Album for the young (Children's Album)

I want return to the question about a repertoire for beginners again. There is a famous cycle of pieces op.39 of Russian composer Peter Tchaikovsky named "Album for the young". All pieces in this album are very short and were defined by Tchaikovsyi to be played by children themselves. The character of pieces varies from very sad as "Dolly's Funeral" to joyful "The little horseman". All pieces of "Album for the young" have program names. This is good for young pianists, because helps them to imagine stories what are this pieces about. Clear and beautiful melody and harmony structure make these pieces simple to interpret. The techniques used by Tchaikovsky in the "Album for the young" are also very various: double-notes, chords, singing legato, its combination with staccato, or total legato in both arms, and opposite – staccato in all voices. The most famous pieces as "French song" or "Neapolitan song" are well known to children and usually they enjoy playing these pieces.

Other cycle with a similar name "Children's Album" was written by other Russian composer Dmitri Capyrin in these latter days. The composition style of Dmitry Capyrin characterize by atonality and quite complicated contemporary musical language. But the structure of pieces and fraises is quite easy to understand. Dmitri Capyrin followed the tradition and gave the program names for all pieces. The subjects and characters of "Children’s Album" are vivid and clear: Sad Waltz, On Tiptoe, Breeze, Clouds, Attractions, on the Wings and so on. There are altogether 12 pieces. All pieces are quite short and occupy one or two pages.
All this make this cycle worth to your attention, the more so because we have so little contemporary piano music for beginners.

Dmitri Capyrin’s Children’s Album free sheet music