The lengthy trio, in A major, is lacking entirely the somber atmosphere that pervades much of Chopin's music. Among these are the vast contrasts in the first theme, with its wide leaps and pregnant pauses in the first half and rising and falling scales in the second. The problem with this is that our familiarity with the work can lead us to miss its many great moments. In a way, Chopin has ultimately gotten his wish, because the piece has been played to death. Chopin wished his students to perform the opening phrase of this scherzo in a manner that evoked the image of a mortuary. It is the most popular of Chopin's scherzos. This type of composition stood in the face of "Germanic" works of the time, which are constructed with the principle of "thematic unity" in mind.Ĭhopin's Scherzo in B flat minor/D flat major was published in Leipzig in the same year it was composed. Furthermore, the reprise is not always given in full, but leads to a coda that features new material. By delaying the reprise and pushing toward the end of the piece Chopin increases the dramatic power of its arrival. 39, is in a modified sonata form.) A great extension and harmonic foray into distant keys create tension that is resolved with the reprise of the opening material. (The third of the four independent scherzos, Op. 20, 31 and 54 scherzos, Chopin achieves his dramatic effect through the ternary form.
For Chopin, the scherzo form (ABA, or ternary) was indeed a skeleton, just as ternary form was for all of his dance music, and he embellished upon this skeleton as he saw fit.
However, in Chopin's more mature scherzos all that seems to be left of these models is the 3/4 meter. The best known scherzos before Chopin are those by Beethoven and Mendelssohn, and these undoubtedly served Chopin as models. 35, and the sixth as part of the Sonata, Op. His works are mainstays of Romanticism in 19th-century classical music.Chopin composed six scherzos, four of which were published as individual works, the fifth as part of the Sonata, Op. Chopin invented musical forms such as the ballade and was responsible for major innovations in forms such as the piano sonata, waltz, nocturne, étude, impromptu and prelude. Though technically demanding, Chopin's style emphasizes nuance and expressive depth rather than virtuosity. A Polish patriot,Ĭhopin's extant compositions were written primarily for the piano as a solo instrument. In Paris, he made a comfortable living as a composer and piano teacher, while giving few public performances. In November 1830, at the age of 20, Chopin went abroad following the suppression of the Polish November Uprising of 1830–31, he became one of many expatriates of the Polish "Great Emigration." He was born in the village of Żelazowa Wola, in the Duchy of Warsaw, to a Polish mother and French-expatriate father, and in his early life was regarded as a child-prodigy pianist. He is widely regarded as the greatest Polish composer, and ranks as one of music's greatest tone poets. Frédéric Chopin (1 March 1810 – 17 October 1849) was a Polish composer and virtuoso pianist of the Romantic period.