Omitting One Note in a Chord
In the beginning of the Waltz in E minor by Chopin the left hand has to play this chord a number of times. I can stretch any three of the four notes, but not all four. Can one of them be omitted, and which one?
You may omit the upper E, the second note from the top, but you may do so only so long as it is physically impossible for you to strike all the four notes. For, by omitting this note you do alter the tone colour of the chord as well as its sonority. As soon as you have acquired the requisite stretch—and anybody who does possess it—I would advise that the note be not unnecessarily omitted. Chopin evidently meant to have that note played.
Masters Cannot be Studied in Order
Will you give me your views as to the order in which the masters of piano composition should be studied?
To classify composers, without specifying their works, is never advisable. Beethoven's first and last sonatas differ so fundamentally from each other in every particular that one may play the first one very well and yet be for many years (perhaps forever) unable to play the last one. And still, it is the same Beethoven that wrote both works. We can, therefore, hardly speak of an "order of composers." So long as we are dealing with masters the question should not be: Which master?—but, Which composition does your stage of mental and technical development call for? If you will defer the study of any other composer until you have fully mastered the works of Beethoven—only the principal ones, at that—you will need a life of more length than the Bible allots to the average man.
The Greatest Composers as Pianists
Is it true that nearly all the great composers have been pianists?
If by pianists you mean musicians whose sole medium of audible musical utterance was the piano, your question admits of no other than an affirmative reply. The only exception I can think of just now was Berlioz; there were, no doubt, others, but none who belongs to the truly great ones. The reason for this is, perhaps, the circumstance that the pianist throughout his education is brought into touch with greater polyphony than the players of other instruments, and that polyphony is a basic principle in music.