A modern programmatic piece, this work seeks to capture the urban landscape and the inherent solitude found within city life. It balances dissonant intervals with quiet, lingering resolution points.
Master the dynamic shifts to highlight the contrast between the rhythmic 'street' figures and the melodic 'sorrow' sections.
Comparable difficulty and character — good candidates for what to learn next.
Albumleaf No.30: Street Sorrow is rated Henle level 4 of 9 — intermediate repertoire, roughly ABRSM grades 5–6. In the RCM system it corresponds to about level 6.
You should be comfortable at Henle level 4 — meaning you can already play level 3–4 pieces cleanly. Learning it one level early is possible as a stretch piece, but more than that usually leads to months of frustration.
A typical performance of Albumleaf No.30: Street Sorrow lasts about 3 minutes.
Albumleaf No.30: Street Sorrow is available as free public-domain sheet music on IMSLP — the score is linked directly from this page.
Pieces at a comparable difficulty and character include Albumleaf No.6: Unexpected Despair by Shuwen Zhang, Butterfly Lovers by Shuwen Zhang, Albumleaf No.13: Red blossoms, gone with the wind by Shuwen Zhang — see the full similar-pieces list on this page.