Classical Music | Piano Music

Frédéric Chopin

Impromptu no. 1 in A-flat major Op. 29  Play

Klara Min Piano

Recorded on 08/24/2011, uploaded on 02/28/2012

Musician's or Publisher's Notes

Like the fantasia, the title “impromptu” is used to describe a piece of music written in an improvisatory manner. Its first recorded use was in 1817 by a publisher to describe a piece by the Czech composer Jan Václav Voříšek. More famously, however, Franz Schubert composed eight such pieces in 1827 and since then the term “impromptu” became popular with many Romantic and even 20th century composers. Ironically, many of the pieces that bear the title possess well delineated forms and betray a more rigorous thought process rather than spur-of-the-moment inspiration. Such is the case with Chopin’s impromptus.

Composed in 1837, the Impromptu No. 1 in A-flat major, op. 29 was actually predated by the Fantasie-Impromptu of 1834, which was published posthumously. Less expansive in form, the A-flat major Impromptu nevertheless shows the influence of its predecessor. The outer sections are imbued with a moto perpetuo, which in this instance are triplets in both hands. Scurrying around the keyboard, the melody is lively with a bit of an agitated feel. Towards the end of the first section, the music seems to nearly give out in exhaustion as the melodic line hovers chromatically around the dominant and dies away into a moment of silence. Yet, after a moment’s rest, the music then rushes towards a conclusive cadence.

The middle episode of the Impromptu adopts a different character. The triplet rhythms are abandoned and the key changes to the relative minor. A lyrical melody sounds from the middle register of the piano accompanied by chords and off-beat bass notes. A sense of liveliness is maintained in the melody’s ornamentation and towards its conclusion, triplet rhythms begin to creep back in ultimately leading into a near verbatim reprise of the opening. Finally, a brief coda, in which the triplet moto perpetuo is halted by solid block chords, brings the Impromptu to a weary close exhausted from its feverish energy.     Joseph DuBose