, comes upon one
with the smiling freshness of dear, familiar nature."

The prelude has a nocturnal character. It has become slightly banal
from frequent repetition, likewise the C sharp minor study in opus 25.
But of its beauty, balance and exceeding chastity there can be no
doubt. The architecture is at once Greek and Gothic.

The sixteenth prelude in the relative key of B flat minor is the
boldest of the set. Its scale figures, seldom employed by Chopin, boil
and glitter, the thematic thread of the idea never being quite
submerged. Fascinating, full of perilous acclivities and sudden
treacherous descents, this most brilliant of preludes is Chopin in
riotous spirits. He plays with the keyboard: it is an avalanche, anon a
cascade, then a swift stream, which finally, after mounting to the
skies, descends to an abyss. Full of imaginative lift, caprice and
stormy dynamics, this prelude is the darling of the virtuoso. Its
pregnant introduction is like a madly jutting rock from which the eagle
spirit of the composer precipitates itself.

In the twenty-third bar there is curious editorial discrepancy.
Klindworth uses an A natural in the first of the four groups of
sixteenths, Kullak a B natural; Riemann follows Kullak. Nor is this
all. Kullak in the second group, right hand, has an E flat, Klindworth
a D natural. Which is correct? Klindworth's texture is more closely
chromatic and it sounds better, the chromatic parallelism being more
carefully preserved. Yet I fancy that Kullak has tradition on his side.

The seventeenth prelude Niecks finds Mendelssohn-ian. I do not. It is
suave, sweet, well developed, yet Chopin to the core, and its harmonic
life surprisingly rich and novel. The mood is one of tranquillity. The
soul loses itself in early autumnal revery while there is yet splendor
on earth and in the skies. Full of tonal contrasts, this highly
finished composition is grateful to the touch. The eleven booming A
flats on the last page are historical. Klindworth uses a B flat instead
of a G at the beginning of the melody. It is logical, but is it Chopin?

The fiery recitatives of No. 18 in F minor are a glimpse of Chopin,
muscular and not hectic. In these editions you will find three
different groupings of the cadenzas. It is Riemann's opportunity for
pedagogic editing, and he does not miss it. In the first long breathed
group of twenty-two sixteenth notes he phrases as shown on the
following page.

It may be noticed