Reinagle's Op. 1 No. 11

Maira Martins Maira Martins

I recently bought the Schott edition of Reinagle's Op. 1: "24 Short and Easy Pieces" and have been going through all the charming 18th century miniatures in order. I noticed this one was also present in my edition of Essential Piano Repertoire (prep grade) by Keith Snell. I really liked the dynamics and tempo in Snell's edition — my playing is still not as fluid as I'd like, but it's time for me to move on to other pieces.

A curious note: the original edition by Reinagle contains zero indications — not even legato / stacatto dynamics —, because it was common in his time for the teacher to adapt the material to the student. I think it's interesting that today we consider all written music as basically holy and immutable, but for most of our musical history, because we didn't really have recordings, music was actually fluid and improvised. Each performer added their little touch to the piece!

Reinagle (1756 — 1809) was an English composer (who became an American citizen later in life) of the Classical era. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alexander_Reinagle

Sheet music for this piece:

Schott Edition: https://www.schott-music.com/en/24-short-and-easy-pieces-noc331916.html

Keith Snell Essential Piano Repertoire (Preparatory Level): https://kjos.com/essential-piano-repertoire-preparatory-level.html

IMSLP (no dynamics included): https://imslp.org/wiki/24_Short_and_Easy_Pieces_for_Keyboard%2C_Op.1_(Reinagle%2C_Alexander)

This article was updated on November 5, 2023

Maira Martins

Hi, I'm Maira and this is my attempt at old-fashioned personal blogging in the era of social media overload. I'm a day trader, programmer and photographer currently based in Valencia, Spain, and the last thing I want to talk about is work.

My little corner on the internet is all about photography, travels, learning piano, gardening, baking... The kind of personal stuff I'd share with my mom on social media, but without the ads.