[Musical score excerpt]

What a joy is the next study, No. 4!  How well Chopin knew the value of contrast in tonality and sentiment!  A veritable classic is this piece, which, despite its dark key color, C sharp minor as a foil to the preceding one in E, bubbles with life and spurts flame.  It reminds one of the story of the Polish peasants, who are happiest when they sing in the minor mode.  Kullak calls this “a bravura study for velocity and lightness in both hands.  Accentuation fiery!” while Von Bulow believes that “the irresistible interest inspired by the spirited content of this truly classical and model piece of music may become a stumbling block in attempting to conquer the technical difficulties.”  Hardly.  The technics of this composition do not lie beneath the surface.  They are very much in the way of clumsy fingers and heavy wrists.  Presto 88 to the half is the metronome indication in all five editions.  Klindworth does not comment, but I like his fingering and phrasing best of all.  Riemann repeats his trick of breaking a group, detaching a note for emphasis; although he is careful to retain the legato bow.  One wonders why this study does not figure more frequently on programmes of piano recitals.  It is a fine, healthy technical test, it is brilliant, and the coda is very dramatic.  Ten bars before the return of the theme there is a stiff digital hedge for the student.  A veritable lance of tone is this study, if justly poised.

Riemann has his own ideas of the phrasing of the following one, the fifth and familiar “Black Key” etude.  Examine the first bar: 

[Musical llustration without caption]

Von Bulow would have grown jealous if he had seen this rather fantastic phrasing.  It is a trifle too finical, though it must be confessed looks pretty.  I like longer breathed phrasing.  The student may profit by this analysis.  The piece is indeed, as Kullak says, “full of Polish elegance.”  Von Bulow speaks rather disdainfully of it as a Damen-Salon Etude.  It is certainly graceful, delicately witty, a trifle naughty, arch and roguish, and it is delightfully invented.  Technically, it requires smooth, velvet-tipped fingers and a supple wrist.  In the fourth bar, third group, third note of group, Klindworth and Riemann print E flat instead of D flat.  Mikuli, Kullak and Von Bulow use the D flat.  Now, which is right?  The D flat is preferable.  There are already two E flats in the bar.  The change is an agreeable one.  Joseffy has made a concert variation for this study.  The metronome of the original is given at 116 to the quarter.