eft hand rushes impetuously along and the
right hand strikes in with passionate ejaculations. With regard to the
above-named Lento ma non troppo (Op. 10, No. 3), Chopin said to Gutmann
that he had never in his life written another such beautiful melody
(CHANT); and on one occasion when Gutmann was studying it the master
lifted up his arms with his hands clasped and exclaimed: "O, my
fatherland!" ("O, me patrie!") I share with Schumann the opinion that
the total weight of Op. 10 amounts to more than that of Op. 25. Like him
I regard also Nos. 1 and 12 as the most important items of the latter
collection of studies: No. 1 (Allegro sostenuto, in A flat major)--a
tremulous mist below, a beautiful breezy melody floating above, and once
or twice a more opaque body becoming discernible within the vaporous
element--of which Schumann says that "after listening to the study
one feels as one does after a blissful vision, seen in a dream, which,
already half-awake, one would fain bring back": [FOOTNOTE: See the whole
quotation, Vol. I., p. 310.] and No. 12 (in C minor, Allegro molto con
fuoco), in which the emotions rise not less than the waves of arpeggios
(in both hands) which symbolise them. Stephen Heller's likings differ
from Schumann's. Discussing Chopin's Op. 25 in the Gazette musicale of
February 24, 1839, he says:--

What more do we require to pass one or several evenings in as
perfect a happiness as possible? As for me, I seek in this
collection of poesy (this is the only name appropriate to the
works of Chopin) some favourite pieces which I might fix in my
memory rather than others. Who could retain everything? For
this reason I have in my note book quite particularly marked
the numbers 4, 5, and 7 of the present poems. Of these twelve
much-loved studies (every one of which has a charm of its own)
these three numbers are those I prefer to all the rest.

In connection with the fourth, Heller points out that it reminds him
of the first bar of the Kyrie (rather the Requiem aeternam) of Mozart's
Requiem. And of the seventh study he remarks:--

It engenders the sweetest sadness, the most enviable torments;
and if in playing it one feels one's self insensibly drawn
towards mournful and melancholy ideas, it is a disposition of
the soul which I prefer to all others. Alas! how I love these
sombre and mysterious dreams, and Chopin is the god who
creates them.

This No. 7 (in C sharp minor, lento)