The poetical qualities of Chopin’s playingare not so easily defined as the technical ones.  Indeed, if they are definable at all they are so only by one who, like Liszt, is a poet as well as a great pianist.  I shall, therefore, transcribe from his book some of the most important remarks bearing on this matter.

After saying that Chopin idealised the fugitive poesy inspired by fugitive apparitions like “La Fee aux Miettes,” “Le Lutin d’Argail,” &c., to such an extent as to render its fibres so thin and friable that they seemed no longer to belong to our nature, but to reveal to us the indiscreet confidences of the Undines, Titanias, Ariels, Queen Mabs, and Oberons, Liszt proceeds thus:—­

When this kind of inspiration laid hold of Chopin his playing assumed a distinctive character, whatever the kind of music he executed might be—­dance-music or dreamy music, mazurkas or nocturnes, preludes or scherzos, waltzes or tarantellas, studies or ballades.  He imprinted on them all one knows not what nameless colour, what vague appearance, what pulsations akin to vibration, that had almost no longer anything material about them, and, like the imponderables, seemed to act on one’s being without passing through the senses.  Sometimes one thought one heard the joyous tripping of some amorously- teasing Peri; sometimes there were modulations velvety and iridescent as the robe of a salamander; sometimes one heard accents of deep despondency, as if souls in torment did not find the loving prayers necessary for their final deliverance.  At other times there breathed forth from his fingers a despair so mournful, so inconsolable, that one thought one saw Byron’s Jacopo Foscari come to life again, and contemplated the extreme dejection of him who, dying of love for his country, preferred death to exile, being unable to endure the pain of leaving Venezia la bella!

It is interesting to compare this description with that of another poet, a poet who sent forth his poetry daintily dressed in verse as well as carelessly wrapped in prose.  Liszt tells us that Chopin had in his imagination and talent something “qui, par la purete de sa diction, par ses accointances avec La Fee aux Miettes et Le Lutin d’Argail, par ses rencon-tres de Seraphine et de Diane, murmurant a son oreille leurs plus confidentielles plaintes, leurs reves les plus innommes,” [Footnote:  The allusions are to stories by Charles Nodier.  According to Sainte-Beuve, “La Fee aux Miettes” was one of those stories in which the author was influenced by Hoffmann’s creations.] reminded him of Nodier.  Now, what thoughts did Chopin’s playing call up in Heine?