A contemporary character piece by Elaine Fine that explores tonal textures and quiet introspection. It is marked by its harmonic ambiguity and emphasis on sustaining resonance.
Focus on creating a unified atmosphere through controlled pedaling and sensitive touch.
Comparable difficulty and character — good candidates for what to learn next.
Autumn Leaves is rated Henle level 4 of 9 — intermediate repertoire, roughly ABRSM grades 5–6. In the RCM system it corresponds to about level 5.
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 Autumn Leaves lasts about 3 minutes.
Autumn Leaves 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 Birthday Piece No.3 by Elaine Fine, Birthday Piece No.10 by Elaine Fine, Calico Pie by Elaine Fine — see the full similar-pieces list on this page.