Piano Forum
Piano Board => Repertoire => Topic started by: classicalinquisition on September 16, 2016, 03:10:14 PM
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I'm looking for what is considered the most playable piece?
I'm looking for around 2-3 pieces.
thanks
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You should take a look at his Waltzes and Mazurkas. Possible some preludes too. That is basically as easy as chopin gets.
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You should take a look at his Waltzes and Mazurkas. Possible some preludes too. That is basically as easy as chopin gets.
there are a handful of other options ie as the 4 pieces here show
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The prelude in A major is simple and beautiful.
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Ver of 1st w score
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the cantabile is very fine, too. okay, thank you. i'll take a look at these.
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The polonaise in G minor was the first piece by Chopin I played, and it was both fun, easy and helpful in my studies. He wrote it when he was just a kid, so it doesn't require a lot of maturity and understanding of his music.
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Prelude in c minor and the a minor waltz. That e minor prelude is overplayed but easy...but it's also easily butchered. The man was a teacher and he did write for students.
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Hi Star. :)
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Prelude in c minor and the a minor waltz. That e minor prelude is overplayed but easy...but it's also easily butchered. The man was a teacher and he did write for students.
Quite right; but are you saying that he wrote for his students in general, or that he wrote the prelude in e minor for them? With the couple possible exceptions floating in the back of my mind somewhere, I'm not aware of any evidence for either...
@OP Start with the mazurkas. Low technical buy in, great reward.
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I remember reading in an essay that "what one learned from lessons with Chopin was how to play Chopin." It stands to reason he wrote things students could play as teaching was his main income. I didn't mean like the same way Beethoven wrote for his...but what do you think?
Do you think maybe he used a bastien or Alfred book?? Lol jk
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I'm sure he wrote things that he then taught to his students, but my guess is that the pieces he wrote purely for pedagogical reasons were probably destroyed. The études, of course, are a different case; he was effectively writing the book on how to play 19th century music.
Of course, this is all speculation. But my guess is that he taught, along with much of his own work he had already composed, lots of the things he grew up on; Bach, Mozart, Scarlatti, some Beethoven, Handel, etc..
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According to reports from his students, Chopin did not teach beginners, with the exception of two: one of whom was George Mathias. Yes, he did teach his own music to his students, but his students were at a level that were capable of learning his compositions. He also taught Clementi exercises, Moscheles etudes, Field nocturnes. There are handwritten notes of exercises that Chopin gave to his students which included fingering for arpeggios.
Bottom line: Chopin did not attempt to write 'easy' repertoire for his students.
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Yeah but writing music for your students isn't synonymous with "easy" repertoire. I mean this is also speculation, but given the way they're structured the etudes were almost entirely written for pedagogical reasons. Not for his students, but for pianists/students in general. If I remember correctly, the op. posthumous nocturne in c#minor was written for his sister as a way to prepare for his f minor concerto.
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I would say THE easiest piece written by Chopin was the A major prelude from op. 28 (if you are looking for THE easiest). It lasts about 1 minute long. I agree with Chopinlovers suggestion of the Mazurkas.
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Sorry for the 2nd post on this. Looking at the Pianostreet difficulty ratings:
The 3 easiest pieces are:
Prelude op 28 #7 (A Major) - level 4
Prelude op 28 #4 - level 5
Waltz op Posth a minor - level 5
Of the 50 Mazurkas, the 15 easiest are all level 6. Biggest bang for the buck here per Chopinlover and seconded by me.
Of the 15 Waltzes (excluding op Posth a minor), the next 4 easiest are level 6.
Note: the nocturnes are all level 7+.
Hope this is helpful. :)
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To be fair, i think the preludes are only worth learning if you intend on playing them as a cycle. To each his own i guess, but yeah I'd go for the mazurkas as well. From my point of view they're his most personal compositions and if you are capable of playing the mazurkas then you're on your way to understanding Chopin in general.
They're all top notch but the best are in Op.41 and up. Some are terribly difficult to understand musically (op. 50 no. 3, op. 56) and others are quite straightforward (op. 63 no. 3, op. 41 no. 2, 4, and op. 50 no. 2).
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To be fair, i think the preludes are only worth learning if you intend on playing them as a cycle. To each his own i guess, but yeah I'd go for the mazurkas as well. From my point of view they're his most personal compositions and if you are capable of playing the mazurkas then you're on your way to understanding Chopin in general.
They're all top notch but the best are in Op.41 and up. Some are terribly difficult to understand musically (op. 50 no. 3, op. 56) and others are quite straightforward (op. 63 no. 3, op. 41 no. 2, 4, and op. 50 no. 2).
The preludes are extremely tough to play as a set. Most "for fun" players will have to play selections or skip this completely. I could see maybe a selection of 4-6 working in a program.
I just ordered the complete Mazurkas on CD (Urasin). Great suggestions here. I am very familiar with most of Chopin (many or dozens of listens to all of the Concertos, Sonatas, Ballades, Scherzos, Polonaises, Preludes, Etudes (both sets), 19 waltzes, etc.). I just realized I am weakest on the Mazurkas (and Nocturnes). I am familiar as a listener to about 15-20 of the 50 Mazurkas. I just now listened to your suggested ones. All are great including the one you are playing. I hear you are taking lessons. I hope this is going well.
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Personally, my favorite right now is Op. 24/4 in B flat minor.