Description
The opening study of Op. 25. Schumann likened its sound to an aeolian harp — the stringed instrument that sounds of itself in the wind — and the name stuck. Written in the mid-1830s, some years after Op. 10, it belongs to a set of markedly more lyrical character.
In A-flat major and common time, both hands keep up broken chords throughout, with the melodic notes placed at the top of each figure. The melody is not written as an independent voice: it is embedded in ceaselessly moving figuration, and lifting it out is the player's work.
That is precisely the task — sounding the broken chords evenly while letting only the melodic notes rise through finger weight. Played at a uniform volume, all one hears is a mist of harmony. Change the pedal with each harmony so the resonance layers without blurring. What this study tests is not speed but the ability to build strata of tone.
A collection of études by various composers, including Chopin's famous "Revolutionary" Étude, designed to build finger independence and expressive technique.
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Sheet music provided by Mutopia Project
About the Composer
Frédéric Chopin (1810-1849)
Frederic Chopin was born in Poland and made his career in Paris, remaining unusual among great composers for writing almost exclusively for piano. He poured his longing for his homeland into mazurkas and polonaises, while his ballades and etudes combine poetic melody with harmonic innovation. This site includes the "Revolutionary" and other etudes, Ballades No. 1 and No. 4, nocturnes, and the Preludes, Op. 28.
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