Chopin, Frederick

International Music Score Library Project [IMSLP] entry: Fryderyk Chopin

Fryderyk Chopin (1810-1849) was the great Polish composer of many of the most famous piano pieces ever written. Many books have been written about him, and I suggest that rather than read a pithy paragraph by me, readers would do better to start [eg] with his Wiki entry.

Please note: I am not a good enough pianist to do justice to his more poetic works, especially as the necessary subtle changes of tempo in the RH -- tempo rubato -- while the LH accompaniment keeps to a relatively uniform tempo do not lend themselves to good sequencing. In addition, I see no point in reproducing [and perhaps ruining] here pieces for which many excellent recordings are available. Sorry, Chopin fans! So Chopin is, and will remain, thinly represented in my sequencing.

Piece	MP3	Midi	Genre
Nocturne in C minor		MIDI	CD1 piano classical
	This is Chopin's 21st Nocturne, the last to be published [1938!], more than a century after its composition in 1837. [Other Chopin pieces are still being discovered and published, even into the 21stC.] It has a much simpler, folky, style than most of his nocturnes. Sequenced from the Instytut Fryderyka Chopina [Warsaw] edition, edited by Paderewski, from a copy kindly loaned by Malgosia Jaroszkiewicz. Note: This is a PD edition in the UK and most of the world, but is still under copyright in the USA. IMSLP has an earlier edition of the piece, when it was [mis]attributed to Charlotte de Rothschild, a pupil of Chopin's, which is PD everywhere.
Tarantelle		MIDI	CD1 piano classical virtuoso
	The Tarantelle in A-flat major, Op. 43, is not exactly unknown, but it is less played, perhaps for good reason, than some of Chopin's pieces. It was composed and published in 1841. Marked Presto. Sequenced from the Augener's Edition, book 2 of the compete piano works, revised by C. Klindworth and X. Scharwenka; compared also with the more definitive Paderewki edition. The rather hectic pace matches Ashkenazy's recording and Chopin's instructions [which include repeated urgings to play louder, always louder, and faster, always faster]. Most performers take it somewhat more sedately. Note that long before the end the metronome is too fast for Cakewalk, so I have sequenced it at 2/3 speed and set to play back at 3/2 marked speed. This affects only the Midi version; which should be OK, but if it takes 4 1/2 mins instead of the expected 3, there's the reason. Sorry! If your Midi player allows you to play a piece faster, or if you are up to editing the Midi, you can correct it, otherwise you're SOL.

See also two other references to Chopin in these pages, the Hommage a Chopin by Bendel, and Chopin, one of the pieces in Schumann's Carnaval.

For more information about MP3 and Midi files, and especially for why they may not work well, or even at all, on your computer, tablet, smartphone or browser, see here.
To see/hear pieces sorted by genre, click on a link under Genre.
To go back to the full list of pieces, click here.
Where applicable, the link above under Wiki entry will give you a biography of the composer; and the IMSLP link is to a page with available scores and online performances relating to the composer.
For general information about copyright and performance restrictions, see here.

Andy Walker, anw [at] cuboid4.me.uk [remove digit to construct address]