Barcarolle (Chopin)

Frédéric Chopin, Barcarolle , beginning

The Barcarolle in F sharp major op. 60 is a composition for piano solo by Frédéric Chopin .

Emergence

The work was written from autumn 1845 to summer 1846. The composer dedicated the first edition to “Madame la Baronne de Stockhausen”, d. H. Clotilde von Stockhausen born. Countess von Baudissin (1818–1891), wife of the diplomat Bodo Albrecht von Stockhausen , who was the Hanoverian envoy in Paris from 1841 to 1851 . She was the mother of Elisabeth von Herzogenberg , who later became a friend of Johannes Brahms . Chopin had already dedicated his ballad in G minor op. 23 to her husband in 1836 .

Clotilde von Stockhausen owned a handwritten dedication copy of the Barcarolle, which is now lost and which was later owned by her son Ernst von Stockhausen (1838–1905), who was active as a composer, music critic and music teacher in Vienna. This is evidenced by a letter whose sister Elisabeth von Herzogenberg wrote to Brahms on December 3, 1877: “Of the three manuscripts that my brother now has, only one, the Barcarolle, which is dedicated to my mother, is genuine, the other two Copies. "

construction

The Allegretto begins like a small prelude with a dominant C sharp octave in the bass and a three-part modulation in the subdominant B major . The three bars set the tone of the whole work. After a long break, the swaying bass accompaniment sets in. Cantabile follows the theme in the right hand, first in thirds , then in sixths . The pedaling is as necessary as tricky. The short secondary motif ( leggiero ) in C sharp major plays with sixteenth notes . Above the c sharp minor shadow, it finds its way back to the third theme in a beautiful B / A sharp twist with double trills, which unfolds with middle voices and full dominant seventh chords .

Pianissimo , but poco piu mosso announced in F sharp minor , the central part in the relative key of A Major on. On the left, the octaves on the third eighth notes give the inner swing, on the right - semper piano - carries the middle voice. Always colored by G sharp major and D flat minor , the middle section comes to rest. Meno mosso leads the chromatic and syncopated final turn over "easy" C sharp major runs - dolce , sfogato - to the splendid recapitulation with two-handed octave chords. The full-grip final modulation swings with a "dissonant" run over the diminished F sharp octave in the calm tone of the side motif. In the four final bars, sixth chords sing the theme farewell on the left , while on the right a “casual” leggiero plunges from pianissimo to fortissimo over the treble into the deep bass and finds its way to the free C sharp / F sharp final octaves.

literature

Krystyna Kobylańska , Frédéric Chopin. Thematic-Bibliographical Catalog of Works , Munich 1979, pp. 130f.

Individual evidence

↑ Cf. Maurice JE Brown , Chopin: An Index of His Works in Chronological Order , 2nd, revised edition, London: Macmillan Press, 1972, p. 73: “Dedicated to M. le Baron de Stockhausen, Hanoverian Ambassador to France (father of Elisabet [sic] Herzogenberg, the friend of Brahms). "
↑ Johannes Brahms in correspondence with Elisabet [sic] von Herzogenberg , ed. by Max Kalbeck , Volume 1, Berlin 1908, p. 34f. (Digitized version )

[1] Cf. Maurice JE Brown , Chopin: An Index of His Works in Chronological Order , 2nd, revised edition, London: Macmillan Press, 1972, p. 73: “Dedicated to M. le Baron de Stockhausen, Hanoverian Ambassador to France (father of Elisabet [sic] Herzogenberg, the friend of Brahms). "

[2] Johannes Brahms in correspondence with Elisabet [sic] von Herzogenberg , ed. by Max Kalbeck , Volume 1, Berlin 1908, p. 34f. (Digitized version )