wrote as follows: "Whither his path lies and leads, or how
long, how brilliant its course is yet to be, who can say? As
often, however, as it shows itself, there is ever seen the
same deep dark glow, the same starry light and the same
austerity, so that even a child could not fail to recognize
it. But besides this, I have had the advantage of hearing most
of these Etudes played by Chopin himself, and quite a la
Chopin did he play them!"
Of the first one especially he writes: "Imagine that an
aeolian harp possessed all the musical scales, and that the
hand of an artist were to cause them all to intermingle in all
sorts of fantastic embellishments, yet in such a way as to
leave everywhere audible a deep fundamental tone and a soft
continuously-singing upper voice, and you will get the right
idea of his playing. But it would be an error to think that
Chopin permitted every one of the small notes to be distinctly
heard. It was rather an undulation of the A flat major chord,
here and there thrown aloft anew by the pedal. Throughout all
the harmonies one always heard in great tones a wondrous
melody, while once only, in the middle of the piece, besides
that chief song, a tenor voice became prominent in the midst
of chords. After the Etude a feeling came over one as of
having seen in a dream a beatific picture which when half
awake one would gladly recall."
After these words there can be no doubt as to the mode of
delivery. No commentary is required to show that the melodic
and other important tones indicated by means of large notes
must emerge from within the sweetly whispering waves, and that
the upper tones must be combined so as to form a real melody
with the finest and most thoughtful shadings.
The twenty-fourth bar of this study in A major is so Lisztian that
Liszt must have benefited by its harmonies.
"And then he played the second in the book, in F minor, one in which
his individuality displays itself in a manner never to be forgotten.
How charming, how dreamy it was! Soft as the song of a sleeping child."
Schumann wrote this about the wonderful study in F minor, which
whispers, not of baleful deeds in a dream, as does the last movement of
the B flat minor sonata, but is--"the song of a sleeping child." No
comparison could be prettier, for there is a sweet, delicate drone that
sometimes issues from childish lips, having a charm for ears not
attune
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