Fantaisie-Impromptu

Frédéric Chopin's Fantaisie-Impromptu in C-sharp minor, Op. posth. 66, is a solo piano composition and one of his best-known pieces. It was composed in 1834 and dedicated to Julian Fontana, who published the piece in spite of Chopin's request not to do so.[1]

Contents

Form

Some aspects of this piece are similar to Beethoven's Moonlight Sonata, which is also in C-sharp minor. Two measures after the melody begins, an abrupt run up and down has exactly the same notes as the cadenza in movement 3 (Presto agitato) of that work. The climax on a six-four chord is similar in both pieces.[2] Also, Fantaisie-Impromptu's middle part and the second movement of the Moonlight Sonata are in D-flat major. The first and third movements are in C-sharp minor.

The piece uses many cross-rhythms (the right hand plays sixteenth notes against the left hand playing triplets) and a ceaselessly moving note figuration and is in cut time (2/2). The opening tempo is marked allegro agitato. The tempo changes to largo and later moderato cantabile when the key changes to D-flat major, the enharmonic equivalent of the more obscure tonic major key of C-sharp major, that is, the parallel major of C-sharp minor. The piece then changes to presto (although some versions of the score incorporate a coda, meaning that the original tempo of allegro agitato is repeated) where it continues in C-sharp minor as before. It concludes in an ambiguous fantasy-like ending, in a quiet and mysterious way, where the left hand replays the first few notes of the moderato section theme, while the right hand continues playing sixteenth notes (semiquavers). The piece resolves and gently ends on a C-sharp major rolled chord.

The melody of the Fantaisie-Impromptu's middle section was used in the popular song "I'm Always Chasing Rainbows". It was also quoted in Variation 10 of Federico Mompou's Variations on a Theme of Chopin, which is otherwise based on Chopin's Prelude No. 7 in A major.

Media

See also

References

  1. ^ IP Music Society. "Piano Recitals; Hubert Rutkowski". Ignacy Paderewski Music Society. http://www.ijpaderewski.org/20901/33601.html. Retrieved 7 December 2011. 
  2. ^ Felix Salzer, Aspects of Schenkerian Analysis, David Beach, ed. Yale University Press, 1983

External links

Book: Frédéric Chopin
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