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Chopin's Singing Piano Tone
Chopin played the piano softly, with a singing tone that imitated the voice. Others bashed and thumped the keys, but Chopin was a master of understatement. In the mid 1800's, piano virtuosi were often distinguished by what they did best. Kalkbrenner was known for his octaves, Liszt for surpassing technique.
Indeed, one of Chopin's favorite composers was Bellini, known for his beautiful, perfectly shaped melodies. Given that Chopin only really liked Bach and Mozart, that is high praise of Bellini, indeed. A melody of haunting beauty is always at the center of Chopin's music, even when there are strenuous pyrotechnics in progress.
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Compare Chopin and Liszt
Chopin uses his counter melodies, those inner parts, to support the melody in a way that shows his intense knowledge and love for the musical biology of Bach. Few other composers of the time bothered to lavish such attention on almost inaudible inner parts. But Chopin did it with care and passion. He lovingly sculpted each voice until their sum made a living breathing whole.
Chopin Was Always Elegant
Chopin's short life drew to a close. He knew he was dying for many years. His melodies became convoluted, tortured and dark. Gone was the shiny brilliance and the childish enthusiasm of his early works, replaced by a brooding, mature romanticism that has a razor sharp inner lining to the bittersweet exterior.
Indeed, there is a streak of anger to his very last works, as if he reproved his fellows for not sharing his early departure. Imagine what we would have heard, had Chopin lived another thirty years!
REFERENCES
Music History
What Killed the Golden Age of the Piano
Carl Tausig Cooks His Cat
I Meet Aaron Copland
George Sand Killed Chopin
Why Brahms Must Have Been Fat
Artur Rubinstein Was A Vampire
Igor Stravinsky Loses His Cool
Vladimir Horowitz Goes To The Racetrack
Beethoven Was No Beauty
The World’s Largest Blue Danube Waltz
Was Mozart Murdered?
Beethoven’s Rage Over A Lost Penny
Franz Schubert, The First Bohemian
Chopin’s Singing Piano Tone
Stravinsky’s Good Luck
Tchaikovsky’s Greatest Fan
Hector Berlioz and the Orchestral Train Wreck
Piano Lessons with Papa Bach
Piano Lessons with Frederic Chopin
The Great Piano Craze of 1910
The American Piano Wars
Why Hugo Wolf Went Insane
Rachmaninoff and the Evolution of Pop Songs
Musical Feuds
Piano In The Past Was Better
The Master’s Hands
Einstein’s Piano
Einstein’s Violin Improvisations In Gypsy Style
A History of Piano and Numbers
Ryan Seacrest’s Piano Concerto #2
I like Chopin and Bach