Étude Op. 10, No. 6 (Chopin) - AbsoluteAstronomy.com

Étude Op. 10, No. 6, in E-flat minor, is a study for solo

Solo (music)

In music, a solo is a piece or a section of a piece played or sung by a single performer...

Piano

The piano is a musical instrument played by means of a keyboard. It is one of the most popular instruments in the world. Widely used in classical and jazz music for solo performances, ensemble use, chamber music and accompaniment, the piano is also very popular as an aid to composing and rehearsal...

composed by Frédéric Chopin

Frédéric Chopin

Frédéric François Chopin was a Polish composer and virtuoso pianist. He is considered one of the great masters of Romantic music and has been called "the poet of the piano"....

in 1830. It was first published in 1833 in France, Germany, and England as the sixth piece of his Études Op. 10
Études (Chopin)
The Études by Frédéric Chopin are three sets of solo studies for the piano, There are twenty-seven overall, comprising two separate collections of twelve, numbered Opus 10 and 25, and a set of three without opus number.-Composition:...

. The tempo Andante
Tempo
In musical terminology, tempo is the speed or pace of a given piece. Tempo is a crucial element of any musical composition, as it can affect the mood and difficulty of a piece.-Measuring tempo:...

in 6/8

Time signature

The time signature is a notational convention used in Western musical notation to specify how many beats are in each measure and which note value constitutes one beat....

and con molto espressione indicate a more moderate playing speed than Chopin's other études with the exception of Op. 10, No. 3

Étude Op. 10, No. 3 (Chopin)

Étude Op. 10 No. 3, in E major, is a study for solo piano composed by Frédéric Chopin in 1832. It was first published in 1833 in France, Germany, and England as the third piece of his Études Op. 10. This is a slow cantabile study for polyphonic and legato playing. Chopin himself believed the...

and Op. 25, No. 7

Étude Op. 25, No. 7 (Chopin)

Étude Op. 25, No. 7 in C-sharp minor is a solo piano technical study composed by Frédéric Chopin in 1834. Markedly different from Chopin's overall scheme of technical virtuosity, this étude focuses instead on perfect sound and phrasing, particularly for the left hand.- Structure :Étude Op. 25, No...

. This étude focuses on expressivity and chromatic

Diatonic and chromatic

Diatonic and chromatic are terms in music theory that are most often used to characterize scales, and are also applied to intervals, chords, notes, musical styles, and kinds of harmony...

structuring of the melody

Melody

A melody , also tune, voice, or line, is a linear succession of musical tones which is perceived as a single entity...

as well as polyphonic texture

Polyphony

In music, polyphony is a texture consisting of two or more independent melodic voices, as opposed to music with just one voice or music with one dominant melodic voice accompanied by chords ....

Structure and stylistic traits

Musicologist

Musicology

Musicology is the scholarly study of music. The word is used in narrow, broad and intermediate senses. In the narrow sense, musicology is confined to the music history of Western culture...

Hugo Leichtentritt

Hugo Leichtentritt was a German-Jewish musicologist and composer who spent much of his life in the USA. Composer Erich Walter Sternberg was one of his pupils.-Literary works:*R...

(1874–1951) describes the three- (and sometimes four-) voice texture thus: "A melody of painful, elegiac expression over a slow, almost sluggish, bass, in-between a winding middle voice [in sixteenth note

Sixteenth note

thumb|right|Figure 1. A sixteenth note with stem facing up, a sixteenth note with stem facing down, and a sixteenth rest.thumb|right|Figure 2. Four sixteenth notes beamed together....

s] which, despite its narrow range

Range (music)

In music, the range of a musical instrument is the distance from the lowest to the highest pitch it can play. For a singing voice, the equivalent is vocal range...

adds a great inner agitation." A characteristic trait of the melody are the chromatic auxiliary notes

Nonchord tone

A nonchord tone, nonharmonic tone, or non-harmony note is a note in a piece of music which is not a part of the implied harmony that is described by the other notes sounding at the time...

played on the beat

Beat (music)

The beat is the basic unit of time in music, the pulse of the mensural level . In popular use, the beat can refer to a variety of related concepts including: tempo, meter, rhythm and groove...

and approached by disjunct motion

Steps and skips

In music, a step, or conjunct motion, is a linear or successive interval between two pitches which are consecutive scale degrees. Any larger interval is called a skip , or disjunct motion...

.

Like all of Chopin's other études

Études (Chopin)

The Études by Frédéric Chopin are three sets of solo studies for the piano, There are twenty-seven overall, comprising two separate collections of twelve, numbered Opus 10 and 25, and a set of three without opus number.-Composition:...

, this work is in ternary form

Ternary form

Ternary form, sometimes called song form, is a three-part musical form, usually schematicized as A-B-A. The first and third parts are musically identical, or very nearly so, while the second part in some way provides a contrast with them...

A-B-A. The strict periodic

Period (music)

In music, a period is a group of phrases consisting usually of at least one antecedent phrase and one consequent phrase totaling about 8 measures in length . Generally, the antecedent ends in a weaker and the consequent in a stronger cadence; often, the antecedent ends in a half cadence while the...

structure contains eight-bar periods—two in the A section, forming a regular 16-bar period, three in the middle one and in the final A section a single eight-bar period expanded by five bars. The harmonic relationships in the first eight bars, marked by a deceptive twist to bar 4 and a Neapolitan chord

Neapolitan chord

In music theory, a Neapolitan chord is a major chord built on the lowered second scale degree. It most commonly occurs in first inversion so that it is notated either as II6 or N6 and normally referred to as a Neapolitan sixth chord...

in bar 7, are shown in a harmonic reduction

Musical analysis

Musical analysis is the attempt to answer the question how does this music work?. The method employed to answer this question, and indeed exactly what is meant by the question, differs from analyst to analyst, and according to the purpose of the analysis. According to Ian Bent , analysis is "an...

. Bars 9 - 16 repeat the same progression, ending with a perfect E-flat minor cadence

Cadence (music)

In Western musical theory, a cadence is, "a melodic or harmonic configuration that creates a sense of repose or resolution [finality or pause]." A harmonic cadence is a progression of two chords that concludes a phrase, section, or piece of music...

.
The three eight-bar periods of the middle section do each have a particular design. The first one is marked by a rise to the middle and a corresponding descent of the consequent. The irregular second one, leading to the climax, reveals its excited rhythm

Rhythm

Rhythm may be generally defined as a "movement marked by the regulated succession of strong and weak elements, or of opposite or different conditions." This general meaning of regular recurrence or pattern in time may be applied to a wide variety of cyclical natural phenomena having a periodicity or...

ic nature especially in the consequent, while the third one is a steady chromatic descent from the climax. The effect of the harmonic progression

Chord progression

A chord progression is a series of musical chords, or chord changes that "aims for a definite goal" of establishing a tonality founded on a key, root or tonic chord. In other words, the succession of root relationships...

of this middle section is described thus by Leichtentritt: "A magnificent transition from E-flat minor (bar 16) to the mildly shining E major

E major

E major is a major scale based on E, with the pitches E, F, G, A, B, C, and D. Its key signature has four sharps .Its relative minor is C-sharp minor, and its parallel minor is E minor....

(bar 22) [Chopin has changed the key signature here]; the exciting chains of sequences with their cross-relations

False relation

A false relation is the name of a type of dissonance that sometimes occurs in classical polyphonic music, most commonly in vocal music of the Renaissance....

(bars 29 - 32); the wonderfully sonorous decline to E-flat minor so delicately shaded with accents of timbre

Timbre

In music, timbre is the quality of a musical note or sound or tone that distinguishes different types of sound production, such as voices and musical instruments, such as string instruments, wind instruments, and percussion instruments. The physical characteristics of sound that determine the...

(bars 33 - 41)."

The final A section is a shortened repeat of the first one. In the last seven bars a most beautiful effect is produced by the repeated use of the chord of the Neapolitan sixth to delay the final cadence and especially by the "unexpected gleaming" of A major

A major

A major is a major scale based on A, with the pitches A, B, C, D, E, F, and G. Its key signature has three sharps.Its relative minor is F-sharp minor and its parallel minor is A minor...

(bar 49) in the E-flat minor cadence. This A major enchantingly reflects the E major of the middle section (bar 24). The piece closes with a Picardy third

Picardy third

A Picardy third is a harmonic device used in European classical music.It refers to the use of a major chord of the tonic at the end of a musical section which is either modal or in a minor key...

, in E-flat major.

Character

American music critic

Music criticism

See also Music journalism for reporting on classical and popular music in the media.The Oxford Companion to Music defines music criticism as 'the intellectual activity of formulating judgments on the value and degree of excellence of individual works of music, or whole groups or genres'. In this...

James Huneker

James Gibbons Huneker was an American music writer and critic.Huneker was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. He studied piano in Europe under Leopold Doutreleau and audited the Paris piano class of Frédéric Chopin's pupil Georges Mathias. He came to New York City in 1885 and remained there...

(1857–1921) calls the étude "a dark doleful nocturne

Nocturne

A nocturne is usually a musical composition that is inspired by, or evocative of, the night...

. […] the melody is full of stifled sorrow." Italian composer and editor Alfredo Casella

Alfredo Casella

Alfredo Casella was an Italian composer, pianist and conductor.- Life and career :Casella was born in Turin; his family included many musicians; his grandfather, a friend of Paganini's, was first cello in the San Carlo Theatre in Lisbon and eventually was soloist in the Royal Chapel in Turin...

(1883–1947) speaks of "meditated grief" and thinks "it is difficult to conceive an elegy more severe and sober than this study." French pianist Alfred Cortot

Alfred Cortot

Alfred Denis Cortot was a Franco-Swiss pianist and conductor. He is one of the most renowned 20th-century classical musicians, especially valued for his poetic insight in Romantic period piano works, particularly those of Chopin and Schumann.-Early life and education:Born in Nyon, Vaud, in the...

(1877–1962) on the other hand calls the character of this study "feverish and concentrated" and insists that "below the passionate lament of the upper voice […] we must hear a vital lower part […] uniting with it [yet] preserving its own timbre and its own freedom of rhythm."

Tempo

Chopin's metronome mark, given in the original French and German editions, is MM 69 referring to dotted quarter notes. The English edition has MM 69 referring to quarter note

Quarter note

A quarter note or crotchet is a note played for one quarter of the duration of a whole note . Often people will say that a crotchet is one beat, however, this is not always correct, as the beat is indicated by the time signature of the music; a quarter note may or may not be the beat...

s instead. Austrian pianist and composer Gottfried Galston (1879–1950) suggests a tempo of MM 50 referring to dotted quarter notes, as "the carrying power of the modern piano's cantabile

Cantabile

Cantabile is a musical term meaning literally "singable" or "songlike" . It has several meanings in different contexts. In instrumental music, it indicates a particular style of playing designed to imitate the human voice. For 18th century composers, the term is often used synonymously with...

allows for a broader layout of the cantilena." He also believes that "the tempo of this étude is subjected to the most multifarious fluctuations." Polish

Poland

Poland , officially the Republic of Poland , is a country in Central Europe bordered by Germany to the west; the Czech Republic and Slovakia to the south; Ukraine, Belarus and Lithuania to the east; and the Baltic Sea and Kaliningrad Oblast, a Russian exclave, to the north...

pianist

Pianist

A pianist is a musician who plays the piano. A professional pianist can perform solo pieces, play with an ensemble or orchestra, or accompany one or more singers, solo instrumentalists, or other performers.-Choice of genres:...

and editor Jan Ekier

Jan Ekier

Jan Ekier is a Polish pianist and composer widely known for his authoritative edition of Chopin's music for the Polish National Edition. He was born in Kraków, Poland...

(born 1913) writes in the Performance Commentary to the Polish National Edition that this étude is "always performed slower or much slower than is indicated by [Chopin's] tempo. […] the tempo becomes as much as three times slower than the authentic one, thus changing the metronomic unit from dotted quarter notes = 69 to eighth note

Eighth note

s = 69. The causes could be discerned in certain performance "traditions" prevailing during the second half of the nineteenth century

19th century

The 19th century was a period in history marked by the collapse of the Spanish, Portuguese, Chinese, Holy Roman and Mughal empires...

, which had little in common with those derived directly from Chopin."

Technical difficulties

In Schumann's

Robert Schumann

Robert Schumann, sometimes known as Robert Alexander Schumann, was a German composer, aesthete and influential music critic. He is regarded as one of the greatest and most representative composers of the Romantic era....

NZM
Neue Zeitschrift für Musik
Die Neue Zeitschrift für Musik was a music magazine published in Leipzig, co-founded by Robert Schumann, his teacher and future father-in law Friedrich Wieck, and his close friend Ludwig Schuncke...

article on Pianoforte-Études, NZM (1836), the study, together with Op. 10, No. 3

Étude Op. 10, No. 3 (Chopin)

, is classified under the category "melody and accompaniment

Accompaniment

In music, accompaniment is the art of playing along with an instrumental or vocal soloist or ensemble, often known as the lead, in a supporting manner...

in one hand simultaneously." Cortot states that the attention of the student should be directed to perfecting polyphonic playing, an expressive intensity of tone and legato

Legato

In musical notation the Italian word legato indicates that musical notes are played or sung smoothly and connected. That is, in transitioning from note to note, there should be no intervening silence...

and believes that finding the individual tone for each of the simultaneous melodic lines is a particular difficulty. He suggests to produce the tone of the upper part by pressing the keys to the bottom with firm and straight fingers. To ensure even action of the fingers playing the figure in semiquavers he recommends to start practicing in a non-legato

Mezzo staccato

In music, Mezzo staccato means "moderately detached". It is a style of playing between staccato and legato, and is also referred to as non-legato...

where the fingers do not lose contact with the key. For the final legato the weight of the hand should bear slightly on each semiquaver to produce a kind of portamento

Portamento

Portamento is a musical term originated from the Italian expression "portamento della voce" , denoting from the beginning of the 17th century a vocal slide between two pitches and its emulation by members of the violin family and certain wind instruments, and is sometimes used...

with a timbre that will not merge into the upper melodic line. Cortot also introduces an exercise for flexibility of the foot to produce an "uninterrupted quivering" pedal

Piano pedals

Piano pedals are foot-operated levers at the base of a piano which change the instrument's sound in various ways. Modern pianos usually have three pedals, from left to right, the soft pedal , the sostenuto pedal , and the sustaining pedal...

, but advises to practice the finger legato first without pedal. There are no original pedal marks by Chopin.

Arrangements

A version for the left hand alone can be found in Leopold Godowsky

Leopold Godowsky

Leopold Godowsky was a famed Polish American pianist, composer, and teacher. One of the most highly regarded performers of his time, he became known for his theories concerning the application of relaxed weight and economy of motion in piano playing, principles later propagated by Godowsky's...

's 53 Studies on Chopin's Études
Studies on Chopin's Etudes
The Studies on Chopin's Études, by Leopold Godowsky, is a set of 53 arrangements of Chopin's études. The Studies on Chopin's Études, by Leopold Godowsky, is a set of 53 arrangements of Chopin's études. The Studies on Chopin's Études, by Leopold Godowsky, is a set of 53 arrangements of Chopin's...

. Canadian pianist Marc-André Hamelin

Marc-André Hamelin

Marc-André Hamelin, OC, CQ, is a French Canadian virtuoso pianist and composer.Born in Montreal, Quebec, Marc-André Hamelin began his piano studies at the age of five. His father, a pharmacist by trade who was also a pianist, introduced him to the works of Alkan, Godowsky, and Sorabji when he was...

(born 1961) describes this "most beautiful achievement" thus: "A continuous, rapid line of demisemiquavers

Thirty-second note

In music, a thirty-second note or demisemiquaver is a note played for 1/32 of the duration of a whole note...

snakes its way around and through Chopin's melancholic chorale

Chorale

A chorale was originally a hymn sung by a Christian congregation. In certain modern usage, this term may also include classical settings of such hymns and works of a similar character....

, enhancing it without being in the least bit obtrusive."

A jazz rendition by Aruan Ortiz, here.

External links

Analysis of Chopin Etudes at Chopin: the poet of the piano
Chopin Etude Op. 10, No. 6 played by Alfred Cortot
Alfred Cortot
Alfred Denis Cortot was a Franco-Swiss pianist and conductor. He is one of the most renowned 20th-century classical musicians, especially valued for his poetic insight in Romantic period piano works, particularly those of Chopin and Schumann.-Early life and education:Born in Nyon, Vaud, in the...

(YouTube)
Chopin Etude Op. 10, No. 6 played by Vladimir Horowitz
Vladimir Horowitz
Vladimir Samoylovich Horowitz was a Russian-American classical virtuoso pianist and minor composer. His technique and use of tone color and the excitement of his playing were legendary. He is widely considered one of the greatest pianists of the 20th century.-Life and early...

(YouTube)
Chopin/Godowsky Op. 10 No. 6 (left hand) played by David Saperton
David Saperton
David Saperton was an American pianist known especially for being the first pianist to play the entire original compositions as well as the complete transcriptions of his father-in-law, Leopold Godowsky. He also recorded a number of Godowsky’s Studies on Chopin's Études as well as other pieces...

(1952) (YouTube)
Chopin/Godowsky Op.10 No.6 (left hand) played by Marc-André Hamelin
Marc-André Hamelin
Marc-André Hamelin, OC, CQ, is a French Canadian virtuoso pianist and composer.Born in Montreal, Quebec, Marc-André Hamelin began his piano studies at the age of five. His father, a pharmacist by trade who was also a pianist, introduced him to the works of Alkan, Godowsky, and Sorabji when he was...

(YouTube)

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