Chopin

I have a big book of piano favorites that includes some great pieces from the Baroque and Romantic periods, folk songs, and ragtime that I have had for many years, and is my favorite book to just sit and play from. It is that book that introduced me to composers such as Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, Johannes Brahms, Franz Schubert, Claude Debussy, Scott Joplin, and Frederic Chopin.

The Polish-French composer and pianist, Frederic Chopin, was known for his works for the piano, as he wrote little else. I chose Chopin's "Nocturne Op. 9 No. 2" because there is something about it that is very soothing, and it is just simply beautiful. It is a piece that I can easily study to or listen to peaceably while reading a book on a rainy afternoon.The sequence of sixteenth notes in the right hand in the third to last measure of the piece even almost sounds like rain.

While I am a fan of ragtime and other more upbeat music, when it comes to the piano, I have always been particular to slower, simpler, but still beautiful pieces (Beethoven's "Moonlight Sonata" is one of my all-time favorites to play). While Chopin's "Nocturne Op. 9 No. 2" is at a generally slower tempo (it is written as Andante), it is quite dynamic in volume and intensity, as well as range. Even in a piece as relatively short as this, there is a definite theme that is set at the beginning. Throughout the piece, every once and a while the tempo changes as a new section begins, and soon the original theme is introduced again. Overall, it is simply a pretty, peaceful piece.