Noctave
The piece
This piece opens Scenes from Childhood, Op. 15, a set of thirteen miniatures. Its German title, Von fremden Ländern und Menschen, conjures the stories that set a child dreaming, without depicting anything in particular. In G major and in 2/4, it stacks three layers: a melody on top, steady triplets in the middle and a bass in eighth notes separated by rests.
The difficulty lies in how the triplets are shared: the left hand plays the first two notes of each group, the right hand the third with its thumb, while its other fingers hold the melody above. So the right hand has to sing and accompany at once: press more with the fifth finger and just brush the key with the thumb. Meanwhile the left hand alternates between bass and triplet notes, which means quick shifts; the score has 56 jumps of at least an octave, each made in less than half a second, shared between the hands. Play the triplets alone first, without the tune, until they pass from hand to hand seamlessly. Only then add the melody.