Noctave
The piece
The second piece in the Album for the Young, this march is marked "Munter und straff", lively and firm. Its short chords, clean rests and the dotted rhythm that opens each phrase suggest a measured step. A more lyrical middle section, where the two hands at times play the same line an octave apart, contrasts with those chords before they return.
Everything depends on precise rests: each chord is played short, then the hand lifts to leave a real eighth rest, in both hands at once. The dotted rhythm at the start, a dotted eighth and a sixteenth, should snap without turning into a triplet. In the right hand, the two-note chords often keep a G under the thumb while the top finger changes; use that fixed point to read faster. In the middle section, the hands play D–E–F-sharp an octave apart, so check that they land exactly together. The tempo is moderate, 100 beats per minute, but it must not sag.