Chopin and me
My favorite composer is Chopin. My love for his music began when I was a four-year-old child in dance class, although I didn’t know it was Chopin at the time. All I knew was that the music I heard—performed on a tinkly old piano by my British dance teacher, who never looked at the instrument at all but watched us like a hawk as she played—was part of the reason I loved the lessons so much.
It never occurred to me at the time that the music had a composer; it just seemed to spring from the piano and my teacher’s hands, fully formed. But later on I’d hear a familiar piece on the radio or at a concert, and it was attributed to Chopin. Then I’d hear another, and think, “Oh, that’s Chopin too; what a coincidence!” That led to the slowly dawning realization that a great deal of that dance music I had loved was also Chopin.
By the time I came to purchase some of my very first records (I was in graduate school at the time, because until then I hadn’t had discretionary funds for such frivolities—how strange does that seem, in this day and age?), Chopin led the way. The waltzes were acquired first, followed in short order by his nocturnes. Then I got a boxed set of his entire oeuvre, and still have it somewhere, even though I no longer have a record player setup.
I had quit piano lessons around the age of nine, before I had mastered much of anything except the early John Thompson books. But in graduate school I lived in a house with four other women and an upright piano. In my spare time (mostly gained by procrastination on my work) I decided I would learn to play a piece by Chopin.
I bought the sheet music to his waltzes. And that’s when I learned that this was going to be a lot harder than I had thought. There were a great many notes there, and a great many sharps and flats, far beyond what John Thompson had prepared me for.
But I persevered. I taught myself one of Chopin’s waltzes, measure by laborious measure, over about a year’s time (yes, I was/am a strange sort). I chose this particular one not only because I liked it, but because it was in the least complicated key (no sharps! no flats!) and had a deceptively simple beginning.
The piece was Opus 34-2, and I knew it cold after a year of that lengthy learning process. For about a decade afterward, I could have played it in my sleep—which didn’t make me Horowitz, although it made me a one-trick pony sensation at gatherings that included a piano:
Somewhere along the line I lost access to a piano, and my skills degenerated. But at my peak I had also mastered the fast part of this one (it begins at 00:56 and repeats later). I got pretty good at it; practice makes—better. But it sure didn’t make me Rubinstein:
Or Horowitz:
Now the fast passage is one I would have liked to have witnessed.
Yes, the is nothing like the Rubenstein! The Rubinestein can pound the Horowitz into the ground!
Cold wimp that Horowitz!
Ironic that you haven’t access to a piano, and that there may still be people who would like one. My mother has our 110-year-old Packard upright, in pretty good shape for not having been tuned since the Nixon era, and though it would cost $600 to have it professionally moved to me, I would not be able to give it away. Which is what I will likely try to do anyhow.
Well I am 0ot surprised that you have such good taste.
Let me recommend some of the smaller (and later) piano works by Brahms.
You may like them as well.
A while back I bought a box set of Chopin’s works @$2/CD. His work has an improvised, jazzy feel to it, compared to other classical composers. When I listen to Chopin I have the impulse to do some scat singing along with the piano. His left hand has more emphasis than a lot of post-Baroque composers, giving his work a polyphonic tinge. Chopin apparently took to heart his exposure to Bach when he was a piano student. IOW, it could be said that Chopin’s works have a unique signature.
Neo, you are to be commended for taking up piano again as an adult.
You might well be wrong about losing those skills. I have been a musician of sorts for many years, mostly guitar, drums and keyboard. Until a couple of years ago, I hadn’t played drums in over thirty years and up to month ago had not picked up a guitar in 10 years. To my surprise the old “use it or lose” adage has not applied to me. I’m better player in both instances than I ever was before. Perhaps I’ve gained something in my maturity in terms of what I hear and how I apply it. That’s the only thing I can conclude. Bottom line- you might surprise yourself. And in the era of realistic feeling and sounding digital pianos, setting yourself up with one ain’t very painful on the pocketbock. You might want to think about doing your part to help Obama to stimulate the economy and pick one up!
Oops! Damn quick trigger finger- that’s “use it or lose it”!
Chopin over Schumann’s Kinderszenen? Not for me…My mother played both on her upright when we were kids, and I did not realize how capable a pianist she’d been until years after her death. What great debts I owe her, that I can never thank her for except in prayer.
An obscure but entirely wonderful and moving work is Mozart’s Divertimento. K.563. Not piano, but wow!
Neo,
If you were/are a strange sort, then I must be too.
I took a few piano lessons as a child but soon lost interest. About 10 years ago for some reason I had the urge to learn to play Bach’s Toccata and Fugue in D minor on the organ. I bought my kids a nice Yamaha keyboard that had a really good “pipe organ” sound and proceeded to practice this piece for several weeks. I eventually got pretty good at the first 3 pages (out of 20) minus of course the foot pedal notes. That’s as far as I got, although I impressed a few people by playing the beginning of that piece from memory.
I learned up to about 1:48 in the clip below:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ipzR9bhei_o
Here’s an old favorite of mine. Like Neo, I worked my way through some of the John Thompson books, but nowhere near far enough to play anything worth listening to. My daughter, however, inherited her piano chops from Mr Whatsit rather than from me, and she plays it beautifully:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ejXPcv9MS7s
Also, if we’re going to discuss favorite piano pieces, I’d be remiss not to include this. Quite different from Chopin, certainly — but, as Tom puts it, wow!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c4Zc8SonNBQ&feature=fvw
Although a Mozart and Beethoven fan for classical, (and I can’t imagine what the original audiences must have thought when they first heard that incredible music) Chic Corea amazes me beyond words.
The gift of genius given to incredible composers, their understanding of each individual instrument, its nuances, how they sound as “sections”, and how they sound as a complete orchestra, is mind boggling.
I, too, did a bit of John Thompson when I was a kid, but not much–looks like there were a lot of us! I always wanted to learn to play, though. So when I was in my late 30s, we got an old Baldwin Hamilton and I started lessons from our church music director. I worked hard–practiced about 6 or more hours a day, mostly while the kids were at school and after they went to bed–and, in about 2 years, mastered 7 of the Bach 2-part inventions, a Haydn sonata, a couple of movements from Ravel’s Le Tombeau de Couperin, and Chopin’s Nocturne, Opus 37, No. 1, plus a few assorted other things. It was very much worth it, and I still play sometimes. I’ll never grace a stage, but I urge anyone with similar desires at a later age to push yourself! You won’t be sorry.
Great story. I vaguely recall reading about a similar endeavor by William F. Buckley deciding to learn to play a Bach piece, and have several times in the past tried without success to find the article/book. Can anyone help?
My personal favorite by Chopin is probably the Nocturne in E-flat major, Opus 9, No. 2.
When in college during finals week, the only music I could stand to have playing in the background while I crammed was his second piano sonata (“Funeral March”). Probably had something to do with the underlying theme, sort of a warning about what I faced if I didn’t start hitting the books.
Horowitz a cold wimp? I don’t know, but the notes flowing from his fingers are anything but.
Thanks Neo, you’ve inspired me to attempt a Chopin something again.
I have a question for those here who’ve done some playing: Do you find that there’s a difference between working to learn a piece and being able to sight-read? I was never able to get very good at sight reading. I could play things quite well, but only after hours and hours of practice (I still was reading, not memorizing–but couldn’t play anything on first look) . Richard, my teacher and friend, was an excellent sight-reader–even on a 3-manual organ and pedals. He said it was a separate skill. I tend to agree with him–no matter how much I worked, I was never able to just sit down and read something on a first try. I’ve wondered whether it might have something to do with the age at which one starts. Any thoughts?
For me it has to be Schubert, do you know his last three sonatas? Music from heaven.
James J. Allen: on Buckley and music. He was considerably more advanced than I was.
betsybounds: Musician friends of mine say that it is easier to sight-read if you learn as a child. I can only sight-read the right hand, and only if it has no sharps and flats or maybe just one.
Neo – for you; my favorite waltz.
Forgot:
I quit at 10, mostly because my family moved to a city without a musical school (a very new, baby city) then. Before that I had been spending 4 hrs minimum at the instrument at home, and another 2-3- in musical school (instrument+solfeggio+ theory+history), started when I was 6yo. Oh how happy I was when there was no more piano classes!
Bit I don’t think Ive progressed to Chopin. “Etudes” Cherni – yes, but Chopin…I don’t think my teacher would entrusted me with him.
But now I miss my mahogany Zimmerman. And that concentration, when technical difficulty of a piece is more or less over, and then comes the time to think and feel it…
Tatyana: thanks. That piece is the same one that Rubinstein is performing in the You Tube clip above.
I saw Ulanova in person when I was a child. Pretty special. I also performed the Prelude in Les Sylphides at a summer arts camp I attended when I was 14. I still remember most of the choreography. It was wonderful stuff to attempt!
Neo: I envy you- to dance Chopiniana!
One of my favorite records of Chopin’s waltzes was made by Bella Davidovich; it was full collection (of all his waltzes). I still remember the sleeve.
I wasn’t able to find it, even one from the collection, on youtube to show you. But if you see it anywhere – it’s worth your try.
betsybounds, re playing something at first sight read: that would take a certain level of proficiency. For example: as a piano student you practice a piece every day for a week , separate hands, then both hands. For you to be able to sight read immediately, you would be better off looking at a piece that was at a lower level of difficulty.
One thing that helps in sight reading is to learn some musical theory, so that for example, you can recognize that something in the left hand is a G major dominant 7th chord ( I think that is correct terminology, it’s been so long). If you want to sight read, learn some theory. Instead of seeing notes, you see some structure behind them. Most piano teachers don’t spend that much time on theory- it’s rather “let’s get this piece done,” so you have to pick up a lot of that on your own.
I lot of “fake books” will just have the melody with the chords listed in general terms, like B-flat7th, leaving it up to you to break it up as you see fit. I will say it again: learn some musical theory. You might try “How to Play The Piano Despite Years of Lessons.” or John Mehegan’s books on Jazz piano. ( As I haven’t played in years, consider this “do as I say, not as I do.)
You learn the chords by fooling around on the piano, not by writing them down. Fool around, fool around, fool around.
I took three years of piano lessons in high school, and played on my own for several years after that until a year without access to a piano cut it off. My sight reading at first sight was generally only one hand at a time. I much preferred playing by ear, including putting in the left hand.
I love this site and your forays into the music and dance of your youth is one of the reasons. It’s funny, none of that was important to me but I get pleasure from your pleasure in remembering.
Along with a lack of grandchildren my poor mother also had to put up with 3 non musical children, this in a house with 2 fine pianos. LOL, you would be a perfect daughter for her or daughter in law.
My mother is a bit of a packrat and between the children is an unwritten rule to give gifts of consumables, she already has many of everything. A few years ago I hired a classical musician to come to the house and play for her as a birthday present. No warning or announcement, I just made sure she would be home and the gal showed up out of the blue and played for my mother. I received phonecalls from relations all over the country the next week congratulating me on the fine present I got for my mom. I’ll never be able to top that, you can only get lightning in a bottle once…if that. Thank you for your site.
Curious. I learned how to play Terry Wogan’s brilliant floral dance masterpiece on my harpsicord as a young lad.
Amused Observer… my children may think of that some day. I hope.
Gringo — a knowledge of theory is even more important when it comes to improv… I have a book of Hank Williams songs that give the basic chord and melody… and I delight in embellishing these in an old-fashioned “churchy jazz… honky-tonk…” style. I don’t know what to call it, but my father likes it 🙂
Age at first lesson might have a lot to do with sight-reading. I started at age 6 with a very fine teacher who started me on theory at the very beginning. A willingness to bluff is also helpful 🙂
My mother forced me to learn music and take piano lesson at 8 or 9. My older brother didn’t mind.
I remember I was crying on the floor. She said ‘no way’. Then later, I had to take ballet classes. I didn’t cry but didn’t fit neither. See, I was born cow-boy. And had to follow my own flow. Which took me years by the way.
I was bad at both. I still have anxieties when I see notes. Or hear Chopin. What a waste.
Other than that I always loved music and know art and beauty when I see it.
And I love my mother. With time, she gave up on us. What else one can do?
I’m with Neo on the sight reading–I tend to think it has to do with how early you learned. By sight reading, I mean being able to open up, say, a hymnal to a random page, look at the music, and play the whole thing, both hands, no pauses or hesitations. I can read music, I practiced scales until they were coming out my ears, I play Bach 2-part inventions with ease–having practiced the hell out of them. That takes proficiency, and I have a fair bit of it. I’ve worked on parts of the Goldberg Variations. I once asked Richard if he could give me some easy Bach. He answered, “Bach never wrote anything easy.” So inability to sight read isn’t a matter of lacking proficiency, or of not understanding scales or theory. I think it’s simply not the same skill as being able to play, and I think–with Neo and a couple of others here–that it probably has a fair bit to do with how early you learn.
Old (and possibly apocryphal) story: Rubinstein and violin great Isaac Stern are at a concert. One of the performers is a then-unknown violinist named Yitzhak Perlman. Perlman plays a couple of selections in the style and virtuosity that will shortly make him famous, and Stern turns to Rubinstein and asks: “Is it getting warm in here?” Rubinstein answers: “Not for pianists”.
For pure piano music, Chopin is tough to beat. For piano with orchestra, I’ll take either Beethoven or Mozart.
waltj, great story, but it didn’t happen with Perlman, Stern and Rubinstein. It involved the U.S. debut (Carnegie Hall) of the teen-age Jascha Heifetz. The “New York music world” came out to hear whether the stories about this fantastic violinist were true. Among the attendees were the violinist Mischa Elman sitting with and the pianist Leopold Godowsky. After Heifetz played a few bars, Elman reportedly whispered to Godowsky, “hot in here, isn’t it”, to which Godowsky replied, “not for pianists”.
Among the many Heifetz stories, not all of them about a warm and fuzzy personality, my favorite involves his spending summer months on USO tours entertaining US troops during WWII. He would perform from the back of a camouflaged truck accompanied by a pianist playing on a camouflaged piano. The performances included Berlin and Gershwin songs and jazz. For an encore he once (probably more often) told the GIs “I will now play a work by Johann Sebastian Bach and, like spinach, it is good for you.” When he finished the audience yelled, “more spinach!”.
I submit this video to any who places value in the claim that Horowitz was a “cold wimp.” The nod at the end is not one of a man who feels, shall we say… like he could have done more :p
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qnla_5zrHAE
And to further the evidence, check out his version of Sousa’s Stars and Stripes Forever:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j3i1mVkqI34
Yes, he’s playing all three staves in much of the song. I have no idea how he plays that flute part along with the melody at about 3:15.
Zfredz, I stand corrected. My guess is that the original story gets retold from time to time with contemporary names. But I agree, it’s still a great story. And yes, J.S. Bach also had a few things to say on the piano.
Sorry, meant violin.