announcements of his having composed studies. On the 20th of October he
writes: "I have composed a study in my own manner"; and on the 14th of
November: "I have written some studies." From Karasowski learn that
the master composed the twelfth study of Op. 10 during his stay in
Stuttgart, being inspired by the capture of Warsaw by the Russians,
which took place on September 8, 1831. Whether looked at from the
aesthetical or technical point of view, Chopin's studies will be seen
to be second to those of no composer. Were it not wrong to speak of
anything as absolutely best, their excellences would induce one to call
them unequalled. A striking feature in them compared with Chopin's other
works is their healthy freshness and vigour. Even the slow, dreamy, and
elegiac ones have none of the faintness and sickliness to be found
in not a few of the composer's pieces, especially in several of the
nocturnes. The diversity of character exhibited by these studies is very
great. In some of them the aesthetical, in others the technical purpose
predominates; in a few the two are evenly balanced: in none is either
of them absent. They give a summary of Chopin's ways and means, of
his pianoforte language: chords in extended positions, wide-spread
arpeggios, chromatic progressions (simple, in thirds, and in octaves),
simultaneous combinations of contrasting rhythms, &c--nothing is
wanting. In playing them or hearing them played Chopin's words cannot
fail to recur to one's mind: "I have composed a study in my own manner."
Indeed, the composer's demands on the technique of the executant were
so novel at the time when the studies made their first public appearance
that one does not wonder at poor blind Rellstab being staggered, and
venting his feelings in the following uncouthly-jocular manner: "Those
who have distorted fingers may put them right by practising these
studies; but those who have not, should not play them, at least not
without having a surgeon at hand." In Op. 10 there are three studies
especially noteworthy for their musical beauty. The third (Lento ma
non troppo, in E major) and the sixth (Andante, in E flat minor) may be
reckoned among Chopin's loveliest compositions. They combine classical
chasteness of contour with the fragrance of romanticism. And the twelfth
study (Allegro con fuoco, in C minor), the one composed at Stuttgart
after the fall of Warsaw, how superbly grand! The composer seems to be
fuming with rage: the l