In today’s post, we are dipping into the world of the piano etude. An etude ostensibly exists for the sole purpose of developing the pianist’s technical skill while at the same time providing interesting musical material, and Chopin was preceded in the genre by composers like Clementi, Cramer and Czerny. But while each one of Chopin’s etudes does indeed focus on one particular technical difficulty, in musical interest they far exceed any etudes that came before.
Indeed, this particular piece, with its noble chorale carried by the bass line, and subtle harmonic construction, is really an homage to the great Baroque quasi-improvised preludes of Bach and Handel (in fact, Bach’s inventions and sinfonias could also be seen as an early form of etude).
I talk a little bit about some erroneous performance practices that have grown up around this piece over the nearly 2 centuries since its composition and propose an alternative way of approaching the piece.