Alfredo d'Escragnolle Taunay, a significant Brazilian diplomat and composer, crafted this piece in a refined European salon style. It utilizes delicate harmonic shifts to create a contemplative, atmospheric mood.
Work on achieving a balanced, bell-like tone in the upper register throughout the phrasing.
Comparable difficulty and character — good candidates for what to learn next.
Bonheur de vivre (Op.16) 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 Bonheur de vivre (Op.16) lasts about 3 minutes.
Bonheur de vivre (Op.16) 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 Bénédiction by Louis James Alfred Lefébure-Wély, Prelude in C major by Johann Sebastian Bach, Andante by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart — see the full similar-pieces list on this page.