Fantaisie-impromptu, Op.66
Impromptu · in C♯ minor · Op. 66
Frédéric Chopin 1810–1849
C♯ minor
Key
Impromptu
Form
Allegro agitato
Tempo
Op. 66
Catalogue
Score
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Themes & character
Cross-rhythms·Posthumous publication·Restless shimmer·Borrowed melody
At a glance
- Catalogue
- Op. 66
- Key
- C♯ minor
- Tempo / character
- Allegro agitato
- Form
- Impromptu
About the piece
One of Chopin's best known pieces, composed around 1834 but held back from publication, possibly because its central melody resembled a Moscheles study he admired. It appeared only in 1855, six years after his death, when his friend Julian Fontana published it against Chopin's own instructions.
Its outer sections send the right hand racing in rapid figuration set against a steady cross-rhythm in the left, four notes against three, which gives the music its restless shimmer. Framed in the calm middle is one of his most singable melodies, later borrowed for the popular song "I'm Always Chasing Rainbows."
The composer
Frédéric Chopin
1810–1849
Frédéric François Chopin was a Polish composer and virtuoso pianist of the early Romantic period who wrote primarily for solo piano. He has maintained worldwide renown as a leading composer of his era whose "poetic genius was based on a professional technique that was without equal in his generation".
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