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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Impromptu was composed around 1834 but published only after the composer’s death, contrary to his express wish that all unpublished works and sketches should be burned.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.
Étude Op. 25, No. 11 is a study for developing stamina, dexterity, and technique – essential skills for any concert pianist. It begins with a piano introduction of the main melody. The first theme follows, consisting of tumultuous cascades of semiquaver-tuplets (sixteenth-note-tuplets) and a leaping figure for the left hand in the relative major, C major, which shortly segues into a repetition of the first theme. It finishes with a short development into a fortissimo coda, and ends with one final statement of the theme.
A bit of a different tack today on the Sunday Disservice, but I think you’ll like what you see. One of the selling points of religious belief is the “spiritual-transcendental” angle; being a part of something that is bigger than you and yet speaks to you in a very special way in your heart. The deluded would like you to believe that they have cornered the market on this experience. As usual, the reality-challenged have it wrong.
Benjamin Zander, explores the idea that classical music has this very same quality, to bring us the big picture experience that is in tune with our hearts, but instead of using magic and the Oooga-booga, he uses Chopin.
The TED talk that Zander hosts has nothing to do with the anti-religious preamble I’ve raised, but I’m thinking that Chopin and other classical music, is a great short cut for experiencing an important part of spiritual life without all the frippery associated with dedicated religious belief.
bleatmop
Mystro
Dead Wild Roses 
Your opinions…