A programmatic work commemorating the Charleston church shooting, written with a high degree of dramatic intent. It features stark contrasts between sorrowful, melodic passages and more aggressive, dissonant outbursts.
Successfully managing the transition between the soft, lamenting sections and the powerful, climactic outbursts is essential.
Comparable difficulty and character — good candidates for what to learn next.
An Elegy for Charleston S.C. Victims (Op.83) is rated Henle level 5 of 9 — late intermediate repertoire, roughly ABRSM grades 6–7. In the RCM system it corresponds to about level 7.
You should be comfortable at Henle level 5 — meaning you can already play level 4–5 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 An Elegy for Charleston S.C. Victims (Op.83) lasts about 6 minutes.
An Elegy for Charleston S.C. Victims (Op.83) 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 An Elegy for Charleston S.C. Victims by Nurtan Alan Esmen, Passacaglia by George Frideric Handel, Ballade for Piano by Jef Tinel — see the full similar-pieces list on this page.