Chopin Ballade No.1 - Analysis & Interpretation 

Hi everyone! I am sorry for the piano being out of tune again... I was practicing a lot :P As I am saying in the video, this is just a very small part of the whole analysis and also there are much more different ways to interpret the results of the analysis - unfortunately I couldn't put everything in this video. I would love to know your opinions and interpretations on these first bars! Tell me in the comments how you would interpret the analysis! Did you like any of the presented interpretations? And why? Looking forward to a discussion with you about this topic! Have a great start into the week!

analysis and interpretation should definitely become a series. so much knowledge 😍

For me, this is the best music ever made. I've heard a lot of pieces during my life, but no one overcame Ballade n1

That "confusion of the highest order" meme was too good😂

Perfect timing! I am watching this 20 minutes before playing it for the first time in front of my teacher haha

Next Level - Play second cadenz, maybe u'll do 1h Challenge to learn this? Would be really awesome

Annique explaining music theory is NOT boring😃😃😃😃😃

Gave me a deeper insight into this piece. Been playing this one on and off, searching for new dimensions to playing this, but took a few years to understand what’s going on. This video alone set me forward about 2 years of self work 😅 thank you

One of the best format till now I find. It enabled me to interest to analysis. Hope to have new ones soon 😆😆

Loved this (and I love this piece)!!!!!!! It would be amazing a second part analyzing the coda or another parts from the ballade! But you should keep doing this kind of videos even if it's for another pieces, it's a very interesting way to aprecciate music. And what about the fourth ballade for the next one?

A must lesson for anyone who wants to understand Chopin. More lessons like this are seriously needed, to understand the Genius of Chopin. Very comprehensive, you are amazing.

This allows people to develop a sense of appreciation for the music, the composer, the piece, the interpreter -- who is not just mechanically playing, but recreating the piece -- which truly is an art. Big thanks !!!

7:25 caught me so off guard I almost spat out my drink

Very impressive and very technical analysis of this very romantic ballade #1. Thank you. Would love to see you analyze in your next project of what many people say as a master piece: the ballade#4 in F minor.

I have nothing but the utmost respect for all of you who understand and incorporate this in depth approach to piano music. I only wish I had the opportunity to learn piano and music theory at an early age. Never the less , I love listening to you analysis these classic pieces.

This is the video i’ve been waiting for! So much food for thought. Love how you broke it down. Thanks for sharing. The opening bars quickly draw in the listener with a Neopolitan arpeggio. a very improvisational feel to me. Also I love crescendos on held notes. Physically impossible but fun to create the illusion.

N6 -> V -> i. This tells us that the first harmony, a neopolitan in first inversion, is a substitution for a more normal predominant harmony like ii°. It should be emphasized to bring out its interesting color. The V is kept ambiguous with a little modal borrowing initially (to ease over from the N6), and the rest is just a lovely little melody almost acting like a distant response to the call of the bold initial N6, all dancing around V and i until Chopin is ready for the introduction to end. The harmonic progression is functional, and its function helps to determine how it's played.

Am studying piano now. Just wanted to let you know I'm in your audience. Thank you for your efforts. Dan

I first heard this piece in the anime "Your Lie in April", and I just LOVE Chopin Ballade No.1

Analysis and interpretation are the coolest music videos, not boring at all

YES! I really hope you are able to make more of these analysis & interpretation videos :D !!!

Two years late to the party - I have only just found this video, and I found it fascinating. I would happily have listened to the whole analysis - thank you so much

I’m the beginner among the beginners. Although I do not have solid music theory/knowledge, but from what you’ve explained, I kind of able to understand how this entire thing works after your analysis on the piece. Your method of analysing every measure helps me when I look at the notes now, the pauses, the dynamics,etc... I learned something treasure today! I might not be able to apply on my hands on now, but this is something that would help me go further, at least I believed so. Thanks 😊

My favourite piece. Ever. Not even close.

These types of videos are very valuable. Educational. I wish there was more of these

I loved this kind of video, Annique. Would definitely enjoy learning more analysis techniques from you!

It took me 9 months to learn this piece and you made me feel like I should've spent 9 months for every 7 bars. Very discouraging. Also.. I want more of this! Soooooo interesting because I've never learnt it

Really delicate playing of the introduction. Also one could feel the depth and wideness of the sound.

you are exciting even when being pedantic regarding your assessment of this piece, you are fascinating and my most inspirational piano teacher. thank you

Mille mercis pour cette vidéo. En tant que débutante (4 ans de piano) je me focalise encore trop dans la seule lecture des notes sans rien analyser autour. Cela m'encourage à me plonger plus sérieusement dans la théorie.

Loved this sooo much! Always feel a little bit overwhelmed by those topics, but your explanaitions helped a lot as they were systematically analyzing and then interpreting different aspects and bringing them together :)

Sehr gut, danke schön!! Alles perfekt und easy erklärt.

i love the way your arms and your hands move when youre playing the piano i struggle a lot when using my whole arm playing pieces so watching you do this stuff is like wow tyr doing this next time stuff like that it makes me happy and motivated in my mind i go "wow i wish i could move my arms like she can"

She's even more beautiful

This is my favorite piece of music. I'm learning it right now and it's really wonderful.

Wow, I'm literally just about to finish learning this piece. Perfect timing :>

I have no idea what are you talking about in the video because I can’t even read the notes or even play the piano but I am here anyway because I love watching and listening to you ❤️

thx to the ppl who puts the lyrics i'm a frenchie it's hard to understand without subtitles, i really enjoyed the video and I learned a lot

I would love a serie of this videos analysing all chopin etudes

The openness of the quasi-Ab intro gives way to the chromatic harmony which functions to create more angst. It is then calmly resolved in the tonicization of g minor and the beauty and confidence of the melody.

That A-flat major + Bb color is also used near the end of Valse op 34 no 1 which is really graceful and made a nice sparkling effect ✨✨

This is one of the most beautiful pieces ever written. Well done!

THIS IS GOLD

I love analysis and I love this piece. Combining two of my favorite things? Yes please, more please. Maybe it overlaps with patreon content, but you could continue this series for pieces that you've done in the 1 minute, 10 minutes, 1 hour challenge. Maybe there's too much overlap in content tho.

More more more of this!! :)

Please, more analysis and interpretation videos! I could watch these for hours.

Thanks, yes I get the notes, oh dear now comes the interpretation, the deeper listening - with melody harmony dynamics rhythm articulation form frame colour weight timing. Interesting I don't feel overwhelmed, just inspired!! Thanks.

You're a classy pianist indeed. I have to listen with my eyes closed or you are too much of an attraction. I love this kind of analysis and have almost no claim to formal music theory education. I understand the analysis and that's fine. What I generally seem to miss in these musical analyses is "what's the story of this piece?" With Van Beethoven's 5th that is extremely important, for example. And in my opinion, here too. One biography on Chopin I read, informs that Chopin loved Bach's music and played Bach every day, if only to maintain a steady left hand. And that steady left hand was all-important to him. The right hand was allowed to wander, as long as the left hand was steady. There's storytelling here, in the sense this is called "ballade" and the word is not only referencing a "ballad" but specifically a song for dancing. If you ever spoke with musicians that have performed live to human dancers, then you know the reproaching looks of the dancers when a player is off-beat, let alone between musicians in an orchestra joking about the rhythm section being off beat too often. As Chopin dedicated the piece to baron Stockhausen - a man - the question is what this informs about the storytelling in the ballad. The opening as a wake-up call from a man to a woman, whispering in her ear and then transitioning into a dance that ends with her saying, make some music with me? I don't know, but just guess there is more than 5ths. One thing that I certainly would not be able to recognize, is what Nikita Magaloff did in a documentary, when he pointed his student to a couple bars in the middle of a Chopin piece. She, I believe later became professor in a French conservatory, had played the notes perfectly according to the sheet music. And in the evaluation afterwards, Magaloff asked her to play these bars again, as if they were a fugue. Same notes, different result, different story. And it made so much sense, knowing that Fryderyk Franciszek was a serious Bach-lover. When I look at the sheet music, some of the directions are above the G-lines, some between the G and F. One print edition, above the G lines, says "espress." above bar 6 (the one in the video nothing) and then two bars later, the print says "dolce" between G and F lines. Is the former a right hand only instruction? The latter for both? This is technical again, detached from storytelling. Or, Annique talks about "legato" with the introduction, her sheet music says "largo" and the print I reference here says "lento". I know, the legato is in the arcs and the introduction does not call for pedal. Do you imagine the legato and hope to raise the illusion to the listener with a gentle touch, or do you create it by just releasing the first note > after< you hit the second? Somehow these instructions of legato and largo or lento seem related and one facilitates the other. To illustrate the "Polish Matter" the Chopin biography had this metaphor. Ask authors from different countries to write book about the elephant and the US author produces "How to get bigger and better elephants", the German author "An introduction to the study of the elephant, Volume I .. VII". Well, Ms. Goettler, there's prejudice to live up to regarding your analysis of this Ballade. Because I would love to hear more about it from you.

This format is amazing! Please do more of this, analyzing more bars and more pieces!

Great lecture, sensei

Danke Annique! This is the theory and analysis I crave and believe this could help me become a better pianist. I’d Iove to see more of these types of videos in the future. ☺️

you're very enthusiatic, Annique! Danke Schoen

Would absolutely love to see this analysis for this ballade’s coda 🥸🥸🥸

Love it. It shows there’s so much to think about even for a short snippet of a piece which then leads to many possible interpretations. I definitely am looking forward to more of it, and also to you playing this piece in full 🙂

There is so such value in this video, it's unbelievable. Thank you

Wow! I didn’t know so much can be said and explored in just the first 7 bars! Thank you so much for this Annique! Looking forward to your analysis and interpretation for the rest of this piece (which I’m self-learning now)!

I first heard this peice in Your lie in April ... that's where i started to like Chopin's music so much ... this Ballad no.1 is a masterpiece

I'm already trying to play this piece, this helps me to know more about what I'm playing. Very good video! Thanks!

Nice! This is my favorite Chopin piece :D

I remember spending more time on the interpretation than just the learning how ro play it.

I love this development in your series. I hope you continue doing analysis videos

I alway knew I had to study my sheets but never did because I never knew what to focus on and didn’t want to practice bad habits. I appreciate this video as it helps a lot!

Can’t wait for No. 4!!! My favorite.

you won my subscription, i love this video. make it longer

How did I miss this video? How?! Fascinating look into your interpretation of the opening to Ballade No 1. Really loved it. I think a few people mentioned Ballade No 4 in the comments. I second this. Much more familiar with this piece. May give me a few insights that will help with my own interpretation. First page, at least. Although wouldn't mind a peek at the pianissimo left hand octaves on the third page, just before the mezza voce. That part always confuses me on how to interpret it.

That piece sounded so good, also liked the video and would love to see more of these

loved this! super cool to hear your approach and thoughts when looking at a piece

Great format, very interesting !

My favorite piece in the world, Chopin and his Ballade in G, the reason why I want to be a pianist in a couple of years 🖤

Thanks for this~! Your analysis got me really excited about relearning this piece. My favorite thing about this opening is that we don't feel home (tonic) until bar 9. Horowitz!

I would love to hear how you fully interpret this wonderful ballade! Thanks for your video, you've been inspiring me lately! Have a nice day!

Thank you so much for this Heart of Keys, This piece means so much to me, keep doing what you do best. God bless you.

I was waiting for this. Thank you for your effort

So amazing! Thank you for your superb and nuanced insight and instruction - This has always been my favorite Ballade and what a gift to get to be a student in your wonderful master class here! :) 👍

i would LOVE to see an analysis and interpretation for the whole thing!!! would sit through all of it even if it lasts 10 hours.

Would love to watch a full video of you playing Ballade no. 1!

Please, go on with this videos. They are phantastic!

I love this kind of videos very much. It is extremely useful and interesting, as well as very well done. When do you upload the subsequent parts? This Ballade is wonderful, one of the best music piece ever written. Thank youuuuuuuuuu!!!! Tommaso

Thank you! This is very helpful.

Hi, Annique.. Learning so much from you... Appreciate your going into analysis and interpretation... How you do it as consumate Classical pianist... I can cope... And learning... At the same time, you inspire me going deeper ...take care! I love your hair!

Hi Annique, liked your analysis a lot. Really helps - thank you!

I like this type of video, very unique content on youtube like this is hard to find

Thanks! Hello from Finland! 🙂💯🙋‍♂️

I really like analysis videos More of this kind of videos whould be useful and as you said , "insight giving" .. Ballade no.4 is my suggestion And maybe more of no.1 too

Yesss, my favorite piece. Thank you 💙😊

As Chopin, i can say. It is very good.

Lovely video, divine piece, thorough interpretation (and lovely lady). Keep up the good work teutonic beauty!

This was really great, thank you very much! I hope there will be more analysis and thoughts on other pieces in the future.

Woooooow amazing video!! Thank you so much

Thank you very much! I love this kind of videos and I can learn how to analyse a piece, even though I'm not a music major students. Please keep this up

CONFUUSION OF THE HIGHEST ORDA! Didnt count with that one.

I look forward to see more of this kind of videos

Would love to see more analysis & theory videos!

Absolutely loving this!

Yes please do make more videos like this!

This is a terrific style of video. Thank you.

For me, the most challenging parts of the g minor ballade are the polyphony and the big reaches with the thumb under.

Perfect video, liked it very much! Please make this a series, analyzing the whole Ballade No.1 . Would like to hear you playing it as well :)

I love your vids!!!💗💯

I play the cello, not the piano but appreciate your analysis very much. I like listening to your thought process and hope to see more of your analysis videos!