Another Moonlight Sightread

There's a different shade of moonlight in this month's sightreading handout* compared to last month's Debussy.

This one was written a hundred years earlier and wasn't named for the moon. Instead the composer dubbed it "Quasi una Fantasia" (not how it is known today) to suggest a free-flowing improvisation, maybe something like Debussy would later be known for, only for this composer that meant mixing some bold cadenza-style diminished riffs in between otherwise smooth chord arpeggios at a steady rhythm of triplets. Those arpeggios made this piece a natural for guitar, leading to the well-known but challenging arrangement by Francisco Tárrega.

There are similarities, nonetheless. Both pieces were written for piano and at a fairly slow tempo, were easily recognized and widely popular. As sightreads, each is presented as yet another unnamed exercise that you identify by playing. And both require the full range of first position, so no seventh position again this month.

But even as a sightread, this month's selection is twice the size of last month's, allowing only two excerpts to fit within the handout, just enough to show how it evolves from simple A-minor chords (not the original key) into those diminished cadenzas. You'll have to follow one of the IMSLP links on the back to get the newly published version of the full sightread, complete with special fingerings (and even tablature) that show how a simple melody can keep the chords ringing sweetly in the moonlight.

*https://jjolson.net/BGS/Sep2025.pdf

Monthly Fretboard Exercises
September 2025
CC-BY: J. J. Olson