Despite all the little transformations of the motive member which forms the kernel, its recognizability remains essentially unimpaired.  Meanwhile out of these little metamorphoses there is developed a rich rhythmic life, which the performer must bring out with great precision.  If in addition, he possesses a fine feeling for what is graceful, coquettish, or agreeably capricious, he will understand how to heighten still further the charm of the chief part, which, as far as its character is concerned, reminds one of Etude, op. 25, No. 3.

The secondary part, in major, begins.  Its kernel is formed of a beautiful broad melody, which, if soulfully conceived and delivered, will sing its way deep into the heart of the listener.  For the accompaniment in the right hand we find chord arpeggiations in triplets, afterward in sixteenths, calmly ascending and descending, and surrounding the melody as with a veil.  They are to be played almost without accentuation.

It was Louis Ehlert who wrote of the celebrated study in G sharp minor op. 25, No. 6:  “Chopin not only versifies an exercise in thirds; he transforms it into such a work of art that in studying it one could sooner fancy himself on Parnassus than at a lesson.  He deprives every passage of all mechanical appearance by promoting it to become the embodiment of a beautiful thought, which in turn finds graceful expression in its motion.”

And indeed in the piano literature no more remarkable merging of matter and manner exists.  The means justifies the end, and the means employed by the composer are beautiful, there is no other word to describe the style and architectonics of this noble study.  It is seldom played in public because of its difficulty.  With the Schumann Toccata, the G sharp minor study stands at the portals of the delectable land of Double Notes.  Both compositions have a common ancestry in the Czerny Toccata, and both are the parents of such a sensational offspring as Balakirew’s “Islamey.”  In reading through the double note studies for the instrument it is in the nature of a miracle to come upon Chopin’s transfiguration of such a barren subject.  This study is first music, then a technical problem.  Where two or three pianists are gathered together in the name of Chopin, the conversation is bound to formulate itself thus:  “How do you finger the double chromatic thirds in the G sharp minor study?” That question answered, your digital politics are known.  You are classified, ranged.  If you are heterodox you are eagerly questioned; if you follow Von Bulow and stand by the Czerny fingering, you are regarded as a curiosity.  As the interpretation of the study is not taxing, let us examine the various fingerings.  First, a fingering given by Leopold Godowsky.  It is for double chromatic thirds: 

[Musical score excerpt]

You will now be presented with a battalion of authorities, so that you may see at a glance the various efforts to climb those slippery chromatic heights.  Here is Mikuli: