Part 17 (2/2)

Let it be clearly understood, therefore, that the damper pedal--popularly but erroneously called the ”loud pedal”--has nothing to do with ”noise” as such Its purpose is to amplify and color the waves of sound and these waves radation of pianoforte tone is caused by the amount of force hich the hammer strikes the wires; and this power is applied by the attack and pressure of the fingers The damper pedal will, to be sure, reinforce fortissiically it is only a _means_ of _reinforcement_ and should never be used so that a mere ”roar of sound” is produced The norht forth in connection with the daain an effect of intentional coolness and dryness do we see in pianoforte literature the direction ”senza pedal”; passages socontrast to highly colored ones[219]

[Footnote 219: For a co treatise on the pedals and their artistic use, see the aforesaid two volu (G Schirmer, New York)]

An iently used, is the pedal employed by the left foot; that popularly known as the ”soft pedal,” but of which the technical narand pianoforte the whole key-board is shi+fted froht, so that the haroup of three, and the third wire of the set is left free to vibrate syical quality of tone is produced, especially in the upper ranges of the instrues played forte or fortissi of a violin The effect is analogous to that of a viol d'amour which has, as is well known (stretched underneath the strings, which produce the actual tone) a set of additional strings, freely vibrating Although this ”una corda”[220] pedal may be used in a dynamic sense to reduce, as it were, the size of the instrument, its chief purpose is coloristic, _ie_, to make possible a _special quality_ of tone This statement is proved by directions in pianoforte literature as far back as Beethoven, in whose Sonatas we find the dynamic marks of _f_ and _ff_ coupled with the proscribed use of the una corda pedal In any case, this left-foot pedal should not be abused; for, just because the tone quality produced thereby is so beautiful and characteristic, it soon becoradation of tone is priers, _ie_, the touch The damper pedal is for sonority and color; the una corda for special shades, and all three factors--touch and the two pedals--are combined in pianistic effects which only a trained technique and artistic judgulate[221]

[Footnote 220: The term dates from the period when this pedal controlled three shi+fts: una corda, due corde and tre corde; the has The whole _, _ie_, the shoving along--so frequent in Schuel als Prophet_ from the _Waldscenen_, op 82, No 7]

[Footnote 221: American pianofortes also have apedal,” by which tones in the lower register reat value, though there are occasional passages, _eg_, the closing measures of the second movement of Cesar Franck's _Violin Sonata_, where it ht analysis of Chopin's style proves that it is based upon logical inferences, drawn froenerated and reinforced by the very nature of the pianoforte Fro of the lower tones of the series Chopin derived the extended grouping of his arpeggios, _eg_,

[Music]

[Music: Prelude, No 19]

so that the _chord_ of the _10th_, instead of the for within the octave, may be considered the basis of his harain wasfeature of Chopin's style is found in those groups of spray-like, superadded notes hich the melody is embellished It is evident, in many cases at least, that these tones are not merely embroidery in the ordinary sense Rather do they represent a reinforcement of the overtones, ideally or actually present, in connection with bass tones and chords used in the lower part of theseries of descending non-harmonic tones in the Coda of the _B major Nocturne_, op 9, No 3, and note the delicate colors in the closing arpeggio chord (to be played with a free use of both pedals)

[Footnote 222: For a coe see DG Mason's essay on Chopin in _The Roeneral, Chopin's style is homophonic--wondrous lyric melodies which seem to float on waves of richly colored sound But there is also htful phrases in inner voices and imitative effects between the different parts In coely on a polyphonic basis) Chopin is a decidedly ho and instructive reading on Chopin is available and the folloorks are especially recommended: _Chopin, the Man and his Music_ by Huneker; the _Life of Chopin_ by Niecks; the essay on Chopin in Mason's _Romantic Composers_ and in Hadow's _Studies in Modern Music_; the volume on Chopin by Elie Poiree in the series _Les Musiciens Celebres_; and the same by Louis Laloy in the series _Les Maitres de la Musique_; the _Life_ by Liszt (well known andfrom a contemporary and brother musician); finally a somewhat rhapsodic essay by HT Finck in _Chopin and Other Essays_

[Footnote 223: For a detailed analysis of ar Still thoroughly representative, the folloorks for comment: the first Prelude, the A-flat major etude, the F-sharp minor Mazurka, the E-flat minor Polonaise, the Barcarolle and the C-sharp minor Scherzo[224]

[Footnote 224: To save space, no one of these pieces except the Barcarolle is given in the Supplement, since they are readily accessible The _Barcarolle_, however, is given in order to h it is one of the most inspired and beautifully expressed of all Chopin's works, it is heard comparatively seldom The best editions of the works are those of Kullak, Mikuli and Klindworth]

PRELUDE IN C MAJOR, OP 28, NO 1

This Prelude, the first of the set of 24, is an excellent exaained from widely extended chords in the bass; by the use--characteristically bold--of dissonances ( measures, in which a wonderful wave of sound is produced through the da of the tonic, dominant and subdominant chords The prelude is a kind of intensified Bach and may well be coins the immortal well-tempered Clavichord All the Preludes, for their poetic import, finished style and pianistic effect, are masterpieces of the first rank Schule's feathers, all strangely internize the hand of Frederic Chopin; he is the boldest, the proudest poet-soul of his time”

eTUDE IN A-FLAT MAJOR, OP 25, NO 1

This etude, deservedly popular, may be considered the example _par excellence_ of Chopin's style The lyric beauty of therhapsodic coine that an Aeolian harp possessed all the musical scales, and that the hand of an artist were to cause thele in all sorts of fantastic embellishments, yet in such a way as to leave everywhere audible a deep funda upper voice, and you will get about the right idea But it would be an error to think that Chopin, in playing this etude, permitted every one of the small notes to be distinctly heard It was rather an undulation of the A-flat major chord, here and there thrown aloft by the pedal

Throughout the harreat tones a wondrous melody, while once only, in the , a tenor voice beca ca seen in a dream a beatific picture which, when already half awake, one would gladly once more recall”

MAZURKA IN F-SHARP MINOR, OP 6, NO 1

As Franz Liszt says in his life of Chopin, ”The Mazurka is not only a dance, it is a national poem, and like all poe flah the transparent veil of popular melody” The chief peculiarity of the Mazurka (which is always in triple rhythm, with a latitude in speed from Presto to Mesto) is the sche systematically transferred to the second and third beats We also find in the Mazurka frequent indications for the use of the so-called ”tempo rubato,” a proper conception of which is so essential in the performance of Chopin'sborrowed tiid, scholastic bonds As Huneker well says, ”Chopin must be played in curves” with emotional freedom; just as the heart, when excited, increases the speed of its pulsations, and in moments of calm and depression slon The jerky, really unrhyth of certain perfor from _palpitation_ of the heart Liszt's description of the rubato is estive: ”A wind plays in the leaves, life unfolds and develops beneath thely, the ground rhythh varied with subtle, and yet logical fluctuations

POLONAISE IN E-FLAT MINOR, OP 26, NO 11

The Polonaise[225] is the great national dance of the Poles; an ieant in which, as Liszt says, ”The noblest traditional feelings of ancient Poland are represented” This dance--or rather, processional march--is always in triple rhythm and based on a definite rhythmic fors are also a characteristic feature, _eg_, the cadence in the well known military Polonaise in A major:

[Music]