which Jean Paul adopted for his singular mixtures of tale, rhapsody, philosophy, and satire, were bound to find an imitator in so ardent an apostle as young Schumann, and, therefore, we have such compositions as “Papillons,” “Carnaval,” “Kreisleriana,” “Phantasiestuecke,” and the rest.  Almost always, it may be said, the pieces which make them up were composed under the poetical and emotional impulses derived from literature, then grouped and named.  To understand their poetic contents this must be known.

[Sidenote:  Chopin’s music.]

[Sidenote:  Preludes.]

Chopin’s fancy, on the other hand, found stimulation in the charm which, for him, lay in the tone of the pianoforte itself (to which he added a new loveliness by his manner of writing), as well as in the rhythms of the popular dances of his country.  These dances he not only beautified as the old suite writers beautified their forms, but he utilized them as vessels which he filled with feeling, not all of which need be accepted as healthy, though much of it is.  As to his titles, “Preludes” is purely an arbitrary designation for compositions which are equally indefinite in form and character; Niecks compares them very aptly to a portfolio full of drawings “in all stages of advancement—­finished and unfinished, complete and incomplete compositions, sketches and mere memoranda, all mixed indiscriminately together.”  So, too, they appeared to Schumann:  “They are sketches, commencements of studies, or, if you will, ruins, single eagle-wings, all strangely mixed together.”  Nevertheless some of them are marvellous soul-pictures.

[Sidenote:  Etudes.]

[Sidenote:  Nocturnes.]

The “Etudes” are studies intended to develop the technique of the pianoforte in the line of the composer’s discoveries, his method of playing extended arpeggios, contrasted rhythms, progressions in thirds and octaves, etc., but still they breathe poetry and sometimes passion.  Nocturne is an arbitrary, but expressive, title for a short composition of a dreamy, contemplative, or even elegiac, character.  In many of his nocturnes Chopin is the adored sentimentalist of boarding-school misses.  There is poppy in them and seductive poison for which Niecks sensibly prescribes Bach and Beethoven as antidotes.  The term ballad has been greatly abused in literature, and in music is intrinsically unmeaning.  Chopin’s four Ballades have one feature in common—­they are written in triple time; and they are among his finest inspirations.

[Sidenote:  The Polonaise.]

Chopin’s dances are conventionalized, and do not all speak the idiom of the people who created their forms, but their original characteristics ought to be known.  The Polonaise was the stately dance of the Polish nobility, more a march or procession than a dance, full of gravity and courtliness, with an imposing and majestic rhythm in triple time that tends to emphasize the second beat of the measure, frequently syncopating it and accentuating the second half of the first beat: