La Campanella

La Campanella is a piano etude written by virtuoso pianist Franz Liszt as part of a series of the six Grandes Etudes de Paganini. Liszt had already used the theme (as 'La Clochette') for a 'Grand Fantasy' for piano in 1831-32.

The etude is played at a brisk pace and studies jumping between intervalss larger than one octave. As a whole the etude can be used to increase dexterity, and accuracy at large jumps on the piano. The largest interval reached is that of a fifteenth, in which a sixteenth note is played, and then the same note is played two octaves higher with no rest to provide the pianist time for to move the hand.

The 'Campanella' theme appears in the final movement of Paganini's Violin Concerto in B minor, a rondo in which the harmonics were reinforced in the ringing of a handbell.