I suppose this applies to any piece really, but would you be penialised for playing this an octave lower?
I dont think it sounds right how its written.

HC

I think you would be penalised for this in an exam. I had a pupil who twice (in grades 2 & 3) played a piece in the wrong octave in an exam. I don't know why, as it never happened in his lessons, but on both occasions the examiners remarked on it. I couldn't tell if they'd knocked marks off for it, but I imagine they had.

It's an interesting question, and like Bev, I imagine you would be penalised, although by how much I have no idea - possibly would depend on the examiner and how convincingly nearer to the original your version sounded (and the whole thing gets a bit subjective here !). Also, unless you made it clear that it was deliberate, it would be assumed that it was accidental - I guess ?

I had a similar thing happen in a 'practice exam' the other day - not by design though I'm sure. My pupil played the whole of her A3 RH part an octave too low. I really had not much idea how to mark this, as otherwise the piece was reasonably fluent.

No 1 son did this in his Grade 2 exam, years ago. It was one of those horrible venues (which, thankfully the board didn't use again) where those in the waiting room could hear every note. After about half the piece, he stopped and started again. I can't remember now whether this was at the prompting of the examiner or not. When the mark sheet came, the restart was not mentioned, and he obtained, to the best of my recollection, a decent mark: something like 26 or 27 for the piece.