Exams/Trinity/Trinity · Grade 2
Set pieces and reviews
Trinity College London Grade 2 piano runs on the 2023+ syllabus, in force for 2024–26 exams. The repertoire is a single 56-piece list with no List A/B/C split; candidates choose three pieces (one of which may be a free-choice piece or own composition that fits the level). The list itself is the property of Trinity College London; references on this page are factual citations of each composition.
Exam pieces — editorial reviews
C major · 88 bpm
Children at Play, No. 1 (from For Children, vol. 1)
Béla Bartók
Bartók assembled *For Children* between 1908 and 1909, drawing on the Hungarian and Slovak folk material he had collected on field trips with Zoltán Kodály.
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G major · 120 bpm
Minuet in G (from Clavierbüchlein für Anna Magdalena Bach)
Georg Böhm
This is the famous "Bach" minuet — the one from the *Notebook for Anna Magdalena Bach* (1725) that generations of pianists learned as Bach's.
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D major · 120 bpm
German Dance, Hob IX:12 No. 1
Joseph Haydn
Haydn produced a steady stream of *Deutsche Tänze* across his career — short triple-metre dances written for court balls and informal gatherings, lighter cousins of the minuet that gradually evolved (in the next generation) into the Viennese waltz.
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G minor · 108 bpm
Minuet in G minor
Christian Petzold
Like its G-major sibling (also long credited to Bach), this minuet was reattributed in the twentieth century to Christian Petzold, organist at the Sophienkirche in Dresden during Bach's lifetime.
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G minor · 96 bpm
Fantasia in G minor
Georg Philipp Telemann
Telemann's three sets of *Fantasias for Keyboard* (1732–33) sit between the suite tradition and the through-composed sonata.
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C major · 116 bpm
Rigaudon
Georg Philipp Telemann
The rigaudon is a French Baroque dance — a brisk duple-time piece originating in Provençal folk music that spread through the seventeenth-century French court and into the Baroque suite alongside the gavotte and bourrée.
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E minor · 100 bpm
Hornpipe in E minor, Z 685
Henry Purcell
Purcell's keyboard miscellany — short pieces collected after his early death — sits at the heart of the English Baroque keyboard repertoire.
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E minor · 100 bpm
Hedwig's Theme (from Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone)
John Williams
John Williams composed *Hedwig's Theme* for Chris Columbus's 2001 film adaptation of *Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone*, and the celesta-led melody became one of the most instantly-recognisable film cues of the early twenty-first century.
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G minor · 132 bpm
It Don't Mean a Thing (If It Ain't Got that Swing)
Duke Ellington (arr. Sam Leak)
Duke Ellington and Irving Mills wrote *It Don't Mean a Thing (If It Ain't Got that Swing)* in 1931, and Ellington's recording the following year codified "swing" as both a musical feel and the name of an era.
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Other set pieces
The remaining pieces on the official Trinity Grade 2 repertoire list. Editorial reviews for these are in preparation; for now, the full scores and notes appear in the official syllabus book.
- La machine à coudre (The Sewing Machine)Mélanie Bonis
- Learning to RideMark Choi
- Petit nuage (from 6 petits préludes récréatifs)Hedwige Chrétien
- Persian HolidaySam Cleaver
- Bendin' the RulesBen Crosland
- Railroad BluesBen Crosland
- The Penguin ParadeChristine Donkin
- Almost a CanonJohann Joseph Fux, arr. Elizabeth Haas
- The Sheltering Sky (from Eye of the Storm)Dominic Glynn
- Die Nacht im Walde (Night in the Woods, Op. 36 No. 32)Alexander Goedicke
- 'Nuff SaidChris Gumbley
- Melodic Study (Op. 198 No. 4)Cornelius Gurlitt
- MenuetJohann Hässler
- Allegro in CJohann Hässler, ed. Pauline Hall
- Island in the Sun (duet)Hans-Günter Heumann
- The Hen (duet)Johann Hummel
- Catch Me!Bryan Kelly
- The Merry Shepherd (duet)Hazel Gertrude Kinscella
- The Legend of Zelda: Main ThemeKoji Kondo, arr. Chris Hussey
- The RowboatFelicitas Kukuck
- Arabian AirFélix le Couppey
- BallettoGeorg Simon Löhlein, arr. Elizabeth Haas
- The SparrowDavid Lvov-Kompaneets
- Jupiter StormAlison Mathews
- Tale (Op. 24 No. 2)Samuel Maykapar
- Waltz (Op. 33 No. 1)Samuel Maykapar
- Shepherd's MelodyRainer Mohrs
- Poor MouseVera Mohrs
- The BallerinaRay Moore
- CanzonetChristian Gottlob Neefe, arr. Waterman & Harewood
- FreuDich/FeelicitousMichael Proksch
- The Marionettes (duet)Stanisław Prószyński
- It's a Walk in the ParkRobert Ramskill
- Afro BlueMongo Santamaría, arr. Gareth Williams
- Writing's on the Wall (from Spectre)Sam Smith & Jimmy Napes, arr. Gillian Walshaw
- All of Me (John Legend)John Stephens & Tobias Gad, arr. Chris Hussey
- Floating BalloonsWaris Sukontapatipark
- The Broken ClockAdrian Sutton
- MazurkaMaria Szymanowska
- Lazy WaltzHilary Tadman-Robins
- Orpheus in his UnderpantsMark Tanner
- Minuet (from Tanzfolge I)Georg Philipp Telemann
- The Gondola (duet)Anne Terzibaschitsch
- The Little LocomotiveAnne Terzibaschitsch
- Allemande, Op. 4 No. 2Carl Maria von Weber
- King's Cross (from Travel Diaries)Malcolm Williamson
- Fun Fair BluesNaomi Yandell
Syllabus sections
- Scales
- Sight-reading
- Aural
- Theory
- Practice planplaceholder
External reading