A Song of the Night, for violin and orchestra. Op.19, no. 1, H.74
Romantic Violin and Orchestra
In brief

The piece unfolds an intimate, nocturnal mood: the violin’s singing line floats over a muted orchestral accompaniment, favoring tender coloristic touches rather than overt drama. Technically you will face Tempo rubato (3.1/5) — here that means shaping phrases with very subtle local delays and advances while staying tightly synchronized with the orchestra — and Pédale de sustain (3.1/5), which requires sustaining resonance and a seamless legato through refined bow control and finger shifts without losing tone. The work is placed in the Romantic period and is listed as Op.19, no.1 (H.74) in Holst’s catalogue, marking it among his pieces for violin and orchestra rather than his larger choral or orchestral cycles.

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Is this the right work?
MusicCoach difficulty
60/100
Intermediate
Likely range : 48–72/100
Confidence : 35% · to confirm
BeginnerIntermediateAdvancedVirtuoso
Exam grade
About grade 6 to 7

Estimated from our difficulty score, not taken from an exam syllabus. Checked against 333 works on the ABRSM syllabus: the exact grade is right 7 times out of 10, and within one grade 99 times out of 100.

Difficulty estimate by MusicCoach on a scale of 1 to 100.

Where this work sits
050100

Most works cluster between 45 and 65: a small score gap often marks a real step. The highlighted bar shows this work among those for the same instrument.

The MusicCoach difficulty measures a work's overall demands (technique, reading, stamina) on a shared 0-100 scale, consolidated from editorial and pedagogical reference points (Henle, exam syllabuses, curation) and our own analyses. It measures neither musical value nor the practice time YOU will need: two musicians of the same level can experience the same work very differently depending on their strengths (hands used to octaves, quick sight-reading…). The confidence reflects how many reference points sit behind the score and how well they agree — a lightly documented score is flagged “to validate”. For a truly personal bearing, the diagnostic and your space compare each work to YOUR estimated level, which the score alone cannot do.

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Relative difficulty
Among Gustav Holst
34%
Era Romantic
Genre
Estimated skills
Pedaling
Sustain pedal
1
Style
Romantic style
1
Rhythm
Tempo rubato
1
Style
Character and style
1
Interpretation
Dynamics
1
What to play next?

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