Pyrenese Melody by Muzio Clementi

[1piano4joe]

Hi all,

I have a few questions:

1. Why is one in A major and the other in G major?

2. Which is the original?

3. Can you just transpose any piece to another key and then copyright it?

4. Do examinations boards do this just so you have to buy their books?

5. Would an examination board transpose a piece to A major just so that there is a piece in that key for that grade?

6. Isn't Clementi public domain?

7. Are students required to play examination pieces in a specific key/version?

I have the one in G major from "free-scores".

Does anyone have a link or a copy of the one in A major?

It's simple enough, I could just transpose it on the fly and it's short/simple enough where I could just write one out but I'm too lazy and it would be handwritten and not so neat/clean.

Thank you, Joe.

[1piano4joe]

Hi all,

Yes, so I am just transposing it to A major. This was much, much harder than I thought it would be. It didn't occur to me that I never transposed on piano before. I haven't needed to and evidently, never tried to.

Having studied Bb clarinet and Bb saxophone, it was often enough necessary to transpose specifically one whole tone higher. I was fairly good at this, on woodwinds that is, with only the single treble clef to transpose. So, I learned, yet again, that piano is an entirely different animal!

This is a deceptively looking "easy piece". Well, I'm pretty sure that the RCM board calling this a Grade 1 piece made a boo-boo! Broken chords, frequent hand shifts, double notes,etc.

I would judge the difficulty of this piece to be somewhere between the "Soldier's March" by Schumann and Beethoven's "German Dance" No. 9 in Eb major.

How exactly are pieces assigned grades? Does someone just play them and go, "This is very easy" or do they actually do some analysis involving various considerations?

Are there professionals who "specialize" in this or is there a discussion by a committee in which a consensus is taken?

Is there some criterion that those "in the know" use? In the various advanced degree syllabi I have perused, I haven't seen any training / study in this regard.

Maybe it's covered in coursework at a University?

Well, just curious.

Thanks, Joe.

P.S. I just found this link

https://www.hickeys.com/customer_service/our_grading_system.php