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German Dance in A Major, D. 420 No. 2

Franz Schubert (1797–1828) · sheet music

  • Key A major
  • Time 3/4
  • Levels 8
  • Passages 1

Your turn · both hands

 

 

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Franz Schubert, Austrian romantic (1797–1828). The reading release has 1 passage from this piece at level 8; 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 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 German Dance in A Major, D. 420 No. 2.

  1. Hands together · bars 1–8 level 8

How to play German Dance in A Major, D. 420 No. 2

  1. Tempo:Choose a lilting tempo where each bar feels like one gentle swing, not three separate beats. A Ländler is a country dance, so keep it light and bouncy.
  2. Right hand:The right hand's melody skips upward and returns. Practice the melody alone, singing the shape, before adding the bass.
  3. Left hand:Play the bass note on beat one a little deeper and the chords on beats two and three lightly. Keep the chords short and close to the key so they sound like a dance accompaniment.
  4. Hands together:Line up each right-hand melody note with the left-hand beat it falls on. Listen for the bass-chord-chord rhythm underneath the tune and keep it steady.
  5. Rhythm:Count one, two, three with the first beat clearly strongest. Resist leaning on beat two, which is a common habit in 3/4.
  6. Practice:Play it slowly with a metronome, then speed up in small steps. Then play it from memory with eyes closed to feel the left-hand shape.
  7. Reading:Three sharps (F#, C#, G#) are in the signature. Say them aloud before you begin and watch for any naturals.

Common mistakes

  • Playing the left-hand chords as loudly as the bass note. Fix: Aim for a deep bass note and soft, short chords.
  • Forgetting a sharp in the key signature. Fix: Circle F#, C# and G# in the first line and recheck them as you read.
  • Dragging beat two. Fix: Count one-and-two-and-three and keep the pulse even.

Structure: two-strain dance (binary, each half repeated)

In the Breitkopf and Härtel complete-works score the dance has two short strains, each marked to be repeated, both in A major. The first opens over a held E in the bass before settling on the home chord; the second adds chromatic neighbor notes in the melody before closing on A.

Strain 1 · The tune (A major)
A right-hand tune that leaps up and steps back down over a bass-chord-chord pattern, starting on the dominant harmony. New to read: three sharps and the A-sharp that leans into B.
Strain 2 · The answer
The second strain keeps the same accompaniment but adds chromatic notes such as D-sharp in the melody, then closes firmly on the A major chord.

About German Dance in A Major, D. 420 No. 2

Schubert wrote the 12 German dances of D. 420 in 1816, adding a coda after the last one; Piano Library puts the whole set at about nine minutes. Number two is the first of the set's A major dances, which take turns with dances in D major; one dance, number seven, is in E major. Piano Library gives this dance about 30 seconds and rates it 1.5 on its difficulty scale.

German Dance, or Deutscher Tanz, was a catch-all name in publications of the late 18th and early 19th centuries that could cover the Ländler, a folk dance in 3/4 with hopping and stamping steps that is thought to have fed into the waltz. As dance halls spread in the 19th century, the Ländler became quicker and more polished.

In the Breitkopf and Härtel complete-works score the left hand keeps the dance layout throughout: a bass note on the downbeat and two chords after it, while the right hand carries a tune that leaps and then steps back. That makes the piece a short, useful workout in reading three sharps and keeping the hands in step.

  • Dance number 10 of D. 420 was reused as the first of the two Ländler in D. 980B.
  • The set alternates between D major and A major, with one dance in E major.
  • A later edition of D. 420 was printed by Breitkopf and Härtel in 1889 in the Schubert complete works, edited by Julius Epstein.
  • Modern editions include the Neue Schubert-Ausgabe (Bärenreiter), Henle HN 74 and Wiener Urtext UT 50022.

Why the first passage is level 8

That passage is level 8 rather than 7 because its chords go beyond simple triads.

Three sharps for A major. The left hand repeats a bass-chord-chord pattern, so read it by shape and give your eyes to the right-hand melody.

Questions about German Dance in A Major, D. 420 No. 2

How hard is German Dance in A Major, D. 420 No. 2 to play?
Its passages grade from 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 1–8 at level 8.
Is there an easy part of German Dance in A Major, D. 420 No. 2 for beginners?
Its easiest passage is level 8, so it suits a reader past the beginner stage. Start with bars 1–8 for both hands together, the level-8 passage in the reader at the top of this page; it is level 8 because its chords go beyond simple triads.
What key and time signature is German Dance in A Major, D. 420 No. 2 in?
German Dance in A Major, D. 420 No. 2 is in A major, 3 sharps. The engraving on this page is in 3/4 time.
Who composed German Dance in A Major, D. 420 No. 2?
Franz Schubert, Austrian romantic (1797–1828). Schubert wrote the 12 German dances of D.
Can I practice German Dance in A Major, D. 420 No. 2 online for free?
Yes. The reader on this page plays any of the one graded passage from German Dance in A Major, D. 420 No. 2 in your browser, with an on-screen keyboard or a MIDI keyboard, and marks every note as you play. No signup.
What is a German dance (Deutscher Tanz)?
German Dance (Deutscher Tanz) was a general label for triple-meter dances of Schubert's time, including the Ländler, a close relative of the early waltz.
How many sets of German dances did Schubert write?
Several, including the 12 dances of D. 420 (1816), the 12 of D. 790 (1823) and the dances and ecossaises of D. 783 (1823-24, published in 1825 as Op. 33).
How long is this dance?
Piano Library gives about 30 seconds.

Every passage, easiest first

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

Level 8
bars 1–8 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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