16 both hands · bars 9–12 both hands · bars 17–20 both hands · bars 17–24 both hands · bars 21–24 both hands · bars 25–28 both hands
Level 9
bars 3–26 both hands · bars 25–32 both hands

More pieces to sight-read

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

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