Air varié No.9, Op.30
Violin and Piano
In brief

Joseph Ghys's Air varié No.9 presents a bright, sparkling character, alternating lyrical episodes with virtuosic ornamentation that require crisp articulation to maintain forward momentum without losing the melodic line. On the technical side, the Passages rapides (4.0/5) call for left-hand agility and precise finger changes together with tight bow coordination to ensure clarity and cleanliness; the Legato d'archet (3.5/5) here requires careful bow distribution and smooth string-to-string connections to preserve line continuity in singing passages. Listed as Op.30, the piece sits in the violin-and-piano salon/virtuoso repertoire rather than large-scale symphonic works, and the precise period is noted as unknown. I do not provide performer or recording recommendations because I am not certain of a definitive reference for this specific work.

Listen to this work

No verified recording for this work yet. We add more every week.

Sheet music

Public-domain sheet music on IMSLP ↗

Is this the right work?
Formation

Violin and piano · 2 performers

Required forces
Violin 1 performers
Piano 1 performers
Playable parts
Violin Piano
MusicCoach difficulty
62/100
Intermediate
Likely range : 50–74/100
Confidence : 38% · 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.

Does this rating look right to you?

This rating is computed automatically from heterogeneous sources. It gets things wrong, sometimes badly. If you know this work, your answer is worth more than our computation: it tells us which ratings to review.

Add a note (optional)

Your note is not published on the site: it is read in review.

Relative difficulty
62%
Among Joseph Ghys
76%
Era
Genre
Estimated skills
Technique
Fast passages
1
Technique
Bow legato
1
Interpretation
Dynamics
1
Interpretation
Phrasing
1
Tone
Vibrato
1
Rhythm
Complex bowing rhythm
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