Étude Op. 10, No. 1 (Chopin)

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Excerpt from the Étude Op. 10, No. 1
Excerpt from the Étude Op. 10, No. 1

Étude Op. 10, No.1 in C major, composed by Frédéric Chopin, is a technical study in reach and arpeggios for the piano. Sometimes it is known as the "Waterfall" étude. It was composed in 1829, and first published in 1833, in France, Germany, and England. In a prefatory note to the 1916 Schirmer edition the American music critic James Huneker (1860-1921) compared the "hypnotic charm" that these "dizzy acclivities and descents exercise for eye as well as ear" to the frightening staircases in Giovanni Battista Piranesi's prints of the Carceri d'invenzione.

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[edit] Structure

The work is executed at an Allegro tempo. The time-signature Common time is according to the first French, English, and German editions. Chopin's own manuscript reads Cut time.[1]

The right hand gauntlet consists entirely of broad arpeggios in semiquavers on modulating scales. The left hand plays the deep melody in slow, droning octaves. The Piece requires a high level of technical skill to perform accurately.

[edit] Recordings

[edit] Variations

Leopold Godowsky transcribed a diatonic and single-hand version of this Étude in his 53 Studies on Chopin's Études. The second version was played entirely with a pianist's left hand, and was in D-flat major.[2]

[edit] Notes

  1. ^ Palmer, W: Chopin Etudes for the Piano, page 29. Alfred Publishing Co., Inc., 1992
  2. ^ Godowsky - Studies on Chopin's Etudes. February 2, 2007.

[edit] External links

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