This is a character piece written in an evocative, pseudo-archaic style typical of late 19th-century salon music. Its distinctiveness lies in its harmonically simple but heartfelt imitation of liturgical organ traditions.
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 true singing tone, with the melody floating above the accompaniment; careful pedaling — clarity depends on the foot as much as the fingers; and chord voicing — bringing out one note inside a handful of others.
Maintain a sustained, legato line to imitate the sustained quality of a pipe organ.
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.
Dans le style d'un vieux cantique is rated Henle level 3 of 9 — late beginner repertoire, roughly ABRSM grades 4–5. In the RCM system it corresponds to about level 4.
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 Dans le style d'un vieux cantique lasts about 2 minutes.
Dans le style d'un vieux cantique 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 Albumblatt by Johannes Brahms, Dans leur pays by Vladimir Ivanovich Rebikov, Berceuse, H.8d by Frank Bridge — see the full similar-pieces list on this page.