Anton Diabelli

Melodious Exercises op. 149

With the "Melodic Exercise Pieces" the composer and piano teacher Anton Diabelli succeeds in an artistic-pedagogical success; To this day, there is hardly a student or lover who has not studied the pieces with pleasure at some point in his piano career. The composer himself emphasizes the instructive character of the pieces: he calls them "practice pieces", deliberately restricts the range to the quinum, thus sparing the student difficult jumps and making it easier for him to read music; often both hands are guided in parallel. The pieces appear arranged according to keys, carefully the walk leads through the most common of them. Above the fundamental notes c, g, f, d, a, e, sound pictures in major and minor are presented, each tonal space is secured before venturing into new landscapes. Each of the small compositions represents a piece of living music.