Ballade No 1. in G Minor Coda by Chopin
Aidan O.
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My tiny head bobbed in awe and wonder as my mom’s interpretation of Chopin’s Ballade No. 1 radiated throughout our cozy condo. As I tapped my feet a sense of longing to be able to play the piano so beautifully overcame me, and despite it being far out of reach of my juvenile hands, I leapt into the most difficult sections of the piece. Absent the technical foundation (and physical hand size) the piece demands, my countless hours in front of the keys yielded slow results – but results nonetheless. After months of sluggish progress, 12-year-old Aidan proudly flaunted Chopin’s Ballade No. 1 wherever I could – or at least 30 seconds of it. Now, with years more of technical development and an expansive piano repertoire, I’ve returned to the Ballade and studied a new section: the coda. Often regarded as one of the most difficult stretches in Chopin’s repertoire, the coda elicited extensive hours of practice for each section within it. My journey with the coda began around May, and wouldn’t reach its climax until July. Between the two months I spent hours every day hammering the fingerings, articulations, and pedaling into my hands and feet until they came like second nature. The lightning fast left hand jumps while my right hand span across the piano proved to be the most technically difficult section. I practiced each jump slowly at first, over and over until I could speed it up, and each slowly added in the right hand.
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Taking a new approach to a complicated math problem, writing the plot to a story that exists only in your head, playing music that reflects your mood, interests, or desires; creativity be represented through almost every medium, and in short it means to implement your own uniqueness and ideas.
