Chopin, Week 5

Chopin

Polonaise Op. 53

The introduction of this polonaise is so strikingly declamatory that it becomes hard to not view the contents to come as being nothing less than genius. It reminds me of Berlioz’s Symphonie Fantastique, whose name establishes an expectation that serves to heighten the entire work. Chopin’s use of dominant 7 chords is unique, but also his choice to harmonize the chromatic scales with major triads. This gives the romantic chromatic scale a new appeal that separates it from the classical predecessors.

The main theme is interesting to me in terms of rhythmic duration. The presence of the rising “so-do” interval in the bass octaves makes the motivic units seem to be centered on the 3rd beat rather than the first. Chopin intensifies the rhythmic variety with his use of two-note slurs in the bass that tend to syncopate the accompaniment. The presence of the trills and rolled-chords give the piece a festive folk-music sound. The use of the octave-spanning three note chords in the melody are similar to the Hungarian Rhapsodies of Franz Liszt, which leads me to believe that the roots of this harmonic stacking derive from folk practice.

I feel that Chopin’s habit of writing out the repeat was well-founded considering that in modern performances people tend to omit repeats within works that contain them, this would not be possible in the works of Chopin. The presence of the Phrygian half-step in the section of measures 57-65 gives the music a sound similar to a toreador song.

Chopin’s use of the tritone as a new key for the C section (measure 81) is quite striking. This section sounds very similar to Franz Liszts Orage, as well as his Funerailles. These stepwise bass octaves function fantastically as a way for the accompaniment to remain harmonically uneventful while supporting the melody with a strong force of vibration. This accompaniment also functions as a great vehicle towards accelerandi and crescendos.

I am convinced by the end of this piece, which is seemingly a rondo, that Chopin sometimes disliked the idea of ending music in a conventional manor.
Here are a few pieces I can think of by Chopin which end oddly…
1) This one.
2) The Revolutionary Etude
3) The Ballade in G minor
4) The f minor Fantasy
It seems in pieces like this that there is a perfectly normal ending, followed by several measures of an extremely strange and often chromatically formed chord progression.





Polonaise Op.61

The mystical arpeggiations of the opening, which outline the overtones which we discussed in class, seem very similar to me to the Fantasy Op.49. The A section is a melancholy song, and with the existence of so many chromatic descensions it feels as though this is on the even darker side of melancholy, anger as opposed to sorrow.

At the a tempo, around the 6th page, Chopin manifests an accompaniment that seems to almost suspend the melody in a timeless and spaceless atmosphere. Throughout the work we see a bit more of the fantasy than of the polonaise. Where as the Op. 53 seemed like a dramatic virtuoso show, this piece seems to be more of a song cycle of sorts. I would say that the polonaise title probably lends itself more to the rhythms and the nationalism than the overall feeling.

At the finale it seems that Chopin throws all the virtuosity and bravura that he can at the absolute last minute. The texture become joyously thick and the registers span in both ways to the extremes of their capacities. But at its very last the piece returns to its soft and song-like nature with the piannisimo trills. I would think the the loud chord at its very end is nothing more than a signal to the audience to clap.

Barcarolle Op. 60

A barcarolle, being a song sung by Venetian gondoliers, carries with it certain expectations as to how the music will embody the vision and spirit of the scene. Chopin accomplishes the setting of a boat upon water with a slowly rising and rapidly falling bass voice. Later in the piece the waters become more sormy as the bass moves to a two note rise and fall pattern, similar to the boat bouncing against the wake set forth by another larger boat.

Chopin also adds a shimmering quality to the music by inserting layered trills, as well as setting swiftly moving parts at piannisimo levels in a higher octave. In many ways this piece is similar to a nocturne, in the way that the melody moves fluidly through various rhythms and song-like intervals while the bass remains constantly supportive but non-interfering.

Fantasy Op. 49

By the very first measures of the piece it becomes clear that this will be a work rich with romantic 19th century attributes. The combination therein of nationalism with mysticism and broader dynamics of emotions. This is what makes this work different from the fantasies of Mozart for example. The mixture of worldy images with otherworldy destinations. The entrance of the arpeggios after the march introduction almost feels like the musical equivalent of a persons hearing news that causes all their priorities to resort. The piece uses this fantasy idea as a manor of evolution from the sad to the sublime.

At the piu mosso march return we see the same medium from the introduction but this time from a different point of view. If the introduction were a sombre march to war then this would be its triumphant victory march, after the fact. This piece for me seems as though it could have had all the attributes of a typically sorrowful Chopin piece, however, I feel that in this music we see those heroic qualities similar to the musical evolutions of Beethoven. This piece for me is certainly a triumph through struggle. I would not be surprised to think that this music embodied Chopin’s feelings about the difficult political situation in Poland. For me this is a piece about taking dark thoughts and seeing them through to joyous expectations.