Le chemin de fer, Op. 27, by Alkan
Every score here is public domain, free to read, print and keep. Open it in the browser and it plays, at whatever tempo you can read it.
Get the practice plan for Le chemin de fer, Op. 27
Here it is. Check your inbox for day 1.
- Hear it through at Slow (112 bpm). Open it in the reader, choose Slow, and follow the page with your eyes without playing. As it plays, count 2 to the bar.
- Learn the right hand of bars 1 to 8 on its own, in D minor. Say the note names out loud the first time through, then play it three times without stopping.
- Find the chords under it: A, F, Dm7 and B♭maj7. Play each one as a block in your left hand and say its name, so you know what the harmony is before the left hand has to move.
- Learn the left hand of the same bars on its own. Keep it quiet and even: it is the floor the tune stands on.
- Put hands together at Slow, 112 bpm. Bars 1 to 8 only. Stop after every wrong note and play that bar again before moving on.
- Move up to Steady (168 bpm) once Slow feels easy three times in a row. Then learn the next 8 bars the same way: right hand, left hand, together.
- Play the whole piece (about 5 minutes) from the start, at whatever speed keeps it going. A steady run with a few slips beats a fast one that stops.
About this piece
Published in 1844, The Railway is one of the first pieces of music to portray a steam train: a relentless stream of quick notes in the right hand over a pounding bass that never lets up.
How to play it
Practise the right hand in short bursts and keep the left hand steady like pistons. Endurance matters more than speed at first.
Reading it, and printing it
The score opens in Artform's reader, which shows the music as engraved notation and plays it back so you can hear the line before you try it. You can slow the tempo down, loop a passage that is not working yet, and print the page when you would rather have paper on the stand.
The file itself is MusicXML, which MuseScore, Sibelius, Finale and Dorico all open, so the notes are yours to keep whatever you read them in.
More free Alkan sheet music
Who Alkan was
French virtuoso who was, by the account of everyone who heard him, the equal of Liszt and Chopin, and who withdrew almost entirely from public life for decades at a time. What he wrote in that retreat is some of the most difficult music ever put on paper, including a concerto and a symphony for solo piano with no orchestra anywhere near them. He was a scholar of Hebrew and lived surrounded by books. The story that a falling bookcase killed him is a myth that has comfortably outlived his music, which deserves better.
Learn the music behind it
Reading a piece and understanding it are different skills. If you want the harmony under this one, the chord trainer teaches chords the way songs use them, and the scale pages cover the fingering for every key, including D minor.