into the exact time of its production
and into the exact meaning of "a few quarter-hours," also leaving it
an open question whether the composer did or did not revise his first
conception of the Variations before sending them to Vienna, I shall
regard this unnumbered work--which, by the way, in the Breitkopf and
Hartel edition is dated 1824--on account of its greater simplicity and
inferior interest, as an earlier composition than the Premier Rondeau
(C minor), Op. 1, dedicated to Mdme. de Linde (the wife of his father's
friend and colleague, the rector Dr. Linde), a lady with whom Frederick
often played duets. What strikes one at once in both of them is
the almost total absence of awkwardness and the presence of a
rarely-disturbed ease. They have a natural air which is alike free from
affected profundity and insipid childishness. And the hand that wrote
them betrays so little inexperience in the treatment of the instrument
that they can hold their ground without difficulty and honourably among
the better class of light drawing-room pieces. Of course, there are
weak points: the introduction to the Variations with those interminable
sequences of dominant and tonic chords accompanying a stereotyped run,
and the want of cohesiveness in the Rondo, the different subjects of
which are too loosely strung together, may be instanced. But, although
these two compositions leave behind them a pleasurable impression,
they can lay only a small claim to originality. Still, there are slight
indications of it in the tempo di valse, the concluding portion of the
Variations, and more distinct ones in the Rondo, in which it is
possible to discover the embryos of forms--chromatic and serpentining
progressions, &c.--which subequently develop most exuberantly. But if on
the one hand we must admit that the composer's individuality is as yet
weak, on the other hand we cannot accuse him of being the imitator of
any one master--such a dominant influence is not perceptible.

[FOOTNOTE: Schumann, who in 1831 became acquainted with Chopin's Op.
2, and conceived an enthusiastic admiration for the composer, must have
made inquiries after his Op. 1, and succeeded in getting it. For on
January 1832, he wrote to Frederick Wieck: "Chopin's first work (I
believe firmly that it is his tenth) is in my hands: a lady would
say that it was very pretty, very piquant, almost Moschelesque. But
I believe you will make Clara [Wieck's daughter, afterwards Mdme.
Schu