Burgmüller: Song of the Gondolier

The “Song of the Gondolier” by Friedrich Burgmüller is to my ears one of the more pleasing compositions this composer wrote, so I plan to teach it more often over the next couple of years. It does not demand any kind of huge technical skill, but the effect of playing it is rather pleasing. Any time we can find music that is playable by students in their first few years of keyboard lessons it is very useful.

Burgmüller was born in 1806 and lived to 1874. So for that time period he led a fairly long life.

In 1832 he traveled to Paris and stayed there for the rest of his life. It was there where he adapted Parisian styles for his music, creating a trademark compositional technique. That’s why this man, with such a German name, has the lightness of French music.

He outlived many composers who were born later than he was.

Felix Mendelssohn, Frederic Chopin, Robert Schumann and many others born around 1810 or so did not live into the 1870s or even close to that long.

Friedrich Burgmüller is perhaps best known for his three collections of children’s etudes (or “teaching pieces”) for the piano, particularly his Op. 100 “25 Études faciles et progressives” (25 Easy and Progressive Studies) for early intermediate students. The other two collections, for more advanced students, were Op. 105 and 109.

This is something that seems to be a “student piece”. I can’t find a performance by anyone famous. But I would call it a “miniature”, because like all compositions of this king this piece falls flat if it is not played with feeling and delicacy. In many ways it is a quintessential Romantic piece. Most people do not realize that Burgmüller was born three years before Mendelssohn.

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