The words “I intend to write a Polonaise with orchestra,” contained in a letter dated September 18, 1830, give rise to the interesting question:  “Did Chopin realise his intention, and has the work come down to us?” I think both questions can be answered in the affirmative.  At any rate, I hold that internal evidence seems to indicate that Op. 22, the “Grande Polonaise brillante precedee d’un Andante spianato avec orchestre,” which was published in the summer of 1836, is the work in question.  Whether the “Andante” was composed at the same time, and what, if any, alterations were subsequently made in the Polonaise, I do not venture to decide.  But the Polonaise has so much of Chopin’s early showy virtuosic style and so little of his later noble emotional power that my conjecture seems reasonable.  Moreover, the fact that the orchestra is employed speaks in favour of my theory, for after the works already discussed in the tenth chapter, and the concertos with which we shall concern ourselves presently, Chopin did not in any other composition (i.e., after 1830) write for the orchestra.  His experiences in Warsaw, Vienna, and Paris convinced him, no doubt, that he was not made to contend with masses, either as an executant or as a composer.  Query:  Is the Polonaise, of which Chopin says in July, 1831, that he has to leave it to Wurfel, Op. 22 or another work?

Two other projects of Chopin, however, seem to have remained unrealised—­a Concerto for two pianos which he intended to play in public at Vienna with his countryman Nidecki (letter of December 21, 1830), and Variations for piano and violin on a theme of Beethoven’s, to be written conjointly by himself and Slavik (letters of December 21 and 25, 1830).  Fragments of the former of these projected works may, however, have been used in the “Allegro de Concert,” Op. 46, published in 1842.

In the letter of December 21, 1830, there is also an allusion to a waltz and mazurkas just finished, but whether they are to be found among the master’s printed compositions is more than I can tell.

The three “Ecossaises” of the year 1830, which Fontana published as Op. 72, No. 3, are the least individual of Chopin’s compositions, and almost the only dances of his which may be described as dance music pure and simple—­rhythm and melody without poetry, matter with a minimum of soul.

The posthumous Mazurka (D major) of 1829-30 is unimportant.  It contains nothing notable, except perhaps the descending chromatic successions of chords of the sixth.  In fact, we can rejoice in its preservation only because a comparison with a remodelling of 1832 allows us to trace a step in Chopin’s development.

And now we come to the concertos, the history of which, as far as it is traceable in the composer’s letters, I will here place before the reader.  If I repeat in this chapter passages already quoted in previous chapters, it is for the sake of completeness and convenience.