A contemporary character piece by Cheng-Shiun Li that explores narrative themes through a modern tonal lens. The piece utilizes expressive rubato and lyrical melodic lines.
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 rubato that must breathe naturally without losing the pulse.
Focus on the expressive shaping of the phrases and the use of rubato to convey the narrative arc.
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.
Fairy tale 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 Fairy tale lasts about 3 minutes.
Fairy tale 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 Dreamland by Cheng-Shiun Li, Dark Sky by Cheng-Shiun Li, Extolling by Cheng-Shiun Li — see the full similar-pieces list on this page.