It remained for Riemann to make some radical changes.  This learned and worthy doctor astonished the musical world a few years by his new marks of phrasing in the Beethoven symphonies.  They topsy-turvied the old bowing.  With Chopin, new dynamic and agogic accents are rather dangerous, at least to the peace of mind of worshippers of the Chopin fetish.  Riemann breaks two bars into one.  It is a finished period for him, and by detaching several of the sixteenths in the first group, the first and fourth, he makes the accent clearer,—­at least to the eye.  He indicates alla breve with 88 to the half.  In later studies examples will be given of this phrasing, a phrasing that becomes a mannerism with the editor.  He offers no startling finger changes.  The value of his criticism throughout the volume seems to be in the phrasing, and this by no means conforms to accepted notions of how Chopin should be interpreted.  I intend quoting more freely from Riemann than from the others, but not for the reason that I consider him as a cloud by day and a pillar of fire by night in the desirable land of the Chopin fitudes, rather because his piercing analysis lays bare the very roots of these shining examples of piano literature.  Klindworth contents himself with a straightforward version of the C major study, his fingering being the clearest and most admirable.  The Mikuli edition makes one addition:  it is a line which binds the last note of the first group to the first of the second.  The device is useful, and occurs only on the upward flights of the arpeggio.

This study suggests that its composer wished to begin the exposition of his wonderful technical system with a skeletonized statement.  It is the tree stripped of its bark, the flower of its leaves, yet, austere as is the result, there is compensating power, dignity and unswerving logic.  This study is the key with which Chopin unlocked—­not his heart, but the kingdom of technique.  It should be played, for variety, unisono, with both hands, omitting, of course, the octave bass.

Von Bulow writes cannily enough, that the second study in A minor being chromatically related to Moscheles’ etude, op. 70, No. 3, that piece should prepare the way for Chopin’s more musical composition.  In different degrees of tempo, strength and rhythmic accent it should be practised, omitting the thumb and first finger.  Mikuli’s metronome is 144 to the quarter, Von Bulow’s, 114; Klindworth’s, the same as Mikuli, and Riemann is 72 to the half, with an alla breve.  The fingering in three of these authorities is almost identical.  Riemann has ideas of his own, both in the phrasing and figuration.  Look at these first two bars:  [Musical score excerpt without caption:  ]