a chromatic scale for soprano with
staccato chords below, and its technical object is to impart greater
flexibility and usefulness to the fourth and fifth fingers of the right
hand. The third, also, is a cantabile in a beautiful singing melody,
with some very interesting contrasts in the middle part. Here, again,
Chopin addresses himself to the weak fingers of the right hand, since
these are the ones which will experience the greatest difficulty in
securing a proper effect in this study. No. 4 is a very impassioned
presto in C-sharp minor, in which strong single notes and octaves
occur, along with an insistent and very rapid sixteenth-note motion.
The effect of the whole is very strong and striking, and esthetically
considered it belongs to the dramatically conceived moods of Chopin.
No. 5, in G-flat major, is commonly known as the "black-key study," and
its object is to accustom the hands to the black keys and to very rapid
changes from one part of the keyboard to another. It is a charming
piece, producing the effect of a delightful scherzo.

It is interesting to note in this connection that all of these studies
and many others belonging to this set have, in recent times, been
rewritten for the left hand. This has been done in various ways. Mr.
Phillippe, of Paris, has simply transferred the right-hand part to the
left, and left the right hand with nothing or with but little to do.
Mr. Leopold Godowsky, the distinguished Russian pianist, has taken a
different course. The first study he has placed with the arpeggio
figure in both hands simultaneously, and a heavy melody of chords is
also added. The second study gives the chromatic runs to the weak
fingers of the left hand. The black-key study also is written for the
left hand, while an entirely new part has been composed for the right.
One of the most curious of all these arrangements of Chopin's material
is that of the late eminent organist, August Haupt, of Berlin, who
arranged this fourth study in C-sharp minor for the organ for Mr.
Clarence Eddy, by whom it is often played in concerts with an effect
extremely remarkable, especially when the pedals have the
sixteenth-note motion.

It should not be forgotten that all these five studies, as well as the
others in the whole collection, are tone-poems no less than exercises
for the pianoforte, and they can not be said to have been played until
this poetic sense is derived from them.

The romanza from the Conc