Ballad No. 4 (Chopin)
The . Ballad # 4 f-Moll op. 52 is the last of the four ballads Frédéric Chopin . Completed in 1842 after his return from Nohant-Vic , published the following year and dedicated to Baroness Charlotte de Rothschild , the work belongs to his last creative period, which is characterized by further developed sound means and a higher musical complexity.
This piece also sets itself apart from its predecessors, has a more lyrical, thoughtful and harmoniously diverse effect . In the last work of this genre, Chopin combines different formal elements such as the sonata main movement , the variation and the rondo . Apart from the effective and shocking final parts, Chopin dispenses with passionate drama and virtuoso challenges.
To the music
The seven-bar introduction in C major creates the tension-laden atmosphere that is so characteristic of his ballads, which opens the musical narrative. The simple structure draws attention to the melancholy first theme , oscillating between F minor and A flat major , which slowly emerges after a fermata "with half a voice" ( mezza voce ) and is accompanied by even eighths of the left hand. The circular motif is reminiscent of the movement of his F minor étude from the Nouvelles Études without an opus number. With the notes BC-Des-EF she circles an incomplete gypsy scale, the timbre of which is additionally intensified by certain tone omissions. The final phrase in A flat major (bar 12) gives the theme a slightly folk note. In the further course Chopin repeats the theme on a level raised by a third and already varies the final phrase.
Through the movement of the constantly circling-repeating melody , Chopin modulates constantly in new keys and also leads the theme through many variations. A quiet episode of a pentatonic octave episode in the left hand opens a preliminary, lyrically intense final development. After ornamental variations of the theme with energetic sixteenths, there is a first dramatic increase.
The second, chordal theme is introduced relatively late in bar 80, a pastoral melody with a swaying rhythm from which Chopin weaves further, rhythmically shaped motifs into the sound structure.
The second part of the ballad begins with a theme in D minor that develops from the first without, however, having the character of a recapitulation ; rather it has a variation that is becoming more and more polyphonic . The voice guidance, which the Bach admirer Chopin perseveres, leads to peculiar dissonances , through which the melancholy character of the first theme is taken back and increasingly gives way to an eerie mood.
At the end of the work, a passionate figure, carried by dominant passages in both hands, surprises us, reminding us of the last, dramatic etude op. 25 in C minor - a peak of passionate expression and tonal originality in Chopin's oeuvre. There follows a breathless pause, which is followed by a series of calm, sostenuto descending, as it were waiting chords pianissimo. The calm is abruptly interrupted by a pathetic, pianistically demanding coda that turns into tragic .
background
In the ballads, Chopin shows his closeness to romantic poetry. Even though he did not significantly renew the form itself, but rather linked it to traditional forms of design, he was able to realize his ideal of poetic storytelling with the instrument here. So it was he who introduced the title ballad into piano music.
As a child he had fantasized about Polish sagas and heroic songs on the piano, later he was impressed by the Lithuanian ballads of the Polish romantic Adam Mickiewicz , whose salon in Paris was the meeting place for many Polish emigrants. In addition to the narrative gesture, you can feel a longing for a “lost home”. Formally, this attitude is reflected in the narrative 6/4 or 6/8 meter, as it can be found in the old dance song form Ballata .
The Polish prince Anton Radziwiłł had introduced Chopin to Baron Rothschild as early as 1832, in whose salon he was able to play in front of members of the nobility and in this way also attract pupils from very wealthy circles. As a token of appreciation, Chopin dedicated his last ballad to the baron's wife.
Text witnesses
Ballad No. 4 in F minor, Op. 52, is preserved in two handwritten fragments. The longer one in a clean version (E1) is dedicated to Madame la Baronne C. de Rothschild and breaks off after bar 136; it is in the Bodleian Library in Oxford . The second, shorter one (E2) contains bars 1 to 79, which, due to the notation and the different bar compared to the final printed version, are regarded as a preliminary stage; it belongs to the RF Kallir Collection, New York . The ballad was first published in 1843 by Breitkopf & Härtel in Leipzig and by Maurice Schlesinger in Paris .
literature
- Ewald Zimmermann: Critical report . In: Chopin's ballads . G. Henle Verlag, Munich 1976
- Tadeusz A. Zieliński: Chopin. His life, his work, his time. Schott, Mainz 2008
Individual evidence
- ^ Tadeusz A. Zieliński, Chopin, His life, his work, his time, Schott, Mainz 2008, p. 721
- ^ Tadeusz A. Zieliński, Chopin, His life, his work, his time, Schott, Mainz 2008, p. 721
- ↑ Tadeusz A. Zieliński, Chopin, His life, his work, his time, Schott, Mainz 2008, p. 724
- ↑ Music in the past and present: Chopin, Frédéric François, Volume 2, Bärenreiter-Verlag 1986, p. 1228
- ↑ Ballade in F minor op. 52, in: Harenberg Piano Music Guide, 600 works from the baroque to the present, Frédéric Chopin, Meyers, Mannheim 2004, p. 274
- ↑ Ewald Zimmermann: Critical Report . In: Chopin's ballads . G. Henle Verlag, Munich 1976, p. 65; see. also: Henle Verlag Edition 2007, Foreword VIII, Norbert Müllemann PDF