25 Easy Studies, Op. 100: La Pastorale

About this work

La Pastorale moves through G major with a gentle 6/8 swing. Its connected melody needs room to breathe above an even accompaniment shaped in two broad pulses per bar. When the inner notes become too prominent, the line immediately loses its calm.
Hear two pulses, not six
Play the bass alone while counting two beats per bar, then add the accompaniment quietly. Practise the melody separately, including its slurs and phrase endings. Pedal can support the harmony, but it must change often enough to keep chords and rests distinct.
Bas Wassink prepared this public-domain edition from the Collection Litolff source; its record is maintained by the Mutopia Project. The printed page includes fingering, repeats, dynamics and pedal marks. Listening to the MIDI helps confirm the two-beat swing, while LesPartitions.info provides access to the rest of the piano catalogue.