Description
The twelfth and final study of Op. 10. The nickname comes from the tradition that Chopin wrote it in Stuttgart immediately after hearing that Warsaw had fallen to the Russian army — but there is no record of him saying so, and the name is not his. The piece is dated to around 1831.
In C minor and common time, it is the left hand that defines the piece: a passage that races up and down the low register without stopping from first bar to last, while the right hammers chords and a dotted-rhythm melody above it. Where most studies train the right hand, everything here is asked of the left.
It lasts only about two minutes but is among the most exhausting of advanced pieces. The left hand's sixteenths never stop, and the moment the wrist locks it cannot continue. Put release ahead of speed: get the left hand even on its own at a slow tempo first. Produce the right hand's accents with arm weight rather than striking, and the sound stays clean.
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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