Chopin - Étude Op. 10, No. 1 in C major "Waterfall"

Étude Op. 10, No.1 in C major, composed by Frédéric Chopin, is a technical study in reach and arpeggios for the piano. It also focuses on stretching the fingers. Sometimes it is known as the "Waterfall" étude. It was composed in 1829, and first published in 1833, in France, Germany, and England. In a prefatory note to the 1916 Schirmer edition the American music critic James Huneker (18571921) compared the "hypnotic charm" that these "dizzy acclivities and descents exercise for eye as well as ear" to the frightening staircases in Giovanni Battista Piranesi's prints of the Carceri d'invenzione.

Structure
The work is executed at an Allegro tempo. The time-signature Common time is according to the first French, English, and German editions. Chopin's own manuscript reads Cut time.

The right hand gauntlet consists entirely of broad arpeggios in semiquavers (sixteenth notes) on modulating scales. The left hand plays the deep melody in slow, droning octaves.

The main difficulty of this piece is playing the etude accurately at its suggested tempo (quarter note equals 176). Given the lack of rests, the challenge lies in playing the entire etude accurately and uninterrupted, which requires extremely swift movement of the right hand and quick changes in octaves for the left hand.

Category:

Music

Tags:

• Chopin
• Étude
• Op.10
• No.1
• major
• Waterfall

[Singlerity]

I found the bass octaves very challenging.

[tonyngjichun]

@Singlerity

Yes they does.

It is never an easy job to play even such simple structured octave notes with the feeling of Chopin.

Keep on, pal, music is infinity.

[JproxLeft4Dead2]

@Tonyngjichun

I have a question i have taken a great love in chopin's Etudes.

would this peice be easier to learn then " Etude Opus 10 No. 5? "

[tonyngjichun]

@JproxLeft4Dead2

Certainly negative.



[FriendshipStar]

woow, if you don't mind, would you please help me learn this one? my hands are slow, I wanna learn how to play fast.

[tonyngjichun]

As if you have deep investigation in Chopin's etudes, you may know that Horowitz had commented that this was the most challenging etude throughout the 24 formal etudes. The common sense is that Oo.10 No.2 is hardest, but i agree about Horowitz's comment too.

You should either practise the whole song in 50% speed, or even slower, than accerlate it, or you practise the song in normal speed, but one by one sentence.(One sentence in this etude means two mearsures.)

Wish you good luck!

[ijustwantalife]

synthesia tells you exactly why this etude is called 'Waterfall'

[creamie123]

I played this when I was two. It was one of the first few songs that learnt how to play that year. Been in love with piano ever since.

[ruready619it]

this uses virtually all the keys.

[who8mahbacon]

chopin: "i gave the right hand a workout in this one, suppose the right hand wants revenge?" thats where op. 10-12 comes in.

[powerseriesman]

im having trouble with the first few notes, it says in the sheet music you play two C's, an octave. but then you play it again, C G C ,

[riemanngalois]

can you play the right hand seperately, im having trouble with some of the rhythm and phrasing.

also can you do fingering?

[Beastmast3r5254]

love 0:56

[SunslightAndSong]

quite nice. I'd like to hear it a bit faster. Nice job on getting the melody to come through in the left hand. Now, just speed it up by 1/3rd :) and add some more dynamic changes in the right hand. Let both hands together make the piece sing.

[riemanngalois]

Two questions. First, how do you slow down this piece on youtube so i can follow along. Second, is there anyway you can introduce fingering in your music using numbers, and maybe red for right hand, green for left (or some other 2 colors).. Thanks, this piece is awesome and your video is superb. I am terrible at reading music, but im pretty good at playing piano. this is great stuff!