John Dalmas wrote:

>Janice Rosen wrote:
>
>>>Hi everyone, I am looking for examples of Chopin's music that has been
>>>adapted by other musicians and given new titles (example: "Fantasie
>>>Impromptu").  Can anyone list other examples?
>
>Walter Meyer replied (in part):
>
>>. . . the Etude in E, Op. 10, became a popular song the title of which
>>in English I've forgotten, but in Europe it was called "La Mer" (sic).
>
>That's one heck of a stretch.  "La Mer' was composed by the French
>chanteur Charles Trenet in, I believe, 1945 and IMO bears no resemblance
>to the Chopin etude.

You are right that Trenet's "La Mer" (Beyond the Sea) bears no resemblance
to the Chopin etude.  I'm now rummaging through my 1950s LPs (mostly
inherited from my father) of "continental encores" to find a recording
of the popularized adaptation of Chopin's work.  Maybe more than one item
of that sort of music played at the time bore the title "La Mer".  I do
remember that my father, a musical person who, I believe, could at least
fake it on any musical instrument he picked up and preferred popular
arrangements of the classical to much of the original, would whistle the
tune and tell me it was called "La Mer", while I remarked that it didn't
sound like Debussy at all.  But he was a smart man and it didn't occur to
me that he could be mistaken.  I think the topic is still close enough to
classical music for me to report back if I find a recording of the work
bearing the title of "La Mer", and if it's something else, I'll report that
back too.

Walter Meyer