Album 2, A.276
Modern Piano solo ~20 min
In brief

This piano piece has a dreamy, slightly rhythmic character, shifting between clear motifs and misty harmonic washes rather than grand gestures. You will need to work on Polyrhythm 2 against 3 (3.1/5): the physical gesture here is to keep one hand steady in duple groups while the other plays triplets, using wrist leveling and finger rebound to lock the internal subdivisions. There is also an impressionistic approach to color and spacing (Style impressionist 3.1/5), which calls for refined touch control and careful use of the pedal to blend chords without obscuring the lines. The work belongs to the composer's modern period and is one of his intimate piano pieces that investigate timbre and rhythm within a personal, evocative language.

MusicCoach difficulty
55/100
Intermediate
Likely range : 43–67/100
Confidence : 35% · to confirm
BeginnerIntermediateAdvancedVirtuoso
Exam grade
About grade 6

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
72%
Among Heitor Villa-Lobos
54%
Era Modern
Genre
Estimated skills
Rhythm
Polyrhythm 2 against 3
1
Style
Modern and contemporary style
1
Tone
Touch control
1
Technique
Double notes
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.

See the whole progression