Music library › Classical themes
Can-Can (Galop infernal)
Jacques Offenbach, 1858. Excerpt, written out for reading practice.
- Music
- Jacques Offenbach
- Date
- 1858
- Key
- C major
- Time
- 2/4
- Clef
- Treble
- Level
- Easy
- Length
- Excerpt
About the music
The “Galop infernal” comes from the end of Offenbach’s comic opera Orpheus in the Underworld, first staged in Paris in 1858, where the gods of Olympus dance a wild galop in the underworld. It later became the music for the can-can dance and is now one of the most quoted tunes in film and advertising.
It is in a fast 2/4: two beats a bar. The challenge is reading the runs of eighth notes quickly and the sudden leap up an octave from C4 to C5 in the second-to-last bar.
Reading tips
- Count in two, not four. Each eighth note is half a beat.
- The pattern D, F, E, D appears twice. Read it as one shape.
- Watch the octave leap from middle C to C5, then a scale running all the way back down.
How to practice it
Read the piece through once without playing, naming the starting note and looking for patterns and repeats. Then press Play and follow the notes as they light up. When you are ready, choose Practice this piece: it opens in the practice tool, where you can slow it down, play along on the on-screen piano, a MIDI keyboard or your voice, and have every note checked.