Je Vends des Scapulaires is a tune in Herold and Halevy’s “Ludovic.”  Chopin varied it in his op. 12.  This rondo in B flat is the weakest of Chopin’s muse.  It is Chopin and water, and Gallic eau sucree at that.  The piece is written tastefully, is not difficult, but woefully artificial.  Published in 1833, it was dedicated to Miss Emma Horsford.  In May, 1851, appeared the Variations in E, without an opus number.  They are not worth the trouble.  Evidently composed before Chopin’s op. 1 and before 1830, they are musically light waisted, although written by one who already knew the keyboard.  The last, a valse, is the brightest of the set.  The theme is German.

The Fantaisie, op 13, in A, on Polish airs, preceded by an introduction in F sharp minor, is dedicated to the pianist J. P. Pixis.  It was published in April, 1834.  It is Chopin brilliant.  Its orchestral background does not count for much, but the energy, the color and Polish character of the piece endeared it to the composer.  He played it often, and as Kleczynski asks, “Are these brilliant passages, these cascades of pearly notes, these bold leaps the sadness and the despair of which we hear?  Is it not rather youth exuberant with intensity and life?  Is it not happiness, gayety, love for the world and men?  The melancholy notes are there to bring out, to enforce the principal ideas.  For instance, in the Fantaisie, op. 13, the theme of Kurpinski moves and saddens us; but the composer does not give time for this impression to become durable; he suspends it by means of a long trill, and then suddenly by a few chords and with a brilliant prelude leads us to a popular dance, which makes us mingle with the peasant couples of Mazovia.  Does the finale indicate by its minor key the gayety of a man devoid of hope—­as the Germans say?” Kleczynski then tells us that a Polish proverb, “A fig for misery,” is the keynote of a nation that dances furiously to music in the minor key.  “Elevated beauty, not sepulchral gayety,” is the character of Polish, of Chopin’s music.  This is a valuable hint.  There are variations in the Fantaisie which end with a merry and vivacious Kujawiak.

The F minor Fantaisie will be considered later.  Neither by its magnificent content, construction nor opus number (49) does it fall into this chapter.

The Allegro de Concert in A, op. 46, was published in November, 1841, and dedicated to Mlle. Friederike Muller, a pupil of Chopin.  It has all the characteristics of a concerto, and is indeed a truncated one—­much more so than Schumann’s F minor Sonata, called Concert Sans Orchestre.  There are tutti in the Chopin work, the solo part not really beginning until the eighty-seventh bar.  But it must not be supposed that these long introductory passages are ineffective for the player.  The Allegro is one of Chopin’s most difficult works.  It abounds in risky skips, ambuscades of dangerous double notes, and the principal themes are bold and expressive.  The color note