CHAPTER 35
Dancing at the Keyboard: Chopin and Romantic Piano Music
OVERVIEW
Chapter 35 treats the Romantic-era piano and its repertoire. The new technological developments
of the instrument and the short lyric piano piece are the main subjects of this chapter, with
Chopin’s mazurkas serving as a focal point.
LEARNING OBJECTIVES
1. To understand the technological improvements made to the piano during the nineteenth
century, culminating in the modern grand piano
2. To understand the popularity of the short lyric piano piece during the nineteenth century as
exemplified by the compositional output of Chopin
3. To understand Chopin’s mazurkas as representative examples of the nineteenth-century
short lyric piano piece
LECTURE SUGGESTIONS
1. Compare the design, action, and sound of a fortepiano of Mozart and Haydn’s day with the
new Pleyel or Broadwood pianos of the early to mid-nineteenth century. Explain and
illustrate the new expressive capabilities of the nineteenth-century piano (damper pedal,
triple-string choirs, extended range, cast-iron frame, felt hammer coverings replacing
leather, and later the sostenuto pedal). For background on the evolution of the instrument
with many useful diagrams and illustrations, see Giraffes, Black Dragons, and Other Pianos
by Edwin Marshall Good (see “Supplemental Bibliography”). For audio excerpts of a range
of reconstructed nineteenth-century pianos, the fortepianist Vivian Sofronitsky maintains a
YouTube channel dedicated to the instruments built by her husband, Paul McNulty, one of
today’s most prominent builders of fortepianos:
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCdzwC0lHiFhQlPKEbBhRdkg.
2. Compare the compositional outputs of Mozart and Chopin. Emphasize the variety of genres
of both instrumental and vocal music of Mozart and the more focused piano genres of
Chopin. Ask the class how this discrepancy relates to the professional obligations of Mozart
(working largely within the patronage system) versus those newly available to Chopin in the
nineteenth century, as covered in the textbook section “The Musician in Society” from the
Prelude to Part 5 (pp. 183–84).
3. Play or show the class an example of a folk mazurka and then compare it with Chopin’s
Mazurka in B-flat Minor, Op. 24, No. 4. Ask the class how Chopin adapts elements of the
dance to create a new style. What are the Romantic elements in Chopin’s version of the folk
mazurka?
ASSIGNMENT SUGGESTIONS
1. Chopin’s Mazurka in B-flat Minor, Op. 24, No. 4 is a stylized version of a folk dance; in
other words, although the folk dance inspired the general character of the piece, Chopin
adapted the folk material according to his own musical imagination. Even though the folk
dance is stylized, can we still consider Chopin’s Mazurka an example of folk music? If not,
speaking generally, on what grounds is the authenticity of folk music measured? Open this
discussion to other types of folk music (American folk songs, blues, etc.). What parameters
do we place on musical expression in our attempt to register a folk authenticity?
2. Consider the following quote by George Bernard Shaw: “The pianoforte is the most
important of all musical instruments; its invention was to music what the invention of
printing was to poetry.” Quoted in David Dubal, The Art of the Piano: Its Performers,
Literature, and Recordings, Vol. 1. Revised and expanded edition (Milwaukee: Amadeus
Press, 2006).
3. Explain in your own words what Shaw is suggesting here. Why do you think Shaw
characterizes the piano in these terms? Does the piano still have this much importance
today? If not, what is the function of the piano in today’s world? What musical instrument
do you think is today’s equivalent of the pianoforte?
TEACHING CHALLENGES
When you are introducing the technological improvements in the nineteenth-century piano,
students will get a much better sense of the issues if they can observe an instrument firsthand.
This is a great opportunity to ask your school’s piano technician or tuner to demonstrate the inner
mechanics of the piano for your class or have class members briefly sit-in on a tuning or repair
job.
SUPPLEMENTAL REPERTORY
Chopin: Mazurka in C Major, Op. 24, No. 2
R. Schumann: Carnaval, Op. 9
SUPPLEMENTAL BIBLIOGRAPHY
Good, Edwin Marshall. Giraffes, Black Dragons, and Other Pianos: A Technological History
from Cristofori to the Modern Concert Grand. Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press,
1982. This book contains the background information on pianos mentioned in “Lecture
Suggestions.”
Parakilas, James, ed. Piano Roles: Three Hundred Years of Life with the Piano. New Haven
and London: Yale University Press, 1999. An excellent and eclectic collection of essays
on the piano since the eighteenth century, covering such subjects as technological
advances, pedagogy, the rise of the piano virtuoso, and portrayals of the piano in popular
media.
Samson, Jim, ed. The Cambridge Companion to Chopin. Cambridge and New York: Cambridge
University Press, 1992 (reprinted 2000). Essays covering the life and music of the composer
in three parts (“The Growth of a Style,” “Profiles of the Music,” and “Reception”). Adrian
Thomas’s “Beyond the Dance” in Part 2 addresses the mazurkas in detail.
CHAPTER OUTLINE
Dancing at the Keyboard: Chopin and Romantic Piano Music (Chapter 35)
I. The Nineteenth-Century Piano
A. Piano: most central to Western musical tradition
1. most expressive, technologically versatile instrument available
a. wide variety of dynamic and resonant effects
b. polyphonic and homophonic textures
2. attractive to amateurs and professionals: home and concert hall
3. staple of refined education
B. Rise of the virtuoso pianist
1. developing concert industry
2. performer not always the composer
C. Technical improvements: led to modern concert grand
1. metal frame, increased string tension
2. improved mechanical action, extended range
3. factory production: reduced cost
4. fixture in middle- and upper-class homes
II. The Short Lyric Piano Piece (Character Piece)
A. Compact form: instrumental equivalent to song
1. inexhaustible ingenuity, expression, technical resources
2. fanciful titles: Prelude, Intermezzo, Impromptu, Nocturne
3. dance inspired: Polish mazurka, polonaise; Viennese waltz, scherzo
4. descriptive titles: “Wild Hunt”, “The Little Bell”, “Forest Murmurs”
5. composers: Schubert, Chopin, Liszt, Felix Mendelssohn, Fanny Mendelssohn Hensel,
Robert and Clara Schumann, Brahms
B. Frédéric François Chopin (1810–1849)
1. born in Warsaw, Poland; composer, pianist
2. age 21: moved to Paris, artistic center in 1830s
3. tumultuous affair with novelist Aurore Dupin, Baroness Dudevant (George Sand)
4. works central to piano repertoire
a. originated modern piano style
b. ornamented melodies: trills, grace notes, runs
c. widely spaced chords in bass line
d. expressive depths, “poet” of the piano
5. died of tuberculosis, age 39
6. output: concertos, ballads, sonatas, preludes, études, mazurkas, polonaises, scherzos,
waltzes, impromptus, nocturnes, chamber music, and songs
C. A Mazurka by Chopin
1. mazurka: derived from Polish peasant dance
a. lively, triple-meter
b. accents on second or third beat of measure
c. usually (A-B-A) form
2. Chopin transformed mazurka to art form
3. rubato (“robbed time”): rhythmic liberties
D. Listening Guide 24: Chopin, Mazurka in B-flat minor, Op. 24, No. 4 (1833)
1. moderate triple meter
2. A-B-A´-B-A´-C-C-D-A, long coda
3. dancelike dotted rhythms
4. subtle harmonic shifts typical of folk music: major, minor, modal
5. homophonic texture; rich in chromaticism
6. melody: chromatic lines, wide-ranging and disjunct