Cleopha
Romantic Piano solo 3 min
In brief

Cleopha conveys an elegant melancholy with a lightly syncopated pulse that requires shaping singing phrases while maintaining a clear rhythmic foundation. You will need to work especially on Tempo rubato (3.1/5), learning to bend the beat subtly to highlight lyrical lines, and on the Sustain pedal (3.1/5), which calls for precise use—often half-pedaling—to color chords without blurring articulation. Listed in the provided romantic period, it belongs to Joplin’s solo piano output and reflects his interest in expressive melody beyond strict ragtime. I do not provide a reference performance because I am not fully confident of a single recording universally recognized for this specific piece.

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Sheet music

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Is this the right work?
MusicCoach difficulty
42/100
Elementary
Likely range : 30–54/100
Confidence : 35% · to confirm
BeginnerIntermediateAdvancedVirtuoso
Exam grade
About grade 4 to 5

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
59%
Among Scott Joplin
21%
Era Romantic
Genre
Estimated skills
Pedaling
Sustain pedal
1
Style
Romantic style
1
Rhythm
Tempo rubato
1
Interpretation
Phrasing
1
Rhythm
General rhythm
1
Rhythm
Syncopation
1
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.

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