A Gracious Nod to Chopin (with some ungraciousness later)

There.

In 16 measly bars, Chopin whipped out his shallowest overplayed work.  In a set of 24 inventive, exquisitely crafted preludes this is the most played (after the "Raindrop", of course), and that kind of stinks.  All those harmonic subtleties and explorations of piano textures can't fight for air next to Ol' Catchy Tune, and countless kiddie piano recitals have helped it dig its claws further into the rep.  One of the fine bunch of Italian composers to revitalize Italian instrumental music at the beginning of the 20th century, Alfredo Casella (1883-1947) saw the ditty and inspiration struck.  He'd been writing quirky atonal music at the time, and his Two Contrasts, op. 31 starts with a fine homage to the A-Major Menace:

With a few extra bars and a bunch of extra subtleties, Casella turns the prelude on a wry ear.  You could make a point that all of 19th century salon music owes its livelihood to Chopin, as he infused a lot of creativity and emotional depth to a previously shallow genre of music - Casella infuses that with anise and absinthe.  All the original architecture is there in spirit; he just enriches it with extended tertian fuzziness.  You may notice at the top that this is called Grazioso, or "gracious" for the Anglo-inclined.  I'll let you guess what the other movement is called - it should be apparent when it starts.

~PNK