Fantaisie Impromptu Analysis

Introduction

For my essay I will be writing about and comparing two of Fryderyk Chopin 's pieces, Fantaisie Impromptu and Nocturne op.9 no.2. I decided on these pieces because I find Chopin’s music calming and have listened to it in the past, whilst studying or when I struggle to sleep. I decided it would be best to write my essay on pieces I’m familiar with, which lead me to pick these two pieces. I also decided on these two pieces because I wanted to compare two pieces by the same composer, it intrigued me as to what the similarities in the pieces could be and also how they differ.

The first piece, Fantaisie Impromptu was written in 1834 but never actually published by Chopin himself. It was written for Baroness d’Este via commission and

In the beginning the piece starts off in Allegro Agitato which translates to Allegro with agitation (Fast but agitated) and we can see the Alla breve in the time signature spot which tells us it 's in 2 2 which also leads us to believe it 's quite fast paced. On the right hand of the piano we see semiquavers being played quite consistently throughout which plays an important part in setting the scene at the end of the piece. In the beginning we see the first note of the third bar come in at forte then the piece uses an diminuendo to take it down to piano for when the right hand enters the piece. This causes the piece to have a suspenseful sort of build up as the very first

Soon after the first chromatic scale we see an 8va sign which means play an octave higher than what the note actually is, we see this occur a few times within the piece offering a slow dainty sound similar to . Modulation occurs mid way as we see it change to the key of D flat major, at this point it also changes tempo to largo which is extremely slow (slower than adagio) and is also played pesante which means heavy and pondering followed by a crescendo and then diminuendo. Here we see the right hand has stopped playing and it is only the left playing a minor scale and then repeating it once more. After this the right hand comes in playing Moderato Cantabile, which means moderately and singingly, this is an incredible turning point in the piece as we go from suspenseful mature classy music to a more whimsical delicate and happy side of the piece. From this point on we’re exposed to plenty of trills and grace notes. From here we can see the Ternary form (ABA) when the first part (A) returns after (B), we can tell this easily from the major contrast in the two pieces and the modulation. As we continue through the piece we find that when the first part (A) returns again that the time signature has changed to 4 4 note the C symbol instead of the original symbol having a line