Orchestrations
Modern Piano solo ~5 min
In brief

This piano piece feels focused and color-driven, alternating floating, sustained textures with sudden, angular outbursts that call for attention to sonority rather than sheer bravura. You will need to tackle a 2-against-3 polyrhythm (3.1/5), which requires a clear subdivision and independent pulse control — concretely, keep the hand playing the duplet firmly rooted while the other articulates the triplet cleanly — and cultivate an impressionistic style (3.1/5) by refining touch, pedaling and voicing to produce translucent layers. The work belongs to the composer’s modern period and reflects his concern for texture and harmonic color as adapted to the piano. I do not give a reference recording because I am not certain of specific, widely recognized piano interpretations for this piece.

MusicCoach difficulty
25/100
Elementary
Likely range : 13–37/100
Confidence : 35% · to confirm
BeginnerIntermediateAdvancedVirtuoso
Exam grade
About grade 2 to 3

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
15%
Among Roy Harris
2%
Era Modern
Genre
Estimated skills
Rhythm
Polyrhythm 2 against 3
1
Style
Modern and contemporary style
1
Style
Character and style
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