<glacius:metadata>

    <title>Chopin's Mazurkas - Part 2</title>

    <description>Once again I listen to Chopin's Mazurkas</description>

    <category>Piano</category>

    <category>Music</category>

    <category>Classical music</category>

    <category>Chopin</category>

    <series order="6">2022 music project</series>

    <series order="2">Reviewing Chopin's mazurkas</series>

</glacius:metadata>

<p>

    Once again I'm returning to Chopin's Mazurkas, starting where

    <glacius:link page="music/projects/chopin-mazurkas-part-1">I left off</glacius:link>

    at the tenth mazurka: Op. 17, No. 1.

</p>

<h2>The Mazurkas</h2>

<h3>Quatre Mazurkas</h3>

<p>For <em>a mademoiselle Lina Freppa</em>, of course</p>

<h4>Op. 17, No. 1 in B&#x266d; major</h4>

<p>

    Starting off with a forzando is something new. Very minuet-ish sounding, with the

    chromatic passing tones in the first few bars. The chromatic thirds remind me of

    Beethoven's <em>Minuet in G</em><glacius:cite>Performance + score of Beethoven's

    <em>Minuet in G</em> on 

    <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9rpe3dRtP9o">YouTube</a></glacius:cite> which I

    played a million years ago.

</p>

<glacius:grid cols="2">

    <div>

        <glacius:figure glacius:src="06-chopin-mazurkas-op17-01-main-theme.png" type="image">

            <caption>Op. 17, No. 1 main theme with chromatic thirds</caption>

        </glacius:figure>

    </div>

    <div>

        <glacius:figure glacius:src="06-chopin-mazurkas-op17-01-beethoven-minuet.png" type="image">

            <caption>Beethoven's <em>Minuet in G</em>, WoO 10, No. 2</caption>

        </glacius:figure>

    </div>

</glacius:grid>

<p>

    The main theme is revisited in measure 17 with some 

    <span style="color: #66cc66">different harmonies</span>. Pretty neat

    mechanic to make a normally boring repeat actually stand out. This same harmony was

    repeated the third time through the main theme.

</p>

<glacius:figure glacius:src="06-chopin-mazurkas-op17-01-main-theme-harmonies.png" type="image">

    <caption>Op. 17, No. 1 main theme revisited with extra harmony</caption>

</glacius:figure>

<p>

    The "bridge" modulates to E♭ major, and changes to a very soft and warm

    sound as opposed to the almost march-like dynamic range of the previous sections.

</p>

<p>

    This section ends with what sounds like a section from his most famous Nocturne:

    <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nocturnes,_Op._9_(Chopin)#Nocturne_in_E-flat_major,_Op._9,_No._2">Op. 9, 

    No. 2</a>. Maybe just because it's in the same key with a descending chromatic

    before resolving to the tonic, but my mind immediately went to the nocturne.

</p>

<glacius:grid cols="2">

    <div>

        <glacius:figure glacius:src="06-chopin-mazurkas-op17-01-eflat-end.png" type="image">

            <caption>End of the E&#x266d; section in Op. 17, No. 1</caption>

        </glacius:figure>

    </div>

    <div>

        <glacius:figure glacius:src="06-chopin-mazurkas-op17-01-eflat-end-nocturne.png" type="image">

            <caption>Excerpt from Op. 9, No. 2 (Nocturne in E&#x266d;)</caption>

        </glacius:figure>

    </div>

</glacius:grid>

<p>

    And finally, in true mazurka fashion, it repeats the first ⅔ of the piece and then ends.

</p>

<h4>Op. 17, No. 2 in E minor</h4>

<p>

    Contrary to the previous mazurka, this one is more melancholy and slow. And once

    again, we have a discrepancy in the score within the first few measures (similar

    to the A minor mazurka from Part 1). The performance I'm listening 

    to<glacius:cite>Performed by 

    <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_6k8CUmtRE8">Janina Fialkowska</a></glacius:cite>

    does not articulate each <span style="color: #66cc66">B note</span>, but instead ties them all 

    together.

</p>

<glacius:figure glacius:src="06-chopin-mazurkas-op17-02-tied-b.png" type="image">

    <caption>Phantom B's in Op. 17, No. 2?</caption>

</glacius:figure>

<p>

    From a brief search through YouTube:

</p>

<ul>

    <li>

        Rubenstein plays each B note<glacius:cite>Rubenstein's performance on 

        <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rTT5NZZqsCw">YouTube</a></glacius:cite>

    </li>

    <li>

        Janina Fialkowska ties the B notes<glacius:cite>Fialkowska's performance on

        <a href="https://youtu.be/_6k8CUmtRE8?t=1307">YouTube</a></glacius:cite>

    </li>

    <li>

        Yundi Li plays each B note<glacius:cite>Yundi Li's performance on

        <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4iIAD1Juaz4">YouTube</a></glacius:cite>

    </li>

    <li>

        Aimi Kobayashi ties the B notes<glacius:cite>Kobayashi's performance in the 2015 

        Chopin competition 

        on <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xmW8rkqvefQ">YouTube</a></glacius:cite>

    </li>

    <li>

        Chenyin Li plays each B note<glacius:cite>Chenyin Li's performance on

        <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-cMvlnf4xGQ">YouTube</a></glacius:cite>

    </li>

</ul>

<p>

    My conclusion is that it seems to be a stylistic choice of whether to articulate

    each B or tie them together. How exciting.

</p>

<hr />

<p>

    A brief section as it transitions back into the main theme has a bunch of repeated

    quarter note block chords in a kind of ascending-chromatic eventually leading

    back to Em. Chopin did something similar several years later in his B♭ minor Sonata.

</p>

<glacius:grid cols="2">

    <div>

        <glacius:figure glacius:src="06-chopin-mazurkas-op17-02-block-chords.png" type="image">

            <caption>Block chords leading back to main theme in Op. 17, No. 2</caption>

        </glacius:figure>

    </div>

    <div>

        <glacius:figure glacius:src="06-chopin-mazurkas-op17-02-block-chords-sonata.png" type="image">

            <caption>

                Simliar-ish block chords in the first movement of Chopin's

                <em>Sonata No. 2 in B&#x266d; Minor</em>

            </caption>

        </glacius:figure>

    </div>

</glacius:grid>

<p>

    The same block chords with subtle chromatic changes can also be seen in every 1st or 

    2nd year student's favorite: the 

    <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HiwPzHJ-Pic">E minor prelude</a>.

    Although that one's a bit more subtle since it's slower and stretched out over multiple 

    measures.

</p>

<h4>Op. 17, No. 3 in A&#x266d; major</h4>

<p>

    This opening chord progression of G°7 resolving to A♭ was also used

    in his previous A♭ major mazurka, Op. 7, No. 4. Although I guess tonally

    it was more of a D♭m chord, but it still used the ♭6 in the key

    of A♭.

</p>

<glacius:grid cols="2">

    <div>

        <glacius:figure glacius:src="06-chopin-mazurkas-op17-03-fflat.png" type="image">

            <caption>G&#x00b0;7 in opening measures of Op. 17, No. 3</caption>

        </glacius:figure>

    </div>

    <div>

        <glacius:figure glacius:src="06-chopin-mazurkas-op17-03-fflat-op7.png" type="image">

            <caption>Similar chord progression from opening measures of Op. 7, No. 4</caption>

        </glacius:figure>

    </div>

</glacius:grid>

<p>

    The main theme features a lot of diminshed chords. Well, two of them, but given

    that there are only three °7 chords, 2/3 seems like a lot.

</p>

<p>

    This is by far the most repetitive of all the mazurkas so far. Two long-ish sections

    have full repeats with 1st and 2nd endings, and then it goes back to the beginning.

    Not to mention the main theme is quite repetitive on its own. Blrugh.

</p>

<h4>Op. 17, No. 4 in A minor</h4>

<p>

    This one starts off kind of unusually. The left hand is playing some kind of

    F Lydian thing, while the right hand is vaguely in A minor

</p>

<glacius:figure glacius:src="06-chopin-mazurkas-op17-04-intro.png" type="image">

    <caption>Introductory measures from Op. 17, No. 4</caption>

</glacius:figure>

<p>

    I also feel like this one might be kind of famous, as the chromatic descending line in the

    main theme sounds incredibly familiar.<glacius:cite>According to

    <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mazurkas,_Op._17_(Chopin)#Musical_analysis_4">Wikipedia</a>,

    Op. 17, No. 4 is in fact "one of the more popular mazurkas of all Chopins' mazurkas", and

    was featured in the movie <em>Empire of the Sun</em>.</glacius:cite>

</p>

<glacius:figure glacius:src="06-chopin-mazurkas-op17-04-descending-chromatic.png" type="image">

    <caption>Descending chromatic line from main theme</caption>

</glacius:figure>

<p>

    We also get to see some classic Chopin-esque rubato passages.

</p>

<glacius:figure glacius:src="06-chopin-mazurkas-op17-04-rubato.png" type="image">

    <caption>One of the classic Chopin rubato passages from Op. 17, No. 4</caption>

</glacius:figure>

<p>

    Later on we get a modulation to A major with some more pedal tones

    in both hands. This section ends with an <span style="color: #66cc66">ascending E 

    mixolydian scale</span> that leads to the &#x266d;9, which takes us back to the main 

    theme in that weird F Lydian-type mode.

</p>

<glacius:figure glacius:src="06-chopin-mazurkas-op17-04-ascending-e.png" type="image">

    <caption>Ascending E mixolydian leading to F&#x266e;</caption>

</glacius:figure>

<p>

    Eventually ends with a callback to the intro and softly fades out on that

    inquisitive F chord (Am<sup>&#x266d;6</sup>?).

</p>

<h2>Downloads</h2>

<ul>

    <li>

        <glacius:link file="chopin-mazurkas-op17.ly">Lilypond source</glacius:link> used to

        generate graphics for this article.

    </li>

</ul>