reason why he has been classed as a "gifted amateur" and even to-day is
he regarded by many musicians as a skilful inventor of piano passages
and patterned figures instead of what he really is--one of the most
daring harmonists since Bach.

Chopin's elastic hand, small, thin, with lightly articulated fingers,
was capable of stretching tenths with ease. Examine his first study for
confirmation of this. His wrist was very supple. Stephen Heller said
that "it was a wonderful sight to see Chopin's small hands expand and
cover a third of the keyboard. It was like the opening of the mouth of
a serpent about to swallow a rabbit whole." He played the octaves in
the A flat Polonaise with infinite ease but pianissimo. Now where is
the "tradition" when confronted by the mighty crashing of Rosenthal in
this particular part of the Polonaise? Of Karl Tausig, Weitzmann said
that "he relieved the romantically sentimental Chopin of his
Weltschmerz and showed him in his pristine creative vigor and wealth of
imagination." In Chopin's music there are many pianists, many styles
and all are correct if they are poetically musical, logical and
individually sincere. Of his rubato I treat in the chapter devoted to
the Mazurkas, making also an attempt to define the "zal" of his playing
and music.

When Chopin was strong he used a Pleyel piano, when he was ill an
Erard--a nice fable of Liszt's! He said that he liked the Erard but he
really preferred the Pleyel with its veiled sonority. What could not he
have accomplished with the modern grand piano? In the artist's room of
the Maison Pleyel there stands the piano at which Chopin composed the
Preludes, the G minor nocturne, the Funeral March, the three
supplementary etudes, the A minor Mazurka, the Tarantelle, the F minor
Fantasie and the B minor Scherzo. A brass tablet on the inside lid
notes this. The piano is still in good condition as regards tone and
action.

Mikuli asserted that Chopin brought out an "immense" tone in
cantabiles. He had not a small tone, but it was not the orchestral tone
of our day. Indeed how could it be, with the light action and tone of
the French pianos built in the first half of the century? After all it
was quality, not quantity that Chopin sought. Each one of his ten
fingers was a delicately differentiated voice, and these ten voices
could sing at times like the morning stars.

Rubinstein declared that all the pedal marks are wrong in Chopin. I
doubt if any editi