atment of the pianoforte is more perfectly illustrated
in the more difficult examples of his style. These, I may add, are no
longer the utmost limit of pianoforte difficulty, as they were at the
time when written; later writers have passed considerably beyond even
the most difficult works of Chopin. But for pianists in general some
of the Chopin works still remain along the farthest borders of their
art.

Among the most striking peculiarities of Chopin's style are, perhaps:
first, melodiousness, combined with a certain melancholy, almost
morbid, mood; second, pleasing running work, especially for the right
hand, generally overlying an entirely simple bass, or a bass
essentially simple upon the harmonic side but broken or modified so as
to conceal this fact from the superficial observer. All his later life
Chopin was an invalid or semi-invalid, and much of his music
illustrates a certain feverishness and morbidness of temperament.

The originality of Chopin shows best, perhaps, in his polonaises,
ballads, preludes, and nocturnes; but the two sonatas, while presenting
marked differences from those of the older writers, are, nevertheless,
tone-poems of strong originality. Practically, he may be said to have
invented the polonaise, the nocturne, and the ballad. The preludes are
short pieces of marked originality and expression, which have always
seemed to me like chips struck off in working at something else. Very
likely they may have been beginnings of larger works which were never
completed. Possibly they may have never been intended to reach any
larger dimensions than those in which we find them. First, his
polonaises.

The polonaise, as perfected by Chopin, is a composition in 3/4 measure,
having really six beats to the measure, arranged in three twos; the
second of these six beats is divided, and there is an extra accent upon
the fifth.

Moreover, this rhythm must be kept quite strictly, like a march, for a
march the polonaise is in its general characteristics, rather than a
dance properly so called. The fanciful description of the polonaise
given by Liszt in his memoir of Chopin may be taken as in the main
correct. He says:

"While listening to some of the polonaises of Chopin we can almost
catch the firm, nay the more than firm, the heavy, resolute tread of
men bravely facing all the bitter injustice which the most cruel and
relentless destiny can offer with the manly pride of unblenching
courage.