Frédéric Chopin

6 Easy Pieces

The six pieces by Frédéric Chopin printed in this anthology are a support for instrumental ensemble practice intended for middle school students with a musical focus and the first years of musical high schools. In addition to their intrinsic artistic value, these short compositions have been chosen because they are particularly suitable for developing some of the specific skills required by a guitar ensemble: coordination, control of sound and phrasing, listening skills. Most of the pieces are written in homorhythmic polyphony, a compositional technique which facilitates the coordination between the parts and helps the student to concentrate his attention on other aspects of the musical performance. All the pieces are transcriptions of works written for piano or for voice and piano. The original keys have been retained or transposed to suit the idiomatic characteristics of the guitar.
The Largo B. 109 (posthumous work) was composed in Paris in 1835 or, perhaps, in 1836. It is an authentic masterpiece, consisting of only two periods of eight bars, each of which is divided into two phrases of four, in the uncommon AB structure.
The next three ‘Chorales’ are actually extracts taken from works of a broader conception: the Nocturne Op. 37 No. 1 (bars 41-64), Dwojaki Koniec Op. 74 No. 11, a Lied for voice and piano on a text by Bohdan Zaleski, the Nocturne Op. 15 No. 3 (bars 89-120). It is suggested to perform these three pieces one after the other, without any interruption.
This collection is completed by the transcriptions for four and five guitars of the Prelude Op. 28 No. 4 and the Prelude Op. 28 No. 20. They are among Chopin’s best-known compositions. The first was performed in the Church of La Madeleine in Paris on October 30, 1849, for the composer’s funeral. The second, according to the biographer Gastone Belotti, is a composition of extraordinary craftsmanship, “one of those rare gems which manage to condense all the pain and sadness of humanity into a few bars”.