Siklós 8 Pièces très faciles Op. 54 for Cello and Piano

Eight short character pieces for cello and piano, written by a Budapest conservatoire professor for his own beginners and first published in 1912. This new MyMusicScores edition re-engraves the complete set from the Rozsnyai first edition, with a full piano score and a separate cello part.

Siklós put the constraint in his own title: à la 1ère position. The cello part never leaves first position across all eight pieces, which puts the left-hand work at around Grade 3 to 4. The musical demands sit a long way above that. A Prière, a Berceuse, a Plainte, a Barcarolle: these are proper character pieces, and the expressive work falls almost entirely to the bow. Pacing a phrase, controlling colour, judging where a line should grow and where it should give way.

Numbers 1, 2 and 5 (Prière, Satire and Plainte) are the most straightforward under the left hand, so they are useful early. But the gap between what the fingers have to do and what the music asks for is the real reason to own this set. Hand these to a Grade 6 or 7 cellist and the notes cause no trouble at all, which means the whole lesson can go on sound, phrasing and storytelling. Music making comes from the bow, and these pieces give a young player somewhere safe to work on exactly that. The piano part keeps the harmonic interest moving underneath without ever crowding the cello line.

The complete set runs to about 20 minutes, which is a great deal of music at this technical level. Few collections written for first-position players offer anything close. Play the eight straight through as a recital group, pull out three or four as a contrasting sequence, or use single pieces as concert items in their own right. The shorter ones drop neatly into a school concert slot where a full sonata movement would not fit.

See and hear the difference

Check the score and parts preview images above, then watch the complete score video below. They'll give you a clear picture of the engraving quality and overall difficulty before you buy.

Key features

• Instrumentation: cello and piano; full piano score with separate cello part
• Difficulty: approximately ABRSM Grade 3–4
• Duration: approximately 20 minutes for the complete set
• Style focus: bow control, phrasing and tone colour; first position throughout
• Format: PDF download, full score and all parts

This suits any cello teacher looking for musicianship material that doesn't fight the left hand, whether that's a Grade 3 pupil ready to start thinking about sound, or an advancing player at Grade 6 or 7 who needs to build phrasing without a technical battle to get through first. Individual pieces work for school concerts, festival classes and end-of-term recitals. Worth having in a teaching studio simply for the range: eight contrasting pieces from one purchase.