Frédéric Chopin

The twenty-four Études of Frédéric Chopin (divided into two separate opuses, 10 and 25, but actually composed almost simultaneously) remain the most significant entries in that particular musical genre. Chopin refers, in a letter dating from the fall of 1829, to having written a study "in own manner," and indeed, a great chasm stands between his achievements and the far drier études of his predecessors (one thinks of Moscheles, Czerny, and Hummel in particular). It was not Chopin's intent, as it was with many nineteenth-century pianist-composers, to create studies of mere technique and raw dexterity; here, instead, are works with an inexhaustible array of textures, moods, and colors to explore. These are works meant for the concert hall as well as for the practice room. The twelve Études published as Chopin's Opus 10 are an indispensable tool of the modern pianist's craft: they are a rite of passage that no serious pianist can ignore.

The most famous of all Chopin's works (save, perhaps, for the E flat Nocturne in Opus 9 or the famous funeral march), the "Revolutionary" Étude in C minor, Op.10, No.12, brings the first collection of études to a stirring conclusion. The work--which is thought to be a musical expression of Chopin's powerfully emotional reaction to the news that Russian forces had taken Warsaw, capital of his beloved homeland--is certainly one of the most interesting the composer ever penned. The opening has been called "Zeus hurling thunderbolts at the world," and indeed, the work begins with the kind of passionate onslaught that so many lesser composers have tried, with little success, to imitate. The despairing tone is somewhat overcome by the presentation of the noble main theme in the tenth bar of the piece. The reprise of this same tune some forty bars later, however, leaves it emotionally fractured. The final, rage-filled conclusion has been likened to the "crack of creation."