La Babillarde
The chatterbox - Burgmüller's étude in perpetual motion.
La babillarde ('The Chatterbox') is No. 17 in Burgmüller's Op. 100 and one of the most immediately recognisable pieces in the collection. It is built on a continuous sixteenth-note figure that must flow without a single bump or accent, painting the musical image of someone who simply cannot stop talking.
Burgmüller followed the great Paris piano-school tradition of concealing technique inside character. La babillarde is an evenness study - one of the hardest things to teach - but the charming title and the comic energy of the piece motivate students in a way that a plain exercise never could. The same figure reappears in both hands and in different registers, making it also a study in tonal consistency across the whole keyboard.
Evenness before tempo.
Practise the chattering figure hands separately at 50% tempo, aiming for a perfectly uniform touch on every sixteenth note - no bumps, no accents, no heavier thumb. Use a metronome and raise the tempo only by five clicks at a time, checking that evenness is preserved at each step before moving faster.
Before you practice.
01 What does 'La Babillarde' mean, and how does the music reflect it?
'La Babillarde' means 'the chatterbox' in French. Burgmüller illustrates the character through a near-continuous stream of quick, repeated notes and rapid melodic figures in 3/8 - the musical equivalent of someone speaking without stopping for breath.
02 What technique does La Babillarde train?
It specifically develops rapid repeated-note agility and light, even articulation. The 3/8 metre also introduces compound-feeling rhythmic groupings that prepare students for faster waltz and barcarolle styles later in their studies.
No bumps in the chatter.
Slow-tempo mode will expose every uneven note - use it before every practice session to hear where the texture becomes lumpy. In wait-for-note mode, pause on the first note of each group to reset a relaxed wrist position. Loop any four-bar passage where the chatter feels uneven until all sixteenth notes sound identical in weight and timing.
