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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.
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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The safest next step.
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A useful leap with guided practice.
This polyphonic fugue on the B-A-C-H motif creates a concentrated contrapuntal tension, alternating tightly woven entries with more lyrical episodes where an inner flexibility of pulse is felt rather than a strict metronomic drive. You will specifically face Tempo rubato (3.1/5), which here requires subtly loosening the pulse to bring out individual voices without losing overall cohesion, and Sustain pedal (3.1/5), which calls for precise pedalling to connect contrapuntal lines without blurring pitches. The piece belongs to Schumann's Romantic period, where an interest in older contrapuntal forms is fused with the expressive language typical of his output.