Melodious Pieces Op. 149 No. 24

About this work

The Andante cantabile, number 24 of opus 149, opens with a short upbeat before the first full bar. Both hands of the primo shape slurred phrases in the upper register, answered by the secondo’s chords and rests. The singing quality depends on the space between those replies as much as on the length of the notes.
Breathing after the upbeat
Before putting the parts together, sing the primo’s opening while counting a steady pulse. The upbeat should lead into the following strong beat without becoming a hurried start. In the secondo, use the rests to prepare the next chord so that both hands can arrive together without slowing down to find the keys.
The repeats have different endings, and the conclusion introduces grace notes, accents and a very soft passage. Locate those changes in both parts before a complete play through. Let the sustained notes sing and keep the quavers light. Any extra space at the end needs a shared decision from both players, guided by the final fermata.
Score and playback
The PDF contains the secondo and primo parts for piano four hands on 2 pages. The MIDI provides a guide to the notes and rhythm. Alberto Simões typeset this score with LilyPond for the Mutopia Project. It is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 licence, which requires attribution and the same licence terms for adaptations.
Credits and files: Mutopia entry, source score and licence. Find more music on LesPartitions.info.