I don't have a lot of time this week so once again I'll talk to myself about Chopin's mazurakas. This week I'm up to Opus 41. This will take my only halfway through my mazurkas book :(

Quatre Mazurkas

For à Mr. E. Witwicki.

Op. 41, No. 1 in C♯ minor

Some interesting harmonies to start this one out. Some kind of Phyrgian thing with the C♯m → D chord progression. Eventually it transitions to a major theme with a bit of a deceptive cadence.

The C (or maybe D, I lost count) section has some call-and-response back-and-forth between the left- and right-hands as it modulates to A major. That then transitions back to the main theme, except in a major key, and that D chord makes more sense within the F♯m harmonic scale.

Some mazurka-ish/Hungarian dance-ish dotted-eighth/sixteenth patterns follow, And finally the main theme is revisited loudly in octaves, before ending in a depressing funeral march waltz. Of sorts.

Op. 41, No. 2 in E minor

This one has an interesting start. Originally I thought this was in A minor until I actually looked at the key signature. It's in E minor but starts on an E7 chord. Then it's repeated down a fourth which gets to E minor.

A bunch of annoying-to-sight-read accidentals eventually lead us rather abruptly back to the main theme, only louder and angrier. I also found it interesting that my edition featured an explicit C♮ despite there being no C♯s in the previous measure. I guess it feels warranted after the overabundance of accidentals preceding it.

This one is all slow and sad and feels like it would have been part of a movie soundtrack at some point. Like something depressing like a war movie in a scene showing a montage of the destructive aftermath. Like "look at all the senseless killing. We've won the war, but at what cost?"

I looked but it appears no one has done that, yet.

Op. 41, No. 3 in B major

This one has a unique beginning. Some fast unison scales/arpeggios are featured. Haven't seen that kind of thing in the mazurkas yet.

And then Chopin was all "B major sucks, how about E♭ instead?" I'm sure there's some music theory explanation for that transition. I guess the scalar runs ends on a D♯, so he was like "yeah, that's the same as E♭ let's use that note".

And then he throws a curveball but ending that same run on a D♮ which gives him an excuse to transition to D major.

Overall this one is pretty fun. Kinda reminiscient of some of Chopin's waltzes.

Op. 41, No. 4 in A♭ major

This one is also very waltzy to start out. Eventually there's a picardy 3rd and now we're in C major.

Not much more to say about this one. It's short and sweet and basically a waltz.