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Yosemite under Orion's gaze

Saturday, April 29, 2023

Chopin: Etude Op. 10 No. 5 in G flat major


This beautiful piece of music was written by Chopin in 1833 at the age of 23. It is now known as the "Black Keys" etude as the right hand solely strikes black keys. The Polish composer Frederic Chopin wrote 27 etudes overall.
I was listening to the piece on public radio this morning and the host said that when a child is introduced to the piano they instinctively reach for the black keys. I wonder why that is?

Beautifully played here by Bruce Liu, Theatre des Champs Elysees, Paris.

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In one of my favorite Peanuts cartoons, Charlie Brown asks Schroeder how he’s able to play such complicated pieces on his toy piano when the black keys are just painted on? 
His answer was that he "practiced a lot."

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