" He has also something to say about holding "the
hand sideways, so that the back of the hand and arm form an
angle. "This question of hand position, particularly in Chopin,
is largely a matter of individual formation. No two hands are
alike, no two pianists use the same muscular movements. Play
along the easiest line of resistance.
We now have reached a study, the third, in which the more
intimately known Chopin reveals himself. This one in E is among
the finest flowering of the composer's choice garden. It is
simpler, less morbid, sultry and languorous, therefore saner,
than the much bepraised study in C sharp minor, No. 7, op. 25.
Niecks writes that this study "may be counted among Chopin's
loveliest compositions." It combines "classical chasteness of
contour with the fragrance of romanticism." Chopin told his
faithful Gutmann that "he had never in his life written another
such melody," and once when hearing it raised his arms aloft and
cried out: "Oh, ma patrie!"
I cannot vouch for the sincerity of Chopin's utterance for as
Runciman writes: "They were a very Byronic set, these young men;
and they took themselves with ludicrous seriousness.
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