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Happy Farmer m. 9

What are the brackets indicated in this measure? And why is number 1 in front of G in the 3rd bead right hand ?!!

EDIT: The piece in question here is "Fröhlicher Landmann" ("The Happy Farmer") by Robert Schumann, No. 10 from his Album für die Jugend, Op. 68. (Score: IMSLP)

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  • Not a pianist, so don't take as gospel: the numbers appear to indicate which finger, and the brackets seem to suggest those notes belnt to the left hand. Hah! @mattputnam beat me to it by 10 seconds.. – Carl Witthoft Feb 6 '20 at 18:53
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By default, the top staff is for the right hand and the bottom staff is for the left hand. Those brackets are used to indicate that notes should be played with the other hand. This seems to be indicating that you should split those notes between the hands, playing one note with each thumb.

This seems really strange, but I get why the editor suggests it. If we try to play all of the notes in the top staff with the right hand, it's very awkward to play the C/Bb pair near the end of the measure while also holding the G with our fourth finger. If we try to play both pairs of dyads with the left hand, we run into a pickle with the left hand fingers.

Still, I think the fingerings are too bizarre to use. I would suggest playing the first dyads (C/E) with the right hand, and the second ones (C/Bb) with the left.

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  • Thanks Matt. You are totally right. It would be awkward to hold the G and press bB&C the same time. Now I understand how to play it using two hands. Again thanks for quick response. – Farhad Feb 6 '20 at 19:01
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    @Farhad Note that the editor provides an alternative fingering for both hands in round brackets (for the first instance) – Arsak Feb 7 '20 at 12:03

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