Scherzo, meaning “joke” in Italian, is by nature light-hearted and song-like. This effect is achieved by a skipping melody line (which a few measures later becomes more scalar) and repeated ideas. Students should watch for articulation, particularly when articulation differs between the left and right hands, as well as voicing of the melody when the hands are close together. One nice feature to focus on is the left-hand lead-ins to the melody in measures ten and twenty.
Author []
Jennifer Brooke, Undergraduate piano major, The University of Iowa