View source for Fantaisie-Impromptu

{{Short description|Piano composition by Frédéric Chopin}}
{{italic title}}
[[Image:Fan Imp Chopin.png|400px|thumb|Main Theme of the ''Fantaisie-Impromptu'']]
[[Frédéric Chopin]]'s '''''Fantaisie-Impromptu''''' ({{langx|pl|Fantazja-Impromptu}}) in [[C-sharp minor|C{{music|sharp}} minor]], [[opus number|Op.]]&nbsp;[[List of works published posthumously|posth.]]&nbsp;66, [[Chopin National Edition|WN]] 46 is a solo [[piano]] [[musical composition|composition]]. It was composed in [[1834 in music|1834]] and published posthumously in 1855 despite Chopin's instruction that none of his unpublished manuscripts be published.<ref>{{cite book|author=J. Cuthbert Hadden|title=''Chopin''|url=https://archive.org/details/chopin1903hadd|quote=chopin.|publisher=E.P.Dutton & Co.|location=New York|year=1903|pages=[https://archive.org/details/chopin1903hadd/page/160 160], 242|access-date=16 February 2015}}</ref> The ''Fantaisie-Impromptu'' is one of Chopin's most frequently performed and popular compositions.<ref name = oster>Ernst Oster, "The ''Fantaisie–Impromptu:'' A Tribute to Beethoven", in ''Aspects of Schenkerian Analysis'', David Beach, ed. Yale University Press, 1983 {{ISBN|0-300-02800-8}}</ref>{{rp|189}}

==History==
The ''Fantaisie-Impromptu'' was written in 1834, as were the [[Mazurkas, Op. 17 (Chopin)|Four Mazurkas]] (Op.&nbsp;17) and the [[Grande valse brillante in E-flat major (Chopin)|Grande valse brillante in E{{music|flat}} major]] (Op.&nbsp;18), but unlike these other works, Chopin never published the ''Fantaisie-Impromptu''. Instead, [[Julian Fontana]] published it posthumously, along with the waltzes [[Waltzes (Chopin)|Opp. 69 and 70]].<ref>{{cite web|author=Fr. Niecks|title=A Critical Commentary on the Pianoforte Works of Frederic Chopin|year=1879|page=179|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=MQsVAAAAQAAJ&q=%22A+critical+Commentary+on+the+Pianoforte+Works+of+Frederic+Chopin%22&pg=PA179|publisher=The Monthly Musical Record|access-date=2 February 2015}}</ref> It is unknown why Chopin did not release the ''Fantaisie-Impromptu''. [[James Huneker]] called parts of it "mawkish" and "without nobility".<ref>{{cite book|author=James Huneker|title=''Chopin: The Man and His Music''|page=[https://archive.org/details/chopinmanandhis00hunegoog/page/n252 241]|url=https://archive.org/details/chopinmanandhis00hunegoog|quote=241.|publisher=Charles Scribner's Sons|location=New York|year=1900|access-date=19 February 2015}}</ref> [[Ernst Oster]] conducted a technical examination of the piece that hints at similarities between the ''Fantaisie-Impromptu'' and [[Ludwig van Beethoven]]'s [[Piano Sonata No. 14 (Beethoven)|"Moonlight" Sonata]] (''Quasi una fantasia''), which he cites as the reason for Chopin's reluctance to publish the piece. It is also recognized that it resembles the Impromptu in E{{music|flat}} major, Op. 89,<ref>{{Cite web|title=Impromptu, Op.89 (Moscheles, Ignaz) - IMSLP: Free Sheet Music PDF Download|url=https://imslp.org/wiki/Impromptu,_Op.89_(Moscheles,_Ignaz)|access-date=2020-09-05|website=imslp.org}}</ref> by [[Ignaz Moscheles]] and published in 1834, the same year Chopin wrote the ''Fantaisie-Impromptu.''<ref>{{Cite web|title=Fryderyk Chopin - Information Centre - Fantasy-Impromptu - Compositions|url=https://en.chopin.nifc.pl/chopin/composition/detail/page/7/id/71|access-date=2020-09-05|website=en.chopin.nifc.pl|archive-date=2016-06-10|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160610125955/http://en.chopin.nifc.pl/chopin/composition/detail/page/7/id/71|url-status=dead}}</ref>

The mystery may have been solved in 1960 when pianist [[Arthur Rubinstein]] acquired the "Album of the Baroness d'Este", which had been sold at auction in Paris. The album contained a manuscript of the ''Fantaisie-Impromptu'' in Chopin's own hand, dated 1835, stating on the title page in French "Composed for the Baroness d'Este by Frédéric Chopin". Its authenticity was "guaranteed by the French authorities" and it shows "a delicate care for detail" and "many improvements in harmony and style" in comparison to the previously published version. Rubinstein considered it proof that it is the finished work. In his preface to the "Rubinstein Edition", published by G. Schirmer, Inc. in 1962, he surmises that the words "Composed for" in place of a dedication imply that Chopin received a paid commission for the work, so he had actually sold it to the Baroness.<ref>{{cite book|author=Arthur Rubinstein|author-link=Arthur Rubinstein|title=Preface to the Fantaisie-Impromptu for Piano by Frédéric Chopin,Great Performer's Edition|page=2|publisher=G. Schirmer, Inc.|location=New York|year=1962}}</ref>

==Form==
[[Image:Fantaisie-Impromptu_-_Fragment.PNG|thumb|right|500px|Melodic fragment (introduced in measures 7-8), Chopin's Fantaisie-Impromptu]]
[[Image:Moonlight_Sonata,_Mvt_3_-_Cadenza.PNG|thumb|right|500px|Cadenza (measure 188), Beethoven's [[Piano Sonata No. 14 (Beethoven)|Piano Sonata No. 14]], third movement]]

Oster observes that the ''Fantaisie-Impromptu'' draws many of its harmonic and tonal elements from [[Ludwig van Beethoven|Beethoven]]'s [[Piano Sonata No. 14 (Beethoven)|''Moonlight Sonata'']], also in C{{music|sharp}} minor, especially the third movement. Two measures after the melody sets in, an abrupt run features the same notes, only one octave higher, as the cadenza in the sonata's third movement (Presto agitato). The climax on a [[Chord inversion|{{su|p=6|b=4}}]] chord is similar in both pieces.<ref name = oster/> Additionally, the ''Fantaisie-Impromptu''{{'}}s middle part and the second movement of the ''Moonlight Sonata'' are in D{{music|flat}} major. The first and third movements are in C{{music|sharp}} minor.

For those and other reasons, Oster writes, "Chopin understood Beethoven to a degree that no one who has written on the C{{music|sharp}} minor Sonata or the ''Fantaisie-Impromptu'' has ever understood him. ... The ''Fantaisie-Impromptu'' is perhaps the only instance where one genius discloses to us—if only by means of a composition of his own—what he actually hears in the work of another genius."<ref name = oster/>{{rp|207}}

The piece uses many [[cross-rhythm]]s (the right hand plays [[sixteenth note]]s against the left hand playing [[Tuplet|triplets]]) and a ceaselessly moving note figuration, and is in [[cut time]] ({{music|time|2|2}}). The opening [[tempo]] is marked ''[[Musical terminology|allegro agitato]]''. The tempo changes to ''[[Musical terminology|largo]]'' and later ''[[Musical terminology|moderato cantabile]]'' when the key changes to D{{music|flat}} major, the [[enharmonic]] equivalent of C{{music|sharp}} major, that is, the [[parallel major]] of C{{music|sharp}} minor.

The piece then changes to ''[[Music terminology|presto]]'' (although some versions of the score incorporate a [[Coda (music)|coda]], meaning that the original tempo of ''[[Musical terminology|allegro agitato]]'' is repeated) where it returns to C{{music|sharp}} minor. It concludes with an ambiguous fantasy-like ending, with the left hand replaying the first few notes of the moderato section theme while the right continues playing sixteenth notes (semiquavers). The piece resolves and gently ends on a rolled C{{music|sharp}} major chord (a [[Picardy third]]).

==Legacy==
{{listen|filename=Frederic Chopin - Fantasy Impromptu Opus 66.ogg|title=Fantaisie-Impromptu, Op. 66|description=Performed by [[Martha Goldstein]] on an 1851 Erard piano|format=[[Ogg]]|filename2=Chopin - Fantaisie-Impromptu.mid|title2=Fantaisie-Impromptu, Op. 66|description2=[[MIDI]] rendition by Bernd Krüger}}
The melody of the ''Fantaisie-Impromptu''{{'}}s middle section was used in the popular [[Vaudeville]] song "[[I'm Always Chasing Rainbows]]". That theme is quoted in Variation 10 of [[Federico Mompou]]'s ''[[Variations on a Theme of Chopin (Mompou)|Variations on a Theme of Chopin]]'', which is otherwise based on Chopin's [[Preludes (Chopin)|Prelude No.&nbsp;7 in A major]]. [[George Crumb]]'s ''[[Makrokosmos]]'', Volume 1: 11. Dream Images (Love-Death Music) (Gemini) includes three quotations from the ''Fantaisie-Impromptu''{{'}}s middle section.

==See also==
* [[Impromptu No. 1 (Chopin)|Impromptu No. 1 in A-flat major (Chopin)]]
* [[Fantaisie in F minor (Chopin)]]

==References==
{{Reflist}}

==External links==
* {{IMSLP|work=Fantaisie-Impromptu Op.66 (Chopin, Frederic)|cname=Fantaisie-Impromptu}}
* [http://imslp.org/wiki/File:PMLP02259-Fantaisie_Impromptu.pdf Fantaisie-Impromptu, Baroness d'Este version]
* [http://www.mutopiaproject.org/cgibin/piece-info.cgi?id=1693 Free score] via the [[Mutopia Project]]
* ''Fantaisie-Impromptu'' on YouTube: performances by [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sImbCeIhxpY&list=OLAK5uy_n1_P15K8dRVvHuu2koTWnz0LYCdD3V2Ls&index=4 Arthur Rubinstein], [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jS7w3cj0nzA Vladimir Horowitz], [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_2c-KITvexw Vladimir Ashkenazy], [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HmeTrL4lBd0 Evgeny Kissin], [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kGgraaEKFLs Murray Perahia] and [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E0C461Gor64&list=OLAK5uy_mjxnlVD2k7Bw6HN67LaCnxiFiiyO1rxUM&index=13 Yundi Li]

{{Chopin impromptus}}{{Portalbar|Classical Music}}{{Authority control}}

[[Category:Compositions for solo piano]]
[[Category:1834 compositions]]
[[Category:Compositions in C-sharp minor]]
[[Category:Fantasias (music)|Chopin]]
[[Category:Compositions by Frédéric Chopin published posthumously]]