Étude Op. 10, No. 5 (Chopin)

Étude Op. 10, No. 5 in G-flat major, is a study for solo piano composed by Frédéric Chopin in 1830. It was first published in 1833 in France,Germany, and England as the fifth piece of his Études Op. 10. This work is characterized by the rapid triplet figuration played by the right hand exclusively on black keys. This melodic figuration is accompanied by the left hand in staccato chords and octaves.

The so-called "Black Key Étude" is one of the most popular. It has been a repertoire piece of pianists since Chopin’s time and has inspired numerous exercises, arrangements and paraphrases. Chopin himself did not believe the study to be his most interesting one. In a letter to his pianist friend and musical executor Julian Fontana he comments on Clara Wieck’s performance:

"Did Wieck play my Etude well? How could she have chosen precisely this Etude, the least interesting for those who do not know that it is intended for the black keys, instead of something better! It would have been better to remain silent."

Von Bülow (1830 - 1894) speaks rather disdainfully of Op. 10, No. 5 as a "Damen-Salon Etüde" ("Ladies Salon Etude").

Like all of Chopin’s other études, this work is in ternary form A-B-A. The two eight-bar periods of the A section are characterized by frequent dynamic contrasts. Each reentry of the first bar, occurring every four bars, is marked by a forte, followed in the second bar by a piano restatement in a lower register. This capricious opening in the tonic is replied by an upward movement and a syncopated accompaniment in the third and fourth bar. This pattern is repeated four times. The harmonic scheme of the A section is relatively simple, featuring tonic (first two bars) versus dominant (third and fourth bars), but the consequent of the first period shifts to B-flat major (poco rallentando, pp), while the consequent of the second one modulates to the dominant key D-flat major.

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