Download free sheet music in public domain: https://goo.gl/br4afZ
Curious about this Fugue in A minor? I can’t find an accurate date of composition but guess it must be an early work dating from the time Chopin studied organ at the Warsaw Lyceum with the Czech musician Wilhelm Würfel, between 1823 and 1826. That’s to say the fugue could have been written by Chopin between the ages of 13 and 16.
I am not convinced it was composed anywhere close to 1840, Chopin’s mature period, as the guessed date with a “?” on The Fryderyk Chopin Institute website. http://en.chopin.nifc.pl/chopin/composition/detail/id/277
There’s little more about the fugue on page 64 of the above sheet music PDF.
Recorded with the 4th harmonic pedal in resonance position only.
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A few thoughts about this fugue:
Composer-hopefuls, even today, get taught in composition class how to write in the styles of the great composers, while not loosing sight of the goal of eventually developing the emerging composer’s own voice. A contemporary example is the composer/pianist Nahre Sol https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC8R8FRt1KcPiR-rtAflXmeg Nahre has YouTube tutorials that give insights in how to compose like Debussy or Bach, but she has a distinctive musical voice of her own and is one of the most exciting new composers I’ve discovered recently. Narhe’s Julliard trained, so has a foundation in composition/theory, but her own composing style is fresh, original, her ideas spring from all sorts of places, not necessarily musical.
This little fugue by Chopin must have been one of many he wrote with his composition teacher, Wilhelm Würfel. It’s clearly a learning exercise. Chopin could have easily stayed simple harmonically as many students in his day would have done, but there are signs of his genius for exploring harmony as he wanders about into almost dissonance towards the end. If you play the fugue crisp, clear, bold with contrast in legato with staccato, it sounds very “Bach-ish”. But as Chopin was to become, only a few years later, very much a composer for piano with his own distinct voice, I decided to play it without the characteristic “Bach-touch” and added some pedal.
As an art student I bought a huge book of early Picasso. His work at 14 and 16 years old was as competent academically as any other established artist of his day. He really learned his craft. But his genius was to break free from tradition and invent abstraction which changed the history of art. Much in the way Chopin loved, learned from but broke away from the influence of baroque and classical music, quickly finding his own voice at the piano, and with Liszt and his contemporaries, similarly changed the history of music.
It’s fun exploring the early work of great composers!
