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Elementary Study, Op. 176 No. 2

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

  • Time 4/4
  • Levels 3–9
  • Passages 11

Your turn · both hands

 

 

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Jean-Baptiste Duvernoy, French romantic (1802–1880). The reading release has 11 passages from this piece at levels 3–9; the reader above opens on the easiest, bars 1–4 for the left hand alone.

Practice the hard bars →

The hardest stretch is bars 1–16 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. 2.

  1. Right hand alone · bars 3–6 level 3
  2. Left hand alone · bars 1–4 level 3
  3. Hands together · bars 1–8 level 5
  4. The hardest bars · bars 1–16 level 9

How to play Elementary Study, Op. 176 No. 2

  1. Tempo:Pick a quarter-note beat you can hold through the running eighths at the end, since those eighths must be exactly twice as fast as the opening tune.
  2. Right hand:Shape each phrase of the tune as a gentle arc instead of giving every quarter note the same weight.
  3. Left hand:In the opening, play the repeated G more lightly than the bass notes so the accompaniment sounds like a low line rather than a drone.
  4. Reading:Look ahead to the clef change in the left hand: in the middle passage the lower staff is in treble clef, so the notes sit an octave or more higher than they appear to be in bass clef.
  5. Hands together:Practice the two-voice middle passage hands together at a slow tempo, listening to both lines equally.
  6. Dynamics:Keep the opening soft and let the middle passage grow a little, then bring the running eighths back to a quiet finish.
  7. Practice:Take the running-eighths section at half speed in short groups, adding one group at a time until the line flows without stops.

Common mistakes

  • Accenting the repeated G in the left hand. Fix: Play the G with less weight than the bass note each time.
  • Reading the treble-clef left hand as if it were still in bass clef. Fix: Circle the clef change in pencil and name the first few left-hand notes aloud before you play.
  • Playing the running eighths unevenly in pairs. Fix: Count steadily and make every eighth note the same length.
  • Missing the C sharp and F sharp in the running passage. Fix: Mark the sharps and play that passage slowly a few times before joining it to the rest.

Structure: three-part study (tune, two-voice passage, running eighths)

The study opens with a quarter-note tune over a left hand that alternates a bass note with G. A middle passage moves the left hand into the treble clef, where it plays its own line under the right hand. The final part turns the right hand to running eighth notes, with chromatic passing notes, over the opening accompaniment.

A · Quarter-note tune
An upbeat leads into a simple tune in quarter notes, while the left hand plays a bass note and then G on each half of the bar. A held G at the end of the phrase marks the halfway point.
B · Both hands in treble clef
The left hand switches clef and plays a stepwise quarter-note line beneath the right hand, so you read two melodic parts at once instead of tune and accompaniment.
C · Running eighths
Back in the bass clef, the left hand resumes its pattern while the right hand runs in eighth notes, with C sharp and F sharp as passing notes, before closing on a C major chord.

About Elementary Study, Op. 176 No. 2

After the scale drill of Study I, the second study in Duvernoy's course asks for something different: a singing right-hand line over an accompaniment that never stops. The tune moves in plain quarter notes, so the work is in keeping the two hands balanced rather than in finding difficult notes.

Halfway through, the left hand changes to the treble clef and plays a line of its own a little below the right hand, so for a few phrases both hands read from treble staves. The last part switches the right hand to running eighth notes, with a few sharps as passing notes, before the close in C major.

IMSLP lists the set under its French title École primaire, with an Italian title, Scuola primaria, from the Curci edition, and a German subtitle that describes it as an elementary course for first beginners.

  • The earliest trace of Op. 176 that IMSLP cites is a listing in Hofmeister's Monatsbericht, the German music-trade journal, for 1848.
  • Study II begins with an upbeat, so its first full bar arrives on the third note of the tune.
  • Wikipedia describes Duvernoy as a French Romantic pianist and composer who wrote many other studies meant to build finger coordination.

Why the first passage is level 3

That passage is level 3 rather than 2 because it leaps a fifth.

Expect a small range in the right hand at first, a bass-and-G pattern in the left, and one stretch where the left hand reads in treble clef.

Questions about Elementary Study, Op. 176 No. 2

How hard is Elementary Study, Op. 176 No. 2 to play?
Its passages grade from level 3 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 1–16 at level 9.
Is there an easy part of Elementary Study, Op. 176 No. 2 for beginners?
Yes. Start with bars 1–4 for the left hand alone, the level-3 passage in the reader at the top of this page; it is level 3 because it leaps a fifth.
What key and time signature is Elementary Study, Op. 176 No. 2 in?
The engraving on this page is in 4/4 time.
Who composed Elementary Study, Op. 176 No. 2?
Jean-Baptiste Duvernoy, French romantic (1802–1880). After the scale drill of Study I, the second study in Duvernoy's course asks for something different: a singing right-hand line over an accompaniment that never stops.
Can I practice Elementary Study, Op. 176 No. 2 online for free?
Yes. The reader on this page plays any of the 11 graded passages from Elementary Study, Op. 176 No. 2 in your browser, with an on-screen keyboard or a MIDI keyboard, and marks every note as you play. No signup.
What does this study teach?
Balance between a melody and an accompaniment, reading two melodic lines at once when both hands are in treble clef, and keeping running eighth notes even.
How long does it take to learn Duvernoy Op. 176 No. 2?
Most beginners can play it slowly after a few short sessions; the running eighth notes at the end usually take longest to even out.
Where can I find the original score?
IMSLP has several public-domain scans of the whole set, including the 1887 Bülow edition and the 1895 Schirmer edition.

Every passage, easiest first

The reading release grades 11 distinct passages of this piece. Open any of them in the reader:

Level 3
bars 1–4 left hand · bars 3–6 right hand · bars 17–20 right hand
Level 5
bars 1–8 both hands · bars 1–4 both hands · bars 5–8 both hands · bars 21–24 both hands
Level 9
bars 1–16 both hands · bars 1–12 both hands · bars 9–12 both hands · bars 9–16 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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