The name Leopold Godowsky is rarely mentioned when one talks about favourite composers who wrote piano works. His compositions are often only explored by pianists who are interested in the exotic repertoire of the piano literature. Does Godowsky deserve this neglect? Perhaps not. He might have been the most unique writer of piano music after Chopin, and that's not forgetting Liszt, Debussy and Rachmaninoff. So why is Godowsky's music not as well-known as that of the composers mentioned above?

Before discussing Godowsky's music proper, some mention of his pianistic abilities should be made. In an age where great pianists, including Josef Hoffman, Sergei Rachmaninoff and Arthur Rubinstein reigned supreme, all conceded that Godowsky had the most perfect pianistic mechanism of his time, and very likely of all time. Godowsky was probably unequalled in independence of hands, equality of finger and his ability to delineate polyphonic strands. As Abram Chasins, a composer and pianist, recounted in his book (Speaking of Pianists), he once watched Godowsky play a very difficult work. ‘Godowsky's effortless mastery made me unaware of the vastness of his pianistic feat…Years later, I realised it…with what devastating ease Godowsky had disposed of it, making it seem like nothing at all.'

Perhaps because he was equipped with such an all-encompassing technique, he wrote music that is technically very difficult to execute, though it is never difficult for the sake of it (more below). Yet, despite their difficulties, it is not flashy or showy music. Even though many pianists nowadays have the technical chops to perform Godowsky's music, it has been neglected in favour of music which is outwardly showy. As such, there has been a shortage of recordings and performances of Godowsky's music. Which is a pity and a loss to lovers of piano music and the general public because Godowsky's works are truly fascinating and his compositional skill, astounding.

Below is a brief introduction to two of Godowsky's most famous works, by which he is primarily remembered for today. They also illustrate his ingenuity in writing music for the piano.

This work is based on Chopin's 'Revolutionary' Étude, Op. 10 No. 12. Doesn't look too hard after all, does it? So what's the fuss? Check out the YouTube video below. It features a pianist who played the original Chopin 'Revolutionary' Étude and the Godowsky Study immediately after. (If you're familiar with the original Étude, jump to 2:45 to watch the performance of the Godowsky study.)

As Marc-André Hamelin, an incredible pianist who has recorded all 53 Studies, said of Study No. 22, "The transcriber's wizardry enables us to find here all the passion and the fury contained in the original*, and the blood, sweat and tears needed to convey that to an audience will be obvious to anyone glancing at the score."

*Godowsky's faithfulness to the spirit of the original étude is truly startling.

In case you didn't watch the video, the Study is supposed to be played by the left hand only(!). Out of the 53 Studies, 22 are for the left hand alone and Godowsky's comments on these Studies are worth quoting in full. (The comments which I feel are particularly insightful are marked out in bold.)

"In writing the twenty-two studies for the left hand alone, the author wishes to oppose the generally prevailing idea that the left hand is less responsive to development than the right. In its application to piano playing, the left hand has many advantages over the right hand and it would suffice to enumerate but a few of these to convince the student that it is a fallacy to deem the left hand less adaptable to training than the right hand. The left hand is favoured by nature in having the stronger part of the hand for the upper voice of all double notes and chords and also by generally having the strongest fingers for the strongest parts of a melody. In addition to what is stated above, the left hand, commanding as it does the lower half of the keyboard, has the incontestable advantage of enabling the player to produce with less effort and more elasticity a fuller and mellower tone, superior in quantity and quality to that of the right hand."

The other 51 Studies feature all kinds of amazing transformations of Chopin's études. Godowsky has been accused of sacrilege for writing these Studies, i.e. he mutilated the beauty and purity of Chopin’s original works. Whether this is the case is for academics to argue over. Whatever it is, it is hard to dispute the compositional skill and ingenuity which Godowsky poured into these Studies.

The work opens innocently enough, with the theme presented in both hands (first 8 bars), and it is followed immediately by the 1st variation (Figure 3(a)). The theme is in the left hand, while the right hand introduces counter melodies. The 'density' of the writing gradually increases and a late variation is shown in Figure 3(b).