Waltz-Rondo
Modern WaltzRondo Piano solo 6 min
In brief

This Waltz-Rondo feels playful yet slightly off-kilter, with irregular accents and abrupt shifts that make it a waltz moving over uneven ground. You will mainly face demands in Tempo rubato (3.9/5) — here that means flexing beat lengths subtly while keeping the overall pulse intact — and in Phrasing (3.9/5), which requires shaping melodic lines with careful touch and connected legato across contrasting registers. The piece belongs to the composer's modern period and reflects his habit of pairing popular dance elements with more formal, experimental techniques, occupying a distinctive place among his solo piano works. I do not provide a reference performance because I am not fully certain of a specific recording for this piece.

MusicCoach difficulty
38/100
Elementary
Likely range : 26–50/100
Confidence : 35% · to confirm
BeginnerIntermediateAdvancedVirtuoso
Exam grade
About grade 4

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
8%
Among Charles Ives
15%
Era Modern
27%
Genre
Estimated skills
Rhythm
Tempo rubato
2
Interpretation
Phrasing
4
Rhythm
Polyrhythm 2 against 3
2
Style
Modern and contemporary style
1
Interpretation
Dynamics
2
What to play next?

Each suggestion combines difficulty gap, risk, confidence and skill overlap. The first two cards in each column are the most useful pedagogically.

See the whole progression