Noctave
The piece
The Wild Rider (Wilder Reiter) comes in at a gallop: the 6/8 bar, marked Lebhaft (lively), hammers out a rhythm of staccato eighths that hardly ever stops. In A minor, the piece follows a simple three-part plan: the gallop, a passage in F major where the theme drops into the left hand, then the opening again. In a few lines Schumann shows a student that a left hand can sing too.
The theme lives on its staccatos. Each eighth is short and bouncy, with a slight lean on the first of each group of three. The left-hand chords, placed on the beats, should be as dry as the melody. In the F major section the roles swap: the left hand plays the theme in the middle register while the right places chords on the beats. Those chords easily drown the tune, so barely touch them and let the left hand lead. A little over one note in five belongs to a chord, enough to weigh the piece down if the wrist stiffens.