Its harmonies are closer and there is sorrow abroad.
The incessant circling around one idea, as if obsessed by fixed
grief, is used here for the first, but not for the last time, by
the composer.
Opus 7 drew attention to Chopin. It was the set that brought down
the thunders of Rellstab, who wrote: "If Mr. Chopin had shown
this composition to a master the latter would, it is to be hoped,
have torn it and thrown it at his feet, which we hereby do
symbolically." Criticism had its amenities in 1833. In a later
number of "The Iris," in which a caustic notice appeared of the
studies, op. 10, Rellstab printed a letter, signed Chopin, the
authenticity of which is extremely doubtful. In it Chopin is made
to call the critic "really a very bad man." Niecks demonstrates
that the Polish pianist was not the writer. It reads like the
effusion of some indignant, well meaning female friend.
The B flat major Mazurka which opens op. 7 is the best known of
these dances. There is an expansive swing, a laissez-aller to
this piece, with its air of elegance, that are very alluring.
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