Introducing Chopin: Impromptu Op.51 No.3

(This is a continuation of what will hopefully be a series of posts about my favourite Chopin pieces. A video can be found at the end of this post.)

To those who aren't into classical music, I understand if the title of this post scares you a bit. But please, give this wonderful impromptu a chance. I mean, okay, I'll be the first to admit that I have an undiscerning obsession with anything written by Chopin. But I promise to you, this impromptu is good. As in, objectively, wonderfully, chill-inducingly good. But if you are one of those people who are neutral about classical music because you never really had a chance to get into it, I would suggest that first you watch Benjamin Zander's TED talk. It's truly inspiring.

Okay, so are you ready? Are your eyes sufficiently shiny? Great. Let's get you introduced to this marvellous piece.

The first two bars of impromptu op.51 no.3 in G flat major.

Frédéric Chopin. Look at him.
He's so wonderfully Polish.

This impromptu is one of my favourite Chopin pieces at the moment. Out of Chopin's happy, bright, fast-paced works and his expressive, more sombre pieces, this impromptu, played allegro vivace, would fall somewhere in the middle. As you can see, the melody is started in the bass and is carried into the treble. The introduction, like most of the piece, is to be played legatissimo and fast; the melancholy of the melody is introduced with a smooth, flowing simplicity.

There are multiple voices in this piece, providing the complexity and richness customary in a Chopin piece. The flourishes, in the form of grace notes and mordents, add yet more texture to the melody. It surprises me every time that everything manages to fit in so well together. Like the intricate aromas that mix together in the perfect proportions to create a certain smell, these seemingly-insignificant aural details seem calculated to evoke, with a good pianist's interpretation, the perfect emotional expression.

Voices! Multiple voices! Nice, rich, baroque-like complexity.

The chord progressions are also extremely pleasant. They remind me of that elegant transition from the quick main melody and the calming beautiful melody near the middle of Fantasie-imprompu (op.66 no.4). Here's my favourite progression in this impromptu, from the top of the third page:

A wonderful progression.

The melody in this imprompu, held throughout the entire piece, is one of my favourites of all of Chopin's pieces. He continues with variations upon this main theme when the key shifts from Gb+ to C+, and eventually returns to the main theme by the coda. I love how the melody spans from the highest of the high delicate notes to the very deepest rumbling notes of the bass.

We see an example of these delicate high notes in the second measure on the first line; the melody is continued into the tempestuous bass notes in the second line. And we can see from Chopin's marking, "La melodia del basso sempre marcato ma dolce ed expressivo", that the bass notes may be deep and rich, but they are not to be overpowering.

These marcato bass notes that are also dolce ed expressivo is a perfect reflection upon the entire piece as a whole. The expert mixture of the fast and lighthearted with the melancholy and profound is one of Chopin's signature skills. The allure of this impromptu is the way it finds harmony in contrast: agitation and energy; sombre and beauty — they all come together to make a wonderful impromptu.

From Chopinmusic.net:

Chopin’s third impromptu is a shining presentation of extempore beauty. The music is of utmost melancholy, demanding of the interpreter an improvisatory character notwithstanding a technical mastery of some difficult passages. The left-hand melodies are smooth and peaceful, as the piece reaches its climax. The conclusion is a demonstration of great, firm negotiation.

My favourite interpretation of this impromptu that I've heard so far is by Vladimir Sofronitsky:

As always, I recommend listening to the piece while reading at the sheet music (pdf), if possible. Enjoy!

Book recommendation: Catch-22

"It's a wonderful book." —Washington Irving

No but really, Catch-22 is definitely one of my favourites, and I'm very glad I finally read it. It's about Yossarian, a captain during World War II. This book is actually the origin of the term catch-22. Here is one of the instances of this wonderfully-dissonant logic in the novel:

There was only one catch and that was Catch-22, which specified that a concern for one's safety in the face of dangers that were real and immediate was the process of a rational mind. Orr was crazy and could be grounded. All he had to do was ask; and as soon as he did, he would no longer be crazy and would have to fly more missions. Orr would be crazy to fly more missions and sane if he didn't, but if he were sane he had to fly them. If he flew them he was crazy and didn't have to; but if he didn't want to he was sane and had to. Yossarian was moved very deeply by the absolute simplicity of this clause of Catch-22 and let out a respectful whistle.

The novel is very funny, and the non-linear timeline is interesting. It was an extremely entertaining experience—one of those great books that makes you sad after you finish reading it because it's over. In fact, finishing the book was so disappointing that I went back to re-read the best parts (the chapters in Rome are very good). And if that isn't the mark of an excellent novel, then what is?

Catch-22 on Wikipedia
Catch-22 on Amazon (this is an affiliate link; buying it using this link will cost nothing extra for you, but it will allow me to buy more books to review!)
Here is the non-affiliate link. It's the same price, so please consider using my above link!

Introducing Chopin: Etude Op.10 No.11

(This is the first of what will hopefully be a series of posts introducing some of my favourite pieces by my absolute favourite composer, Frederic Chopin. Look out for more, when I have some free time.)

Eleven is not only my favourite number, but Chopin's étude op.10 no.11 is also one of my favourite pieces for the piano. By any composer. Period.

Each and every one of Chopin's études presents a unique technical challenge alongside the beauty and elegance of a Chopin piece, and this étude is no exception. The melody is woven into the relentless rolled chords that is this étude's main feature. It makes your wrists hurt just watching someone play this piece.

When properly executed, this étude, with its flowing legato, its heart-melting rubato, and its intricate harmony, come together to make an unquestionably fantastic listening experience. Valentina Lisitsa's interpretation is among the best ones (if not the best one) I've heard of this piece.

She was kind enough to upload it to YouTube. I hope you enjoy it as much as I do.

Safari Plugins

Because I make stuff for the web, I care a lot about my browsers. I use them all the time for what I do, and I tend to change my default browser just as often. In fact, only a few days ago have I switched from the Firefox beta to the WebKit beta (again).

Anyone coming from Firefox can tell you, however, that plugins, (especially an ad-blocker), are necessities if you ever plan on making the most of your web browser. Seeing as a lot of people either aren’t aware of many of the great Safari plugins out there, or haven’t yet discovered that such plugins exist in the first place, I thought I’d share with you four of my favourite Safari plugins that I wouldn’t be able to browse the web without.

Safari AdBlock

The web is a very noisy, flashy and annoying place without an ad blocker. This one should suit most people's ad-blocking needs perfectly, and blocks almost all advertisements.

SafariStand

SafariStand is like the Swiss Army Knife of Safari plugins. I’m not even close to knowing everything that SafariStand is capable of, but some of my favourite features (among others) are its options to automatically close the downloads window, to use “,” and “.” to switch between tabs, to kill gif animations, and to format-ize the source code view (command-option-u). Awesome? Very.

DeliciousSafari

Del.icio.us bookmarking. What else can I say? (Other than to recommend Chris Thomson’s glowing review of the plugin, that is.)

Inquisitor

Described as “Spotlight for the web”, Inquisitor extends Safari’s existing search box and adds nice, live and pretty search results and suggestions for your query.

Well, that’s it for my list of plugins — there are a lot more plugins listed at Pimp My Safari if you’re interested. Oh, and feel free to share any plugins I didn’t mention that you feel should have made it onto the list!