The Merry Peasant, Op. 68 No. 10
Robert Schumann (1810–1856) · sheet music
- Key F major
- Time 4/4
- Levels 3–8
- Passages 4
Your turn · both hands
Preparing your passage…
Robert Schumann, German romantic (1810–1856). The reading release has 4 passages from this piece at levels 3–8; the reader above opens on the easiest, bars 9–12 for the left hand alone.
The hardest stretch is bars 1–4 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 The Merry Peasant, Op. 68 No. 10.
- Left hand alone · bars 9–12 level 3
- Hands together · bars 1–4 level 8
How to play The Merry Peasant, Op. 68 No. 10
- Play at a sturdy, cheerful walking tempo, as if the peasant is striding home in a good mood; Schumann marks it fresh and strong.
- Make the left-hand tune full and legato, and keep the right-hand off-beat chords short and lighter so they bounce against the melody instead of covering it.
- When the tune appears in both hands, the right hand must switch from detached chords to a singing legato line; practice that switch on its own until it feels natural.
- Practice the left-hand melody alone, singing along, then add the right-hand chords; counting the rests between the chords out loud keeps the off-beats in their place.
Structure
This is a very short piece in F major, about a minute long. The hearty tune is first heard in the bass with off-beat chords above it, then the right hand joins in on the melody while the accompaniment continues. A brief closing phrase rounds it off.
About The Merry Peasant, Op. 68 No. 10
Schumann wrote Album for the Young in 1848, starting with pieces for his eldest daughter Marie, and it became one of the first great collections of real concert-quality music written for children to play. The Merry Peasant, whose full title adds Returning from Work, is one of the most popular pieces in the first part of the book, meant for younger players.
Why the first passage is level 3
That passage is level 3 rather than 2 because a hand covers more than one position, it leaps a fifth, the line roams across the staff, it has dotted rhythms, it leaves the five-finger position.
The Merry Peasant is No. 10 of Schumann's Album for the Young. The tune starts in the left hand while the right hand plays off-beat chords, then the melody moves up to join them. It is an early lesson in reading a melody in the bass clef.
Questions about The Merry Peasant, Op. 68 No. 10
- How hard is The Merry Peasant, Op. 68 No. 10 to play?
- Its passages grade from level 3 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 1–4 at level 8.
- Is there an easy part of The Merry Peasant, Op. 68 No. 10 for beginners?
- Yes. Start with bars 9–12 for the left hand alone, the level-3 passage in the reader at the top of this page; it is level 3 because a hand covers more than one position and it leaps a fifth.
- What key and time signature is The Merry Peasant, Op. 68 No. 10 in?
- The Merry Peasant, Op. 68 No. 10 is in F major, 1 flat. The engraving on this page is in 4/4 time.
- Who composed The Merry Peasant, Op. 68 No. 10?
- Robert Schumann, German romantic (1810–1856). Schumann wrote Album for the Young in 1848, starting with pieces for his eldest daughter Marie, and it became one of the first great collections of real concert-quality music written for children to play.
- Can I practice The Merry Peasant, Op. 68 No. 10 online for free?
- Yes. The reader on this page plays any of the 4 graded passages from The Merry Peasant, Op. 68 No. 10 in your browser, with an on-screen keyboard or a MIDI keyboard, and marks every note as you play. No signup.
Every passage, easiest first
The reading release grades 4 distinct passages of this piece. Open any of them in the reader:
More pieces to sight-read
Score: public-domain engraving from the corpus (pdmx), graded by the piano-reading-v2-20261001-mutopia-ly reading release.