f divine
content--lebensruhe. The dizzy appoggiatura leaps in the last two bars
set the seal of perfection upon this unique composition.

Touching upon the execution, one may say that it is not for small
hands, nor yet for big fists. The former must not believe that any
"arrangements" or simplified versions will ever produce the aerial
effect, the swaying of the tendrils of tone, intended by Chopin. Very
large hands are tempted by their reach to crush the life out of the
study in not arpeggiating it. This I have heard, and the impression was
indescribably brutal. As for fingering, Mikuli, Von Bulow, Kullak,
Riemann and Klindworth all differ, and from them must most pianists
differ. Your own grasp, individual sense of fingering and tact will
dictate the management of technics. Von Bulow gives a very sensible
pattern to work from, and Kullak is still more explicit. He analyzes
the melody and, planning the arpeggiating with scrupulous fidelity, he
shows why the arpeggiating "must be affected with the utmost rapidity,
bordering upon simultaneousness of harmony in the case of many chords."
Kullak has something to say about the grace notes and this bids me call
your attention to Von Bulow's change in the appoggiatura at the last
return of the subject. A bad misprint is in the Von Bulow edition: it
is in the seventeenth bar from the end, the lowest note in the first
bass group and should read E natural, instead of the E flat that stands.

Von Bulow does not use the arpeggio sign after the first chord. He
rightly believes it makes unclear for the student the subtleties of
harmonic changes and fingering. He also suggests--quite like the
fertile Hans Guido--that "players who have sufficient patience and
enthusiasm for the task would find it worth their while to practise the
arpeggi the reverse way, from top to bottom; or in contrary motion,
beginning with the top note in one hand and the bottom note in the
other. A variety of devices like this would certainly help to give
greater finish to the task."

Doubtless, but consider: man's years are but threescore and ten!

The phrasing of the various editions examined do not vary much. Riemann
is excepted, who has his say in this fashion, at the beginning:

[Musical score excerpt]

More remarkable still is the diversity of opinion regarding the first
three bass chord groups in the fifteenth bar from the close: the bottom
notes in the Von Bulow and Klindworth editions are B flat an