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.

The main theme 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 now that D chord makes more sense in the F♯m harmonic scale.

Some dotted-eighth/sixteenth patterns follow, which is very mazurka-ish. I guess.

And finally the main theme is revisited loudly in octaves, and it ends in a 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.

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. And for what?"

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

Op. 41, No. 3 in B major

Op. 41, No. 4 in A♭ major