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Huneker, James, 1860-1921

"Chopin : the Man and His Music"

"
After these words there can be no doubt as to the mode of
delivery. No commentary is required to show that the melodic
and other important tones indicated by means of large notes
must emerge from within the sweetly whispering waves, and that
the upper tones must be combined so as to form a real melody
with the finest and most thoughtful shadings.
The twenty-fourth bar of this study in A major is so Lisztian
that Liszt must have benefited by its harmonies.
"And then he played the second in the book, in F minor, one in
which his individuality displays itself in a manner never to be
forgotten. How charming, how dreamy it was! Soft as the song of a
sleeping child." Schumann wrote this about the wonderful study in
F minor, which whispers, not of baleful deeds in a dream, as does
the last movement of the B flat minor sonata, but is--"the song
of a sleeping child." No comparison could be prettier, for there
is a sweet, delicate drone that sometimes issues from childish
lips, having a charm for ears not attuned to grosser things.


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