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[edit] Ballade No. 1 in g minor

Ballade No. 1 in G minor
Instrumentation: Piano solo
Key/Time Signature: G minor / six quarter
Form: Ballade
Date of composition: 1835
Opus Number: 23
Movements/Sections: 1
Dedication: -

Ballade No. 1 in G minor is the first of Polish composer Frédéric Chopin's four ballades for piano solo. It was composed in 1835, and is dedicated to "Monsieur le Baron de Stockhausen". Chopin cited the poet Adam Mickiewicz as an influence for his ballades, although the exact inspiration for each piece is not clear.

The music is built from two main themes, the first being introduced in bar 7 after the short introduction, and the second in bar 69. Both themes return in different guises. The piece is in compound duple time (6/4) except for the short introduction (in 4/4) and the brilliant coda (in 2/2). Sections of the piece are technically demanding, and its complex structure combines ideas from sonata and variation forms.

[edit] Trivia

The ballade was famously played in the film The Pianist by Wladyslaw Szpilman (where it was cut to about 4 minutes from the usual 9-11 minutes it takes to play).

[edit] External links

  • Music at the International Music Score Library Project
 This article about classical composition is a stub. You can help Wikipedia by expanding it.


[edit] Ballade No. 2 in F Major

Ballade No. 2 in F Major
Instrumentation: Piano solo
Key/Time Signature: F Major /
Form: Ballade
Date of composition:
Opus Number: 38
Movements/Sections: 1
Dedication: -

[edit] Ballade No. 3 in A-flat Major

Ballade No. 3 in A♭ Major
Instrumentation: Piano solo
Key/Time Signature: A♭ Major /
Form: Ballade
Date of composition: 1841
Opus Number: 47
Movements/Sections: 1
Dedication: -

Ballade No. 3 in A♭ Major is Chopin's third ballade from 1841. The ballade ranges from 6:00 to almost 8:00. The long ending is typical of Romantic music, though the last ending is rather short, containing the chords C Major, f minor, E♭7, and A-flat major.

[edit] Ballade No. 4 in F minor

Ballade No. 4 in F minor
Instrumentation: Piano solo
Key/Time Signature: F minor /
Form: Ballade
Date of composition:
Opus Number: 52
Movements/Sections: 1
Dedication: -

[edit] Piano Sonata No. 1 (Chopin)

Piano Sonata No. 1 in C minor
Instrumentation: Piano solo
Key/Time Signature: C minor / common; \frac {3}{4}; \frac {5}{4}; cut
Form: Sonata
Date of composition: ----
Opus Number: 4
Movements/Sections: 4
Dedication: Joseph Elsner

Chopin's Sonata No. 1 in C Minor' is a name given to the posthumously published Opus 4 of Frédéric Chopin, a sonata written as Mozart or Beethoven might have understood the term, whereas Chopin's later (but earlier published) "sonatas", while much more popular works by Chopin are less a set of thematically related pieces as required by that classical form than a force fit of 4 pieces in the same key but otherwise loosely related if connected at all.

The Sonata is in 4 movements, or parts, as follows

  1. Allegro maestoso in C minor — The most classical part of the work, it incorporates elements all but absent from other Chopin works, such as a slow theme beginning with a mordent, counterpoint, and long periods when the left hand carries the theme. It is in the form of a theme and variations, and is technically challenging compared to the rest of the work. From a modern point of view, its ratio of technical difficulty to innovation is low, meaning that it takes a lot of work to master for very little of the innovation that characterises Chopin's other works.
  2. Menuetto in E flat major — A simple, delightful minuet similar in style to those in the works of Beethoven and Mozart. Compared to the previous work, the texture is much lighter, and the work is readily hummable whereas the previous movement's theme is very pianistic and difficult to sing. This movement is frequently performed separately with the Larghetto following, both having a relaxed light tone contrasting with the rest of the work.
  3. Larghetto in A flat major — The word larghetto in the Italian language means something like a little wide (broadly). In music it means somewhat slowly. This piece is set in \frac{5}{4} time, which among pieces of that era makes it very unusual. According to musical theory of that era, a bar with 5 beats is logically divided into two simpler bars, one of 3 beats and another of 2 beats, and most of the few such pieces have the 3-beat part first, but this movement works the other way around, with first a 2-beat and then a 3-beat part of each bar, meaning that the 3rd beat of each 5-beat bar carries a secondary accent, which is marked explicitly in certain bars but not others. In other places, it can be inferred, and in still other places Chopin seems to defy this convention and not expect this. This is just one of many unusual characteristics of this short movement which make it delight to some, but a failed novelty in the mind of Huneker, in his introduction to the 1895 American publication of the Mikuli edition of the work. Other curiosities of this movement include exotic cross-rhythms: 5 against 4, 9 against 4, 14 against 3, and 7 against 4 and sotto voce low bass melody notes played by the right hand crossing over the left.
  4. Finale - Presto — Like the first movement, this movement hearkens back to the style of Beethoven (but not Mozart), but with a much livelier tempo. Its only serious criticism is great length (14 pages), with repetition (albeit with variation) somewhat beyond the patience of the casual performer.

Of all works of Chopin, this is among the least recorded and quite different from other well-known Chopin works. However, as noted above, the middle two movements show a different Chopin, one not rigidly adhering to the requirements of the conservatory and showing some of the innovative spirit so evident in his later works.

[edit] Sheet Music

Public Domain Sheet Music at IMSLP

[edit] See also

[edit] Sonata No. 2 (Chopin)

Piano Sonata No. 2 in B-flat minor
Instrumentation: Piano solo
Key/Time Signature: B-flat minor / cut; \frac {3}{4}; common; cut
Form: Sonata
Date of composition: 1837-1839
Opus Number: 35
Movements/Sections: 4
Dedication: -

Frédéric Chopin composed his Piano Sonata No. 2 in B-flat minor, Op. 35 ("Funeral March") mainly in 1839 at Nohant near Chateauroux in France, although the funeral march third movement had been composed as early as 1837.

The sonata consists of four movements.

  1. Grave; Doppio movimento
  2. Scherzo
  3. Marche funèbre: Lento
  4. Finale: Presto

The first movement features a stormy opening theme and a gently lyrical second theme. The second contains a calmer, more relaxed melodic theme. The third movement begins and ends with the celebrated funeral march in B flat minor which gives the sonata its nickname, but has a calm interlude in D flat major which, since it is technically accessible (among the easiest to play among Chopin's works) is sometimes found separately in books for beginning pianists. The finale contains a whirlwind of unison notes with unremitting (not a single rest or chord until the final bars) unvarying tempo or dynamics (changes of volume); James Huneker, in his introduction to the American version of Mikuli edition of the Sonatas, quotes Chopin as saying "The left hand unisono with the right hand are gossiping after the March". Others have summarized remark as saying the fourth movement is wind howling around the gravestones.

The Sonata may have been influenced by the struggle for freedom in Poland. It confused contemporary critics who found it lacked cohesion. Robert Schumann suggested that Chopin had in this sonata "simply bound together four of his most unruly children."

[edit] Piano Sonata No. 3 (Chopin)

Piano Sonata No. 3 in B minor
Instrumentation: Piano solo
Key/Time Signature: B minor / common; \frac {3}{4}; common; \frac {6}{8}
Form: Sonata
Date of composition: 1844
Opus Number: 58
Movements/Sections: 4
Dedication: -

Frédéric Chopin composed his Piano Sonata No. 3 in B minor, Op. 58 in 1844. His last sonata for piano solo, it has been suggested that this was his attempt to address the criticisms of his earlier sonata Op. 35.

The sonata consists of four movements, similar in structure to the second sonata, with a lyrical largo replacing the funeral march.

  1. Allegro maestoso
  2. Scherzo: Molto vivace
  3. Largo
  4. Finale: Presto non tanto; Agitato

A performance of the work lasts around 25 minutes.

The work opens on a martial note, the heavy chords and filigree in the opening of the first movement giving way to a more melodic second theme, eventually leading to the conclusion of the exposition in the dominant key of F-sharp major. A glimpse of the original theme emerges towards the beginning of the development, which, unconventionally, returns to the second theme (as opposed to the first) for the recapitulation. The movement concludes in B major.

The scherzo, in the distant key of E flat and in strict ternary form, characterised by ebullient quaver runs in the right hand, with a more demure chordal middle section. Unlike the scherzo of the B-flat minor sonata (and, indeed, the rest of Chopin's contributions to the genre outside of the sonatas), it is exceptionally short, barely lasting two minutes in an average performance.

Despite a stormy introduction in dotted rhythm, the largo is serene, almost nocturne-like; a mellow and expansive middle section, again characterised by quaver figuration in the background of an intensely harmonic line, separates the more cantabile outer sections in B major. It is the most musically profound of the movements (Kraemer, 1991), in terms of a sustained melody and innovative harmonic progression; it rivals the extensive first movement in length alone.

Its dramatic introduction–a rising harmonic progression left hanging on a high dominant seventh–aside, the finale, in B minor, is pervaded by a "galloping" rhythm; emphasis in the melodic line on the first and third beats of each half-measure outlines the fifth through eighth degrees of a harmonic minor scale (lending prominence to the augmented second between the sixth and seventh scale degrees). The overall melody, chromatic yet rooted in the minor tonic, contribute a dark mood to these primary sections. A more triumphant second theme in B major, repeated twice in the movement's A-B-A-B-A form, appears quite suddenly at the conclusion of the first (likewise when repeated); eventually rising during fleet-fingered runs over a left-hand melody, it tumbles back to a dramatic restatement of the main theme in both of its appearances. The piece concludes in a jubilant B major coda.

[edit] References

"Chopin, Fryderyk Franciszek". The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians (2). (2001). 

Kraemer, Uwe, 14 Waltzes/Piano Sonata No. 3, Sony (liner notes), 1991.