Chopin

Chopin, Frédéric François, 1810-49, composer for the piano, b. near Warsaw, of French and Polish parentage. His lyrical, often melancholy, compositions brought romantic piano music to unprecedented expressive heights. A prodigy as a pianist and composer, he began performing at aristocratic salons in Warsaw, and in 1826 he started full-time studies at the Warsaw Conservatory. After concert appearances in Vienna and Munich, he settled in Paris, where he gave his first concert in 1831. Although he remained devoted to Polish culture and artists, he never returned to his homeland. In Paris he became closely associated with the principal composers, artists, and literary figures of his time. He was a virtuoso interpreter of his own works, but his dislike of playing in public made him prefer teaching and composing to the concert stage.

In 1836, Liszt introduced Chopin to Mme Dudevant, better known by her pen name George Sand, with whom he spent the winter of 1838-39 in Majorca; there, despite worsening pulmonary illness, he wrote his 24 preludes, which are counted among his finest compositions. The stormy affair with the novelist lasted until 1847, by which time Chopin's illness had developed into tuberculosis. He made a last concert tour through Great Britain in 1848.

Chopin established the piano as a solo instrument free from choral or orchestral influence. Even in the piano concertos in E Minor (1833) and F Minor (1836), the orchestra is completely dominated by the piano. Other major works include the sonatas in B Flat Minor (1840) and B Minor (1845), and two sets of études (1833, 1837). Because of their highly romantic quality, some of his works have become known by descriptive titles that he did not give them; they were published simply as nocturnes, scherzos, ballades, waltzes, impromptus, fantasies, and the like. Polish nationalism is evident in his many polonaises and mazurkas. His last concert was a benefit performance for Polish refugees, and at his funeral in Paris, Polish soil was strewn on his grave.

Chopin, Kate O'Flaherty, 1851-1904, American author, b. St. Louis. Of Creole-Irish descent, she married (1870) a Louisiana businessman and lived with him in Natchitoches parish and New Orleans. In these places she acquired an intimate knowledge of Creole and Cajun life, upon which she was to draw in many of her stories. After her husband's death in 1883, she returned with their six children to St. Louis and there began to write. Two collections of tales, Bayou Folk (1894) and A Night in Acadie (1897), earned her a reputation as a local colorist, but her novel The Awakening (1899) caused a storm of criticism because of its treatment of feminine sexuality. In depicting objectively a woman's confused groping toward self-understanding and self-acceptance, Chopin seemed to threaten the mores of her time although she did not explicitly attack them. Largely ignored for the next 60 years, her work is now praised for its literary merit as well as for its remarkable independence of mind and feeling.

Étude Op. 10, No. 12 in C minor known as The Revolutionary Étude, is a solo piano work by Frédéric Chopin written circa 1831. It is the 12th of his first set of etudes - "Douze Grandes Etudes" dedicated to "son ami Franz Liszt" (his friend Franz Liszt). The two sets of Études, Opus 10 and 25, are known collectively as the Chopin Études, although Chopin also contributed three other lesser known études (the Trois Nouvelles Études).

History

The étude appeared around the same time as the November Uprising in 1831. Chopin was unable to have a strong participating role because of his poor health, and allegedly he poured his emotions on the matter into many pieces that he composed at that time - the Revolutionary Étude standing out as the most famous example. Upon conclusion of Poland's failed revolution against Russia, he cried "All this has caused me much pain. Who could have foreseen it!

Unlike études of prior periods (works designed to emphasize and develop particular aspects of musical technique, cf the much feared but essential School of Velocity, or the Five Finger Exercises by Hanon) the romantic études of composers such as Chopin and Liszt are fully developed musical concert pieces, but still continue to represent a goal of developing stronger techniques.

Technique

In the case of The Revolutionary Étude, the technique required in the opening bars is playing an extremely fast, long and loud descending harmonic minor scale mainly in the left hand. The length and the repetition of these rapid passages distinguishes The Revolutionary from other études.

Although the greatest challenge lies with the relentless left hand semiquavers, the right hand is also challenged by the cross-rhythms which are used with increasing sophistication to handle the same theme in various successive parallel passages.

The left hand technique involved in this piece involves evenly played semiquavers throughout. The structure is of the strophic coda form (A A'). The opening broken chords (diminished chord with an added passing note) and downward passages transition into the main appassionato melody. The octave melody's dotted rhythms and the continuous accompaniment creates tension. At the end of the A' section, the coda provides somewhat of a rest from that tension and then the work recalls the opening in a final descending sweep leading to the final closing chords, in C major.

Influences

The end of the Etude alludes to Beethoven's last piano sonata, written in the same key - a piece Chopin is known to have greatly admired (compare bars 77-81 in the Etude to bars 150-152 in the first movement of Beethoven's sonata).

Adaptations

• The group Renaissance used the piece on their 1972 Album Prologue as the introduction to the title track. The composition is credited to Michael Dunford, but the introduction was more likely a contribution by pianist John Tout.
• A 1989 adaptation by composer Zack Laurence saw the piece used as the theme tune for the ITV adventure game show "Interceptor" where it was given a modern disco feel and renamed "Rock Revolution"
• Nineteenth-century pianist Alexander Dreyschock learned to play the left-hand semiquaver passages in octaves, which observers of his concerts say he could play in the correct tempo. It is reported that after Dreyschock decided to learn how to do this, he worked sixteen hours per day until he had overcome the technical problems.
• In the fighting game The King of Fighters 2003, music relating to one of the bosses, Adel, borrows portions of the étude; in fact, his stage music features part of the étude itself, diegetically played on the piano by his sister Rose. The title of this theme is .
• The Japanese composer Tsunku borrowed parts of The Revolutionary Étude as the theme for the song Jiriri Kiteru, which he wrote for the group Berryz Koubou.
• Also, in Richie Ray and Bobby Cruz's "Sonido bestial" (Beastly Sound), in the song's first piano solo, is a slow-motion version of Étude Op. 10, No. 12, played twice.
• "The Revolutionary Étude" is performed in full by Russian pianist Stanislav Bunin in the video game Eternal Sonata, which is a game that was inspired virtually in full by Chopin's musical work. From the same game, the song "Scrap and Build Ourselves", played during the final battle against Chopin himself, is also an adaptation of the Revolutionary Étude.
• An electronic arrangement of the Etude can be found in the rhythm game DDRMAX2 Dance Dance Revolution 7thMix and some newer versions. The song itself is called Kakumei and was remixed by Naoki and DJ Taka
• The piece is also featured in the Kiniro no Corda anime series in episode 17, where it is played by character Ryoutarou Tsuchiura.

References

External links

• The Ultimate Chopin Etudes Discography from Eternal Chopin Etudes Space
• Study Guide, Recordings and Sheet Music from Chopin Music
• Mutopia Project - A public domain engraving of the score using GNU LilyPond, available in several formats.