Although only 54 bars long the piece has great emotional and musical range making it an ideal assessment piece. For the pianist the challenge is to communicate the melody of the song with as much of the intended accompaniment as possible. In the transcription there has been some necessary editing of the chords and the technique of crossing hands will need to be explored by the keyboard player to ensure legato playing of the melody. The repeating elements add unity to the song which has strong rhythmic and melodic shapes. Whilst there is a clearly evident phrase structure there are some overlapping phrases and the occasionally musical link which the pianist will need to take into consideration during a performance. This arrangement keeps close to the composer’s original version of the song. There is a considerable amount of score detail and it is an excellent piece for developing controlled and quality of tone in solo playing. Pianists will need to make use of the sustaining pedal whilst the off-beat or syncopated chords in the accompaniment add to the intensity of the music. The realisation plays back at a tempo of 90 quarter notes or crotchet beats to the minute. None but the Lonely Heart originates as a song dating from 1869 coming from the composer’s Opus 6 collection. The poetry was written by the German romantic poet Goethe and subsequently translated into Russian. The music editor recommends reading a translation of the text although the clear message in the poem is an expression of loneliness. Songs are understandably often arranged in different keys and two versions are available in the pdf download the first in Eb and the second in D.
