erudite. In his compositions, boldness is always justified; richness,
even exuberance, never interferes with clearness; singularity never
degenerates into uncouth fantasticalness; the sculpturing is never
disorderly; the luxury of ornament never overloads the chaste eloquence
of the principal lines. His best works abound in combinations which
may be said to form an epoch in the handling of musical style. Daring,
brilliant and attractive, they disguise their profundity under so much
grace, their science under so many charms, that it is with difficulty
we free ourselves sufficiently from their magical enthrallment, to judge
coldly of their theoretical value. Their worth has, however, already
been felt; but it will be more highly estimated when the time arrives
for a critical examination of the services rendered by them to art
during that period of its course traversed by Chopin.

It is to him we owe the extension of chords, struck together in
arpeggio, or en batterie; the chromatic sinuosities of which his pages
offer such striking examples; the little groups of superadded notes,
falling like light drops of pearly dew upon the melodic figure. This
species of adornment had hitherto been modeled only upon the Fioritures
of the great Old School of Italian song; the embellishments for
the voice had been servilely copied by the Piano, although become
stereotyped and monotonous: he imparted to them the charm of novelty,
surprise and variety, unsuited for the vocalist, but in perfect keeping
with the character of the instrument. He invented the admirable harmonic
progressions which have given a serious character to pages, which, in
consequence of the lightness of their subject, made no pretension to any
importance. But of what consequence is the subject? Is it not the idea
which is developed through it, the emotion with which it vibrates,
which expands, elevates and ennobles it? What tender melancholy, what
subtlety, what sagacity in the master-pieces of La Fontaine, although
the subjects are so familiar, the titles so modest? Equally unassuming
are the titles and subjects of the Studies and Preludes; yet the
compositions of Chopin, so modestly named, are not the less types of
perfection in a mode created by himself, and stamped, like all his
other works, with the high impress of his poetic genius. Written in the
commencement of his career, they are characterized by a youthful
vigor not to be found in some of his subsequent work