He also suggests certain phrasing in bar seventeen,
and forbids a sharp, cutting manner in playing the sforzati at the last
return of the subject. Kullak is copious in his directions, and thinks
the touch should be light and the hand gliding, and in the B major part
"fiery, wilful accentuation of the inferior beats." Capricious,
fantastic, and graceful, this study is Chopin in rare spirits. Schumann
has the phrase--the study should be executed with "amiable bravura."
There is a misprint in the Kullak edition: at the beginning of the
thirty-second notes an A instead of an F upsets the tonality, besides
being absurd.

Of the fourth study in A minor there is little to add to Theodor
Kullak, who writes:

"In the broadest sense of the word, every piece of music is an
etude. In a narrower sense, however, we demand of an etude
that it shall have a special end in view, promote facility in
something, and lead to the conquest of some particular
difficulty, whether of technics, of rhythm, expression or
delivery." (Robert Schumann, Collected Writings, i., 201.) The
present study is less interesting from a technical than a
rhythmical point of view. While the chief beats of the measure
(1st, 3d, 5th and 7th eighths) are represented only by single
tones (in the bass part), which are to a certain extent "free
and unconcerned, and void of all encumbrance," the inferior
parts of the measure (2d, 4th, 6th and 8th eighths) are
burdened with chords, the most of which, moreover, are
provided with accents in opposition to the regular beats of
the measure. Further, there is associated with these chords,
or there may be said to grow out of them, a cantilene in the
upper voice, which appears in syncopated form opposite to the
strong beats of the bass. This cantilene begins on a weak
beat, and produces numerous suspensions, which, in view of the
time of their entrance, appear as so many retardations and
delayals of melodic tones.

All these things combine to give the composition a wholly
peculiar coloring, to render its flow somewhat restless and to
stamp the etude as a little characteristic piece, a capriccio,
which might well be named "Inquietude."

As regards technics, two things are to be studied: the
staccato of the chords and the execution of the cantilena. The
chords must be formed more by pressure than by striking. The
fingers must support themselves very lightly upon the c