This study is number 29 from a collection of one hundred studies, opus 139, by Austrian composer Carl Czerny, of the Romantic era.

The tempo indication on this piece is quasi presto. Presto means very fast, and quasi means "as if" or "almost" - so the tempo direction is suggesting that is should sound as if it is very fast, but not actually be incredibly fast. This could be interpreted to mean that it should be played fast enough that the semiquavers sound very fast, (and there are enough of them that this gives the whole piece a generally very fast sound), but not that the actual beats should be very fast (crotchet beats). If you listen to the demonstration above, you will hear that the notes do sound very fast, but because there are four semiquavers to every beat, the actual beats are not all that fast. (If you try tapping a beat to every four notes, this will give you the crotchet beats, and you will find they are not very fast.)

You can listen to another study from the same collection, and also find a link for a free download of the sheet music for the whole collection here.

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