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Lied vom Meer, Op. 187 No. 39

Cornelius Gurlitt (1820–1901) · sheet music

  • Time 6/8
  • Levels 6–8
  • Passages 9

Your turn · both hands

 

 

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Cornelius Gurlitt, German romantic (1820–1901). The reading release has 9 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 1–16 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 Lied vom Meer, Op. 187 No. 39.

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

How to play Lied vom Meer, Op. 187 No. 39

  1. Tempo:Andantino is an easy, flowing pace. Feel two slow beats per bar, each made of three eighths, and choose a speed at which the left-hand eighths ripple without hurrying.
  2. Right hand:The tune moves mostly in dotted quarters and in quarter-plus-eighth pairs. Hold the long notes for their full length and connect them smoothly, as a singer would.
  3. Left hand:Each group of three left-hand eighths outlines a chord, starting from the bass. Find the chord shape before you play the group, and keep the second and third notes softer than the first.
  4. Hands together:Most right-hand notes land on the first or fourth eighth of the bar, together with a bass note. Practice slowly, checking that each right-hand note lines up with the start of a left-hand group.
  5. Reading:One flat in the key signature means B flat, but the right hand also uses a B natural on the way to C. Mark it in pencil the first time through.
  6. Dynamics:Let each phrase rise toward its highest note and relax at the end. The left hand should stay in the background like a quiet wash of waves.
  7. Practice:Learn the left-hand pattern alone until it runs by itself, then add the tune. Because the second phrase starts like the first, learn the first phrase well and the rest follows quickly.

Common mistakes

  • Counting six even beats so the music plods instead of rocking. Fix: Count one-and-a two-and-a, with the stress only on one and two.
  • Letting the left-hand groups grow loud and cover the melody. Fix: Play the left hand alone at a whisper, then keep that level when the tune comes in.
  • Cutting short the dotted-quarter notes in the right hand. Fix: Hold each long note through all three left-hand eighths beneath it before moving on.
  • Playing B flat where the tune needs B natural. Fix: Circle the natural sign and play that spot slowly a few times before reading on.

Structure: short song form (two parallel phrases)

The opening is built from two phrases that begin the same way. The first wanders up and ends on a half-close; the second starts with the same rocking figure and turns toward a different ending, so the second time through you already know most of the notes.

A · First phrase (F major)
The right hand alternates two long notes before the tune lifts and falls in quarter-and-eighth rhythms. Underneath, the left hand rolls through broken chords, three eighths to each half of the bar.
A' · Second phrase (F major)
The same opening returns note for note, then the melody steps down through B flat to a new cadence while the left hand drops lower for the close.

About Lied vom Meer, Op. 187 No. 39

Cornelius Gurlitt was born in Altona in 1820 and died there in 1901. He trained in Copenhagen, where he became a lifelong friend of the composer Niels Gade, then moved on to Leipzig and to Rome. His output ran from songs and operas to a large body of teaching pieces, which is where most pianists meet him today.

The piece is No. 39 of his 54 Little Melodic Studies for Beginners, Op. 187, a set whose IMSLP entry lists No. 39 in F major. The title Lied vom Meer, Song of the Sea, comes from a later anthology: Das kleine Konzert, thirty Gurlitt pieces compiled by Heinz Schüngeler and published by Heinrichshofen, prints it as No. 15 under that name with the marking Andantino.

As a melodic study it trains two things at once: a right hand that sings in long, smooth notes and a left hand that keeps an even three-note broken-chord pattern going underneath.

  • The name Lied vom Meer comes from an anthology edited around 1940, decades after Gurlitt's death; in Op. 187 the piece is simply a numbered study.
  • Rome's Accademia di Santa Cecilia made Gurlitt an honorary member and in 1855 graduated him as a Professor of Music.
  • Gurlitt went to Rome while his brother, the painter Louis Gurlitt, was studying there.

Why the first passage is level 6

That passage is level 6 rather than 5 because it is in 6/8, not 4/4.

The passages here use both hands at once. Learn the left-hand broken-chord pattern on its own first, then bring in the melody.

Questions about Lied vom Meer, Op. 187 No. 39

How hard is Lied vom Meer, Op. 187 No. 39 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 1–16 at level 8.
Is there an easy part of Lied vom Meer, Op. 187 No. 39 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 it is in 6/8, not 4/4.
What key and time signature is Lied vom Meer, Op. 187 No. 39 in?
The engraving on this page is in 6/8 time.
Who composed Lied vom Meer, Op. 187 No. 39?
Cornelius Gurlitt, German romantic (1820–1901). Cornelius Gurlitt was born in Altona in 1820 and died there in 1901.
Can I practice Lied vom Meer, Op. 187 No. 39 online for free?
Yes. The reader on this page plays any of the 9 graded passages from Lied vom Meer, Op. 187 No. 39 in your browser, with an on-screen keyboard or a MIDI keyboard, and marks every note as you play. No signup.
What does Lied vom Meer mean?
It is German for Song of the Sea: Lied means song and Meer means sea.
Which Gurlitt book is Lied vom Meer from?
It is No. 39 of the 54 Little Melodic Studies for Beginners, Op. 187. The title Lied vom Meer comes from the later anthology Das kleine Konzert, where it is No. 15.
Is Lied vom Meer in the public domain?
Yes. Gurlitt died in 1901, and a scan of the complete Op. 187 is available on IMSLP.

Every passage, easiest first

The reading release grades 9 distinct passages of this piece. Open any of them in the reader:

Level 6
bars 1–8 both hands · bars 1–4 both hands · bars 1–8 left hand · bars 1–8 right hand · bars 5–8 both hands · bars 9–12 both hands
Level 8
bars 1–16 both hands · bars 9–16 both hands · bars 13–16 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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