Chopin - Étude Op. 10 No. 12 in C minor "Revolutionary"

Étude Op. 10, No. 12 in C minor known as The Revolutionary Étude, is a solo piano work by Frédéric Chopin written circa 1831. It is the 12th of his first set of etudes - "Douze Grandes Etudes" dedicated to "son ami Franz Liszt" (his friend Franz Liszt). The two sets of Études, Opus 10 and 25, are known collectively as the Chopin Études, although Chopin also contributed three other lesser known études (the Trois Nouvelles Études).

History
The étude appeared around the same time as the November Uprising in 1831. Chopin was unable to have a strong participating role because of his poor health, and allegedly he poured his emotions on the matter into many pieces that he composed at that time - the Revolutionary Étude standing out as the most notable example. Upon conclusion of Poland's failed revolution against Russia, he cried "All this has caused me much pain. Who could have foreseen it!"

Unlike études of prior periods (works designed to emphasize and develop particular aspects of musical technique, cf the much feared but essential School of Velocity, or the Five Finger Exercises by Hanon) the romantic études of composers such as Chopin and Liszt are fully developed musical concert pieces, but still continue to represent a goal of developing stronger technique

Technique
In the case of The Revolutionary Étude, the technique required in the opening bars is playing an extremely fast, long and loud descending harmonic minor scale mainly in the left hand. The length and the repetition of these rapid passages distinguishes The Revolutionary from other études.

Although the greatest challenge lies with the relentless left hand semiquavers, the right hand is also challenged by the cross-rhythms which are used with increasing sophistication to handle the same theme in various successive parallel passages.

The left hand technique involved in this piece involves evenly played semiquavers throughout. The structure is of the strophic coda form (A A'). The opening broken chords (diminished chord with an added passing note) and downward passages transition into the main appassionato[citation needed] melody. The octave melody's dotted rhythms and the continuous accompaniment creates tension. At the end of the A' section, the coda provides somewhat of a rest from that tension[citation needed] and then the work recalls the opening in a final descending sweep leading to the final closing chords, in C major.

Influences
The end of the Etude alludes to Beethoven's last piano sonata, written in the same key - a piece Chopin is known to have greatly admired (compare bars 77-81 in the Etude to bars 150-152 in the first movement of Beethoven's sonata). The etude is a popular performance piece in classical concerts and has been adapted in digital media such as video games such as The King of Fighters 2003 and Eternal Sonata.

Category:

Music

Tags:

• Chopin
• Étude
• Op10
• No12
• minor
• Revolutionary

[houndoom1234]

sounds like the castle theme in Super Mario world

[FiiTzYHuNii]

does not end on the tonic, brain, malfunction, must find piano to finish chord.. GRRPPP DRRRP!

[thinmints121]

This song is SOO much harder than it sounds but I finally got it down:)

[shenkeey]

@Perprocrastinate You can count on me to give you some tips and not hate! Keep me up to date and I'll surely check it out and maybe upload my version when it's done after a while :)

[Perprocrastinate]

@shenkeey Anything short from perfection isn't going to ruin the piece, as long as it isn't a countless number amount of mistakes, heh. But I see what you mean.

I might actually upload myself playing the piece soon, for criticism. Let the haters swarm! ..and somewhere lost within the pack I might actually find constructive criticism.

[shenkeey]

@Perprocrastinate Yeah ofcourse! But that's with every piece. This piece should be played with only 1 or 2 mistakes and perfect rhythm (all notes as long + musicality) and speed, that's why it's pretty difficult! It's above graduationlevel for conservatories you know haha

[Perprocrastinate]

@shenkeey Well, what I believe is that it requires a certain amount of experience to be able to learn a piece well and quickly. Playing the piece is another thing. It may take a while, but it will be accomplished, and polished in time. But in my opinion, this piece isn't really that difficult. A lot of things are repeated, and the most tricky part is probably the speed and accuracy.

[shenkeey]

@Perprocrastinate Woah, honestly that's way to soon haha! But you know that yourself too :) This is a piece that requires 8 years mininum of practice before being able to make a change of doing it justice haha! It's one of the harder pieces to perform on concert piano, so if you can actually play this...then DAMN

[Perprocrastinate]

@shenkeey This is week 13 of learning piano. I rushed into this etude because of impatience. I haven't really learned anything else except for some simple Bach pieces for rhythm practice. After I'm done with this, I'm going to learn something closer to my level, so I can actually enjoy playing piano, instead of being tortured with another etude. :P

[shenkeey]

@Perprocrastinate After a while it's pretty easy eh? When you get all the patterns down and stuff :) Or...How long do you play piano? Maybe I have a wrong idea of you :)

[Perprocrastinate]

@shenkeey I'm actually pretty close to finishing the piece (week 11/week 13[?]). I just need to learn the last page (which isn't too difficult), and speed up some segments. It's getting frustrating, but I'm almost there.

[shenkeey]

@Perprocrastinate But in all seriousness, go for it! I went for it, never looked back and finally got it in my fingers! If you want to do it, train slowly (learn every note perfectly, mistakes are harder to correct than to make) and you will get it soon enough :)