is trick of breaking a group, detaching a note for
emphasis; although he is careful to retain the legato bow. One wonders
why this study does not figure more frequently on programmes of piano
recitals. It is a fine, healthy technical test, it is brilliant, and
the coda is very dramatic. Ten bars before the return of the theme
there is a stiff digital hedge for the student. A veritable lance of
tone is this study, if justly poised.

Riemann has his own ideas of the phrasing of the following one, the
fifth and familiar "Black Key" etude. Examine the first bar:

[Musical Illustration without caption]

Von Bulow would have grown jealous if he had seen this rather fantastic
phrasing. It is a trifle too finical, though it must be confessed looks
pretty. I like longer breathed phrasing. The student may profit by this
analysis. The piece is indeed, as Kullak says, "full of Polish
elegance." Von Bulow speaks rather disdainfully of it as a Damen-Salon
Etude. It is certainly graceful, delicately witty, a trifle naughty,
arch and roguish, and it is delightfully invented. Technically, it
requires smooth, velvet-tipped fingers and a supple wrist. In the
fourth bar, third group, third note of group, Klindworth and Riemann
print E flat instead of D flat. Mikuli, Kullak and Von Bulow use the D
flat. Now, which is right? The D flat is preferable. There are already
two E flats in the bar. The change is an agreeable one. Joseffy has
made a concert variation for this study. The metronome of the original
is given at 116 to the quarter.

A dark, doleful nocturne is No. 6, in E flat minor. Niecks praises it
in company with the preceding one in E. It is beautiful, if music so
sad may be called beautiful, and the melody is full of stifled sorrow.
The study figure is ingenious, but subordinated to the theme. In the E
major section the piece broadens to dramatic vigor. Chopin was not yet
the slave of his mood. There must be a psychical programme to this
study, some record of a youthful disillusion, but the expression of it
is kept well within chaste lines. The Sarmatian composer had not yet
unlearned the value of reserve. The Klindworth reading of this troubled
poem is the best though Kullak used Chopin's autographic copy. There is
no metronomic sign in this autograph. Tellefsen gives 69 to the
quarter; Klindworth, 60; Riemann, 69; Mikuli, the same; Von Bulow and
Kullak, 60. Kullak also gives several variante from the text, adding an
A flat to