We’ll quietly file this under things that I won’t be able to play anytime soon. :)
Chopin’s Fantaisie Impromptu in c sharp minor is a technically difficult but also very fun piece to play, and it’s easy to see why it’s among Chopin’s most famous and popular works. It is interesting to note that the middle section was used in the song I’m Always Chasing Rainbows, which was a very popular song in 1918.
Fantasie Impromptu was composed around 1834 but published only after the composer’s death, contrary to his express wish that all unpublished works and sketches should be burned. The version that is heard most often was prepared from Chopin’s sketches by his friend Julian Fontana.
It is a relatively short piece in ABA form. The A section has a sweeping melody of sixteenth notes running up and down the keyboard, accompanied by triplet arpeggios in the left hand. It’s very fast and almost a little chaotic, while the softer middle section with its wonderful cantilena provides a good overall balance to the piece. The coda begins passionately, but calms down little by little, reintroducing the theme from the middle section in the left hand. The work ends peacefully.
bleatmop
Mystro
The Arbourist
Dead Wild Roses 
5 comments
July 22, 2016 at 5:33 am
roughseasinthemed
I do like Chopin, I’ve got quite a few albums.
Early in their courting days, which is what people of my parents’ generation referred to it as, my father helpfully pointed out they were listening to ‘I’m always chasing rainbows’. My mother witheringly replied, ‘You mean Chopin’s Fantaisie Impromptu’. I think they had a similar conversation around Borodin’s Polovstian Dances and Stranger in Paradise. They were married 51 years.
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July 22, 2016 at 9:45 am
The Arbourist
@RSitM
Do you play his music a well? Most of the stuff I’ve seen is this impenetrable wall of black. I have trouble seeing the staff for heavens sake. :)
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July 23, 2016 at 5:31 am
roughseasinthemed
No. The most I’ve ever played on a piano is Für Elise, and that was just done by feel in a holiday cottage that had a piano. I would have liked to have learned though. I did ask my parents if I could learn, but I don’t think fancied buying a piano. Shame. It would have gone nicely in the bay window in the sitting room. I should imagine Chopin is not easy though, especially to play well.
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July 23, 2016 at 8:05 am
The Arbourist
@RSitM
It is never too late to start. Playing the piano can bring so much joy to one’s life.
This just happened. I was sitting practicing some of my scales and, on a break, was flipping through one of my music books. I stopped at Beethoven’s piano sonata #14 – one that I’ve always looked at but could never even attempt – shrugged flexed the fingers and then this happened – https://youtu.be/OsOUcikyGRk – now only the first half of the first movement, and slow and wonky as heck, but it was happening around me…
You can’t buy that feeling/expression of emotion anywhere.
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July 23, 2016 at 8:14 am
roughseasinthemed
I agree, it’s not. I even bought a teach yourself saxophone book some years ago with the full intention of buying one and learning. I did think it might piss off the neighbours though. Ironically my neighbour upstairs has one and my neighbours innSpain now play the trumpet tuba (I think). As for piano, my current excuse is no money and no space. I’ve still got my recorders though :D
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