Schumann, and, therefore,
we have such compositions as "Papillons," "Carnaval," "Kreisleriana,"
"Phantasiestuecke," and the rest. Almost always, it may be said, the
pieces which make them up were composed under the poetical and
emotional impulses derived from literature, then grouped and named. To
understand their poetic contents this must be known.

[Sidenote: _Chopin's music._]

[Sidenote: _Preludes._]

Chopin's fancy, on the other hand, found stimulation in the charm
which, for him, lay in the tone of the pianoforte itself (to which he
added a new loveliness by his manner of writing), as well as in the
rhythms of the popular dances of his country. These dances he not only
beautified as the old suite writers beautified their forms, but he
utilized them as vessels which he filled with feeling, not all of
which need be accepted as healthy, though much of it is. As to his
titles, "Preludes" is purely an arbitrary designation for
compositions which are equally indefinite in form and character;
Niecks compares them very aptly to a portfolio full of drawings "in
all stages of advancement--finished and unfinished, complete and
incomplete compositions, sketches and mere memoranda, all mixed
indiscriminately together." So, too, they appeared to Schumann: "They
are sketches, commencements of studies, or, if you will, ruins, single
eagle-wings, all strangely mixed together." Nevertheless some of them
are marvellous soul-pictures.

[Sidenote: _Etudes._]

[Sidenote: _Nocturnes._]

The "Etudes" are studies intended to develop the technique of the
pianoforte in the line of the composer's discoveries, his method of
playing extended arpeggios, contrasted rhythms, progressions in thirds
and octaves, etc., but still they breathe poetry and sometimes
passion. Nocturne is an arbitrary, but expressive, title for a short
composition of a dreamy, contemplative, or even elegiac, character. In
many of his nocturnes Chopin is the adored sentimentalist of
boarding-school misses. There is poppy in them and seductive poison
for which Niecks sensibly prescribes Bach and Beethoven as antidotes.
The term ballad has been greatly abused in literature, and in music is
intrinsically unmeaning. Chopin's four Ballades have one feature in
common--they are written in triple time; and they are among his finest
inspirations.

[Sidenote: _The Polonaise._]

Chopin's dances are conventionalized, and do not all speak the idiom
of the people who create