Croquette is a light salon waltz by French composer Georges Auvray. It relies on typical 19th-century harmonic patterns and a gentle, lilted meter.
At Henle 3 this is a late-beginner piece — comfortable hands-together playing is assumed, and musical shaping starts to matter. The main demands: a waltz lilt that needs charm and a flexible left hand; a true singing tone, with the melody floating above the accompaniment; and careful pedaling — clarity depends on the foot as much as the fingers.
Ensure the bass note on beat one is weighted correctly against the lighter beats two and three.
Comparable difficulty and character — good candidates for what to learn next.
A level or two down with the same spirit — ideal if this piece is still out of reach.
Where this piece's skills lead: slightly harder works making similar technical demands.
Croquette is rated Henle level 3 of 9 — late beginner repertoire, roughly ABRSM grades 4–5. In the RCM system it corresponds to about level 3.
You should be comfortable at Henle level 3 — meaning you can already play level 2–3 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 Croquette lasts about 3 minutes.
Croquette 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 Czardas by Georges Auvray, Corysandre by Georges Auvray, Waltz in A minor by Frédéric Chopin — see the full similar-pieces list on this page.