How hard is L'Indifférente 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 25–28 at level 9.

Is there an easy part of L'Indifférente for beginners?

Its easiest passage is level 9, so it suits a reader past the beginner stage. Start with bars 25–28 for both hands together, the level-9 passage in the reader at the top of this page; it is level 9 because it leaps a major sixth plus an octave.

What key and time signature is L'Indifférente in?

The engraving on this page is in 3/4 time.

Can I practice L'Indifférente online for free?

Yes. The reader on this page plays any of the one graded passage from L'Indifférente in your browser, with an on-screen keyboard or a MIDI keyboard, and marks every note as you play. No signup.

What does L'Indifférente mean?

It is French for the indifferent woman, a character title of the kind French harpsichord composers often gave their pieces.

Which Rameau collection is L'Indifférente in?

It is in the Nouvelles suites de pièces de clavecin, his third harpsichord book, as the second piece of the suite in G major and G minor.

Can L'Indifférente be played on the piano?

Yes. Rameau wrote it for harpsichord, but it is often played on piano with a light touch and little pedal.

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L'Indifférente

Jean-Philippe Rameau (1683–1764) · sheet music

Time 3/4
Levels 9
Passages 1

Your turn · both hands

Preparing your passage…

Jean-Philippe Rameau, French baroque (1683–1764). The reading release has 1 passage from this piece at level 9; the reader above opens on the easiest, bars 25–28 for both hands together.

Practice the hard bars →

The hardest stretch is bars 25–28 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 L'Indifférente.

Hands together · bars 25–28 level 9

How to play L'Indifférente

Tempo:The original gives no tempo word, only triple time; choose an easy, unhurried pace that suits the title, with one gentle lean on each downbeat.
Right hand:At the opening the right hand plays two voices at once in thirds and sixths; keep both notes of each pair together and the eighth notes smooth.
Left hand:The left hand enters after the opening and then often walks in eighth notes; give it a clear, even line, since it is a real second voice.
Hands together:Where the hands both move in eighths, practice slowly and listen for the two lines moving together without one swallowing the other.
Fingering:Learn the plain notes first, then add each ornament with a fingering you write in and keep the same every time.
Dynamics:The harpsichord cannot swell, so shape phrases with touch and timing; on the piano keep the volume modest and let the ornaments, not loudness, create interest.
Practice:Practice each phrase without ornaments until it is even, then add them one at a time at a slow tempo.
Reading:With two flats in the key signature, watch for the F-sharps, E-naturals, and C-sharps that mark each change of key, and check which voice each note belongs to.

Common mistakes

Rushing the eighth notes so the piece sounds hurried rather than cool and unbothered. Fix: Keep the eighths even and relaxed, counting three steady beats per bar.
Letting ornaments push the beat late. Fix: Play the ornament inside the beat, starting it on time, and practice the passage without it first.
Missing accidentals in the second half. Fix: Mark them in pencil and practice the surrounding beats slowly on their own.

Structure: binary (two repeated halves)

Like most French harpsichord pieces of its time, L'Indifférente is in two halves, each repeated. The first half moves from G minor to a cadence on the dominant, D; the second half travels through related keys and returns to G minor.

A · First half (G minor to D): Smooth eighth-note lines in two voices in the right hand open the piece, the bass enters with a walking line, and ornaments decorate the long notes. It ends with a trilled cadence on D.
B · Second half (G minor): The lines restart and move through new keys with F-sharps, E-naturals, and C-sharps, then return to G minor for the final cadence.

About L'Indifférente

Jean-Philippe Rameau, born in Dijon in 1683, published three books of harpsichord pieces: the first in 1706, the second in 1724, and the Nouvelles suites de pièces de clavecin, which he paid to publish himself. The date of that last book is disputed: Wikipedia heads it 1726–1727, while editors have proposed 1728 and some scholars 1729 or 1730.

L'Indifférente, the indifferent woman, is the second piece of the suite in G major and G minor, RCT 6, which also contains Les Tricotets, two Menuets, La Poule, Les Triolets, Les Sauvages, L'Enharmonique, and L'Égyptienne. Like many French harpsichord pieces of the time, it carries a character title rather than a dance name.

In the score the piece opens with both voices in the treble, the right hand playing smooth eighth notes in thirds and sixths before the bass enters. Its many small ornaments, trills and mordents, are a hallmark of the French style a learner meets here.

Rameau won fame as a theorist with his Treatise on Harmony of 1722, two years before his second harpsichord book.
Les Sauvages, from the same suite as L'Indifférente, uses an air Rameau later brought into his opera-ballet Les Indes galantes.
Two later editions of the Nouvelles suites appeared around 1760, one of them in London.
In the original layout of L'Indifférente the left hand is silent for the opening bars while the right hand plays two voices.

Why the first passage is level 9

That passage is level 9 rather than 8 because it leaps a major sixth plus an octave.

The lines move mostly by step in eighth notes, so read by direction; the harder task is tracking which notes belong to which voice and spotting the ornaments and accidentals.

Questions about L'Indifférente

How hard is L'Indifférente 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 25–28 at level 9.
Is there an easy part of L'Indifférente for beginners?: Its easiest passage is level 9, so it suits a reader past the beginner stage. Start with bars 25–28 for both hands together, the level-9 passage in the reader at the top of this page; it is level 9 because it leaps a major sixth plus an octave.
What key and time signature is L'Indifférente in?: The engraving on this page is in 3/4 time.
Who composed L'Indifférente?: Jean-Philippe Rameau, French baroque (1683–1764). Jean-Philippe Rameau, born in Dijon in 1683, published three books of harpsichord pieces: the first in 1706, the second in 1724, and the Nouvelles suites de pièces de clavecin, which he paid to publish himself.
Can I practice L'Indifférente online for free?: Yes. The reader on this page plays any of the one graded passage from L'Indifférente in your browser, with an on-screen keyboard or a MIDI keyboard, and marks every note as you play. No signup.
What does L'Indifférente mean?: It is French for the indifferent woman, a character title of the kind French harpsichord composers often gave their pieces.
Which Rameau collection is L'Indifférente in?: It is in the Nouvelles suites de pièces de clavecin, his third harpsichord book, as the second piece of the suite in G major and G minor.
Can L'Indifférente be played on the piano?: Yes. Rameau wrote it for harpsichord, but it is often played on piano with a light touch and little pedal.

Every passage, easiest first

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

Level 9: bars 25–28 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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