Chih-Cheng Hou's Fantasia No. 2 is a contemporary composition that blends modern harmonic sensibilities with traditional keyboard textures. It relies heavily on expressive nuance rather than virtuosic display.
At Henle 3 this is a late-beginner piece — comfortable hands-together playing is assumed, and musical shaping starts to matter. The main demands: rubato that must breathe naturally without losing the pulse; chord voicing — bringing out one note inside a handful of others; and careful pedaling — clarity depends on the foot as much as the fingers.
The primary challenge involves mastering the rubato needed to give the atmospheric phrases their proper shape.
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.
Lesser-known works by the same hand, at a comparable level.
Fantasia No.2 is rated Henle level 3 of 9 — late beginner repertoire, roughly ABRSM grades 4–5. In the RCM system it corresponds to about level 6.
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 Fantasia No.2 lasts about 4 minutes.
Fantasia No.2 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 Elegy by Claude Debussy, Berceuse by Germaine Tailleferre, Berceuse pour 'La tragédie de la mort' by Claude Debussy — see the full similar-pieces list on this page.