In the autumn of 1831 Chopin arrived at Paris. His early years in Paris were spent performing, later spent composing. A few performances were done in concert halls, however, he later chose more intimate Paris Salons as preferable performance spaces. It was in these Salons that Chopin met many prolific composers and virtuosic pianists of the time. One of these pianists was the composer and teacher Friedrich Kalkbrenner.
[Kalkbrenner's] playing was smooth, sustained and harmonious, not seeking after an effect of power, but delightful in its sonority of tone and perfect in its evenness, pure rather than impassioned in style, and based exclusively upon finger-work. (Bidou 95)Kalkbrenner even invented a "hand-guide" which was a bar of wood placed under the pupils wrists to raise them in order to teach the fingers to acquire firmness and produce tone and quality of sound by themselves. All of Chopin's contemporaries recognized that Chopin's technique was superb, however, it was not the result of practice. Chopin's father wrote to Chopin that "your mind has been more employed than your fingers. Other have passed whole days working at the keyboard, but you have rarely spent a whole hour practicing the works of others" (96). That is to say, Chopin spent a great deal of his time fiddling around at the piano and composing instead of practicing technique. Needless to say, Kalkbrenner was appalled the first time he saw Chopin perform! "[Kalkbrenner] was scandalized at the boldness of Chopin's fingering" (96). Kalkbrenner, in attempt to civilize Chopin's technique, offered him lessons for three years. Chopin consulted his family about the issue. Elsner, his original teacher, wrote Chopin saying that he must not become a copy of Kalkbrenner's technique lest he lose his originality, which is what makes him notable and prolific. Chopin wrote Elsner back saying that "I shall never be a copy of Kalkbrenner; he will be powerless to turn aside my intention, which may be bold, but is a noble one: namely, to found a new epoch in art" (99). Chopin took a few lessons, but decided not to continue, however, he dedicated the Concerto in E minor to Kalkbrenner out of thanks.
I can't wait until I'm finished with the etudes and into more relaxed, and much less technique heavy, genres. The required virtuosity to even sight read SLOWLY these pieces is simply not in me. I find that more often I am simply taking the pieces a chord at a time to find out how the pieces are put together. The melody is still there, it just lacks the specific rhythm and meter that makes it a work of art. Oh well, it is interesting to analyze these pieces.
I believe No. 4 is a brief study on a trade off in melodic line between the left hand and right hand in order to keep the melody consistent and recognizable.
From the first part of No. 5 I can guess that the etude works on arpeggiations to the jumpy nature of the right hand melodic line.
Total time spent sight reading: 30
Total time spent writing: 1 hour
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