Improvisation, Op. 46 No. 4

Edward MacDowell (1,860–1,908)

Key: F major
Style: Studies
Level: Level 8
Roughly: RCM 8 · ABRSM 7 · Trinity 7 · Henle 4–5
Lesson: 8.7 Plan a four-octave journey
Musicianship: 8.7 Intervals to a tenth
Focus: technical study (see title for the specific figure)

What its lesson teaches

8.7 Plan a four-octave journey

Study MacDowell’s Improvisation, Op. 46 No. 4, in F major. Follow its arpeggios and rolled chords as they travel across the keyboard, keeping the arm free and letting the hand close after each stretch. At the keyboard: play the A-major scale and arpeggio through four octaves, the same travel in a scale.

Ideas: Scale and arpeggio mechanics
Octaves and stretches
Theory cards: Octaves and stretches
Technique: F major scale, hands together, 2 octaves
A major scale, hands together, 4 octaves
A major arpeggio, hands together, 4 octaves

Edition and licence

Score: Musalea, from a public-domain edition · public domain

Improvisation, Op. 46 No. 4

Edition: Leipzig: Breitkopf & Härtel, 1894, plate 20340, first edition

Published: 1894

Source: https://urresearch.rochester.edu/fileDownloadForInstitutionalItem.action?itemId=20751&itemFileId=68011

Public-domain source edition(s).

Checked bar by bar against Breitkopf & Härtel, Leipzig, 1894, plate 20340 (Sibley Music Library, University of Rochester), pp. 14-15, 2026-10-28: every bar compared; 28 bars corrected.

Adapted by Musalea: corrected from the print, converted to MusicXML and prepared for interactive practice.

The other lesson pieces of Level 8

Sinfonia No. 1 in C major, BWV 787, Johann Sebastian Bach
Figurierter Choral (Figured Chorale), Op. 68 No. 42, Robert Schumann
Invention No. 15 in B minor, BWV 786, Johann Sebastian Bach
Piano Sonata No. 19 in G minor, Op. 49 No. 1: II. Rondo: Allegro, in G major, Ludwig van Beethoven
Moment musical in F minor, D. 780 No. 3, Franz Schubert
Elite Syncopations, Scott Joplin
Sinfonia No. 11 in G minor, BWV 797, Johann Sebastian Bach
Harlem Rag, Tom Turpin
Little Prelude in F major, BWV 928, Johann Sebastian Bach
The Art of Finger Dexterity, Op. 740 No. 37, Carl Czerny

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