Piano Sonata No. 2 (Chopin)
Piano Sonata No. 2 | |
---|---|
by Frédéric Chopin | |
Other name | Funeral March |
Key | B♭ minor |
Opus | 35 |
Form | Piano sonata |
Composed | 1837–1839 |
Published | 1840 |
Duration | About 21-25 minutes |
Movements | Four |
The Piano Sonata No. 2 in B♭ minor, Op. 35, is a piano sonata in four movements by Polish composer Frédéric Chopin. Chopin completed the work while living in George Sand's manor in Nohant, some 250 km (160 mi) south of Paris, a year before it was published in 1840. The first of the composer's three mature sonatas (the others being the Piano Sonata No. 3 in B minor, Op. 58 and the Sonata for Piano and Cello in G minor, Op. 65), the work is considered to be one of the greatest piano sonatas of the literature.
The third movement of the Piano Sonata No. 2 is Chopin's famous
While the Piano Sonata No. 2 gained instant popularity with the public, critical reception was initially more doubtful. Robert Schumann, among other critics, argued that the work was structurally inferior and that Chopin "could not quite handle sonata form", a criticism that did not withstand time. The work has been recorded by numerous pianists and is regularly programmed in concerts and piano competitions. The Marche funèbre exists in countless arrangements and has been performed at funerals all over the world (including Chopin's own), having become an archetypal evocation of death.
Historical background
The Piano Sonata No. 2 was written during a time where the sonata lost its overpowering dominance. While the sonatas of Beethoven and Mozart comprised a considerable portion of their compositional output, this is not true of the next generation of composers: Franz Liszt only wrote one sonata among his dozens of instrumental compositions, Robert Schumann seven (eight if including the Fantasie in C, Op. 17), and Felix Mendelssohn thirteen. Besides the Piano Sonata No. 2, Chopin wrote only three other sonatas: the Piano Sonata in C minor (Op. posth. 4), written at the age of eighteen; the Piano Sonata No. 3 in B minor (Op. 58); and the Sonata for Piano and Cello in G minor (Op. 65).[1]
The compositional origins of the Piano Sonata No. 2, the first mature piano sonata Chopin wrote,[2] are centred on its third movement (Marche funèbre), a funeral march which many scholars indicate was written in 1837.[2][3] However, Jeffrey Kallberg believes that such indications are because of an autograph manuscript of eight bars of music in D♭ major marked Lento cantabile, apparently written as a gift to an unnamed recipient. The manuscript, which is dated 28 November 1837, would later become part of the trio of the Marche funèbre. However, Kallberg suggests this manuscript may have been intended as the beginning of an earlier attempt of a different slow movement instead of being part of the Marche funèbre, writing that "it would have been unusual for Chopin to make a gift of a manuscript that, if it did not contain an entire piece, did not at least quote the beginning of it", as almost all of his other presentation manuscripts did. He also suggests that a four-hand arrangement by Julian Fontana of the Marche funèbre may be connected with an abandoned piano sonata for four hands that Chopin wrote in 1835, originally to be published as his Op. 28 (which was instead appropriated to the 24 Preludes, Op. 28), therefore raising the possibility that the movement may actually date from 1835 instead of the generally accepted 1837.[4]
Some time after writing the Marche funèbre, Chopin composed the other movements, completing the entire sonata by 1839. In a letter on 8 August 1839, addressed to Fontana, Chopin wrote:
I am writing here a Sonata in B flat minor which will contain my March which you already know. There is an Allegro, then a Scherzo in E flat minor, the March and a short Finale about three pages of my manuscript-paper. The left hand and the right hand gossip in unison after the March. ... My father has written to say that my old sonata [in C minor, Op. 4] has been published[note 1] by [Tobias Haslinger] and that the German critics praise it. Including the ones in your hands I now have six manuscripts. I'll see the publishers damned before they get them for nothing.[5]
Haslinger's unauthorised dissemination of Chopin's early C minor sonata (he had gone as far as engraving the work and allowing it to circulate, against the composer's wishes) may have increased the pressure Chopin had to publish a piano sonata, which may explain why Chopin added the other movements to the Marche funèbre to produce a sonata.
Analysis
The sonata comprises four movements:
I. Grave – Doppio movimento
5–7 minutes[note 2]
Repeat of the exposition
When the sonata was published in 1840 in the usual three cities of Paris, Leipzig, and London,[11] the London and Paris editions indicated the repeat of the exposition as starting at the very beginning of the movement (at the Grave section). However, the Leipzig edition designed the repeat as beginning at the Doppio movimento section. Although the critical edition published by Breitkopf & Härtel (that was edited, among others, by Franz Liszt, Carl Reinecke, and Johannes Brahms) indicate the repeat similarly to the London and Paris first editions, almost all 20th-century editions are similar to the Leipzig edition in this regard. Charles Rosen argues that the repeat of the exposition in the manner perpetrated by the Leipzig edition is a serious error, saying it is "musically impossible" as it interrupts the D♭ major cadence (which ends the exposition) with the B♭ minor accompanimental figure.[12] Edward T. Cone agrees, calling the repeat to the Doppio movimento "nonsense". However, Leikin advocates for excluding the Grave from the repeat of the exposition, citing in part that Karol Mikuli's 1880 complete edition of Chopin contained a repeat sign after the Grave in the first movement of the Piano Sonata No. 2. Mikuli was a student of Chopin from 1844 to 1848 and also observed lessons Chopin gave to other students – including those where this sonata was taught – and took extensive notes.[13]
Most commercial recordings exclude the Grave from the repetition of the exposition, including those of Martha Argerich, Vladimir Ashkenazy, Stefan Askenase, Arturo Benedetti Michelangeli, Rafał Blechacz, Nelson Freire, Andrei Gavrilov, Hélène Grimaud, Peter Jablonski, Wilhelm Kempff, Nikita Magaloff, Murray Perahia, Maurizio Pollini (in his 1985 recording), and Yuja Wang. However, Pollini's 2008 recording and Mitsuko Uchida's recording, among others, begin the repetition from the Grave. Other recordings, including those of Daniel Barenboim, Seong-Jin Cho, Vladimir Horowitz, Julius Katchen, Evgeny Kissin, Garrick Ohlsson, Ivo Pogorelić, Sergei Rachmaninoff, Arthur Rubinstein, and Khatia Buniatishvili, exclude the repetition altogether.
II. Scherzo
6–7 minutes
The second movement is a scherzo in E♭ minor and 3
4 time with no tempo indication. Anatole Leikin suggests that the absence of the tempo indication can be explained by the close similarities of this movement and the closing section of the first movement, including the prevalence of repeated octaves and chords in both movements, and the identical cadential phrases. Therefore, the absence of a tempo indication may suggest that there is no new tempo, but instead a mere change of notation (from triplets to triple metre).[14]
The movement is in the conventional scherzo-trio-scherzo form[15] with the trio in G♭ major. The scherzo's explosive rhythmic and dynamic power, as well as its furious insistence on repeated chords and octaves, places it in the tradition of the scherzo movements of Beethoven. However, unlike Beethoven, whose scherzos are transformed minuets, this scherzo has many defining rhythmic characteristics that make it a transformed mazurka instead.[10] The trio, marked Più lento, has a songlike quality to it with its simple, sensuous melody.[16] Following the return of the scherzo is a coda[7] that is a condensed reprise of the trio[17] and therefore ends the work in the relative major; other works of Chopin that also end in the relative major include the Scherzo No. 2 in B♭ minor (Op. 31) and the Fantaisie in F minor (Op. 49).
III. Marche funèbre: Lento
8–9 minutes
The third movement, titled Marche funèbre, is a "stark juxtaposition of funeral march and pastoral trio".[18] The movement is in B♭ minor and 4
4 time with the trio in the relative major of D♭. The tempo designation, Lento, was not added until after the sonata's publication in 1840.[19] The movement opens with a melody consisting of just a repeated B♭ for almost three measures accompanied by alternating B♭ (without the third) and G♭ major chords that ring like a funeral bell. This melodic device was also used as the backbone for the main theme of the preceding Scherzo movement and part of the coda of the opening movement.[17] The melody following the repeated B♭, is, as Alan Walker notes, "a strict retrogade" of the first movement's main theme.[20] The trio of the movement, which is in the tonic's relative major, consists of a serene nocturne-like melody[21] accompanied by quavers in the left hand.
The Marche funèbre alone has remained one of Chopin's most popular compositions
Although the movement was originally published as Marche funèbre, Chopin changed its title to simply Marche in his corrections of the first Paris edition.[19][29] In addition, whenever Chopin wrote about this movement in his letters, he referred to it as a "march" instead of a "funeral march".[note 6] Kallberg believes Chopin's removal of the adjective funèbre was possibly motivated by his contempt for descriptive labels of his music.[31] After his London publisher Wessel & Stapleton added unauthorised titles to Chopin's works, including The Infernal Banquet to his first scherzo in B minor (Op. 20), the composer, in a letter to Fontana, wrote:
Now concerning [Christian Rudolf Wessel], he is an ass and a cheater ... if he has lost on my compositions, it is doubtless due to the stupid titles he has given them in spite of my repeated railings to [Frederic Stapleton]; that if I listened to the voice of my soul, I would have never sent him anything more after those titles.
— [32]
In 1826, a decade before he wrote this movement, Chopin had composed another Marche funèbre in C minor, which was published posthumously as Op. 72 No. 2.[33]
IV. Finale: Presto
1–2 minutes
The short finale, marked Presto and in 2
2 time, is a
Chopin, who wrote pedal indications very frequently, did not write any in the Finale except for the very last bar. Although
Allusions
The Piano Sonata No. 2 draws an allusion to the Prelude from Bach's
Reception and legacy
Although the Piano Sonata No. 2 was quick to gain popularity among the public, it initially confused the critics, who found it lacked cohesion and unity, and remarked that Chopin could not quite handle sonata form.
The first major criticism, by Robert Schumann, appeared in 1841.[note 8] Schumann was critical of the work. He described the sonata as "four of [his] maddest children under the same roof" and found the title "Sonata" capricious and slightly presumptuous.[2][43] He also remarked that the Marche funèbre "has something repulsive" about it, and that "an adagio in its place, perhaps in D-flat, would have had a far more beautiful effect".[44] In addition, the finale caused a stir among Schumann and other musicians. Schumann said that the movement "seems more like a mockery than any [sort of] music",[44] and when Felix Mendelssohn was asked for an opinion of it, he commented, "Oh, I abhor it".[21] James Huneker remarked that the four movements of the sonata "have no common life", and that the sonata "is not more a sonata than it is a sequence of ballades and scherzi." Despite these remarks, he called the last two movements "masterpieces" and wrote that the finale has "no parallel in piano music".[45] Similarly, James Cuthbert Hadden wrote that "the four movements, regarded separately, are admirable, but taken together they have little thematic or other affinity," and also concurred with Schumann's description of the sonata as "four of his maddest children" bound together.[46] Henry Bidou considered the work "not very coherent", and remarked that "Schumann has pointed out the defect in its composition".[47]
Despite the negative reaction to the work, the reception of the Marche funèbre itself was generally positive, and according to Hadden, writing in 1903, the work had been "popularised to death".
The sonata, mainly the Marche funèbre, played an influence in a variety of both classical and non-classical compositions written after it. The second movement of Erik Satie's Embryons desséchés, entitled "of an Edriophthalma", uses a variation on the Marche funèbre's second theme. Satie labels it "Citation de la célèbre mazurka de SCHUBERT" ("quotation from the celebrated mazurka of Schubert"), but no such piece exists.[53] In addition, the Marche funèbre is sampled in a number of jazz compositions, including Duke Ellington's "Black and Tan Fantasy",[54] and the Canadian electronic dance music musician deadmau5 used the theme from the Marche funèbre in his song "Ghosts 'n' Stuff".[55] Professional wrestler The Undertaker quotes the opening of the March in his entrance theme, as part of his macabre gimmick. This sonata also influenced Sergei Rachmaninoff in his Piano Sonata No. 2 (Op. 36), also in B♭ minor. While explaining to his friends why he decided on a new 1931 version, Rachmaninoff said: "I look at my early works and see how much there is that is superfluous. Even in this sonata so many voices are moving simultaneously, and it is too long. Chopin's Sonata lasts nineteen minutes, and all has been said".[56]
Available editions and recordings
Several highly acclaimed editions are available of the Piano Sonata No. 2, most notably the editions of
References
Notes
- ^ Op. 4 was not actually published until after Chopin's death, but the work had already been engraved and begun to circulate.[3]
- ^ 5 minutes if the repetition of the exposition is left out altogether; 7 minutes if the repeat is observed
- ^ "Modified" in that the principal section containing the main theme does not return in the recapitulation.
- ^ From Merriam-Webster Online: Doppio movimento – "twice as fast as the preceding — used as a direction in music"
- ^ The first three bars (106–108) come from the main theme; the next bar (109) from the secondary theme; the following bar from the Grave introduction, and so on.[9]
- ^ In addition to 8 August 1839 letter to Fontana mentioned above, Chopin referred to the movement as just a "march" in a letter to his family dated 8 June 1847.[30]
- ^ The structure, especially the harmonic aspects, of the Finale in described in detail in Rosen (1995), pp. 294-298
- ^ Schumann's complete written critique, in an English translation, is available at Oshry (1999), pp. 88–90
Citations
- ^ Leikin (1994), p. 176
- ^ a b c d e f g Leikin (1994), p. 177
- ^ a b c Petty (1999), p. 284
- ^ Kallberg (2001), pp. 4-8
- ^ Hedley (1962), pp. 180-182
- ^ a b "Fryderyk Chopin – Information Centre – Sonata in B flat minor – Compositions". en.chopin.nifc.pl. Fryderyk Chopin Institute. Archived from the original on 2 July 2019. Retrieved 2 July 2018.
- ^ a b c d Jonson (1905), p. 124
- ^ Leikin (2001), p. 570
- ^ a b Leikin (1994), p. 186
- ^ a b Leikin (1994), p. 187
- ^ Rosen (1995), p. 279
- ^ Rosen (1995), p. 280
- ^ Leikin (2001), p. 581
- ^ Leikin (1994), p. 187–188
- ^ Leikin (1994), p. 189
- ^ Huneker (1900), p. 297
- ^ a b Leikin (1994), p. 190
- ^ Boczkowska (2012), p. 217
- ^ a b Ekier (2013), p. 79
- ^ a b Leikin (1994), p. 191
- ^ a b Jonson (1905), p. 125
- ^ Huneker (1895). p. xiii
- ^ See Oleksiak (2005)
- ^ See Kramer (2001)
- ^ Fryderyk Chopin – A Chronological Biography Archived 5 February 2009 at the Wayback Machine. Retrieved 21 May 2007
- ^ Kramer (2001), p. 97
- ^ BBC Proms Archives. Retrieved 21 October 2014
- ^ Music Web International. Retrieved 21 October 2014
- ^ Kallberg (2001), p. 12
- ^ Hedley (1862), p. 289
- ^ Kallberg (2001), p. 14
- ^ Kallberg (2001), pp. 14-15
- ^ Institute, The Fryderyk Chopin. "Fryderyk Chopin – Information Centre – Funeral March in C minor [Op. 72] – Compositions". en.chopin.nifc.pl. Archived from the original on 7 July 2018. Retrieved 7 July 2018.
- ^ a b Rosen (1995), p. 298
- ^ Rosen (1995), p. 290
- ^ "Episode 44: Chopin's Unruly Children". radiochopin.org. Retrieved 13 July 2018.
- ^ Thompson, Damian. "Courage, not madness, is the mark of genius". The Daily Telegraph. Archived from the original on 27 October 2013.
- ^ Leikin (1994), pp. 191-192
- ^ Rosen (1995), p. 301
- ^ Petty (1999), p. 281
- ^ Oshry (1999), pp. 19-20
- ^ Chechlińska (1994), p. 230
- ^ Petty (1999), p. 285
- ^ a b Oshry (1999), p. 89
- ^ Huneker (1900), pp. 295-296
- ^ a b c Hadden (1903), p. 220
- ^ Oshry (1999), p. 26
- ^ Liszt (1863), p. 26
- ^ Willeby (1892), p. 225
- ^ John F. Kennedy Presidential Library. Retrieved 1 April 2016
- ^ "How music moved a nation at Queen Elizabeth II's funeral in Westminster Abbey and beyond". Classic FM. Retrieved 20 September 2022.
- ^ "Grieving Poles line streets as president's body comes home". The Sydney Morning Herald. 12 April 2010. Retrieved 27 July 2020.
- ^ Potter (2016), pp. 109-111
- ^ Metzer (1997), pp. 139-140
- ^ McCutcheon (2008), p. 168
- ^ Alfred and Katherine Swan, Rachmaninoff. Personal Reminiscences (Part I), in: The Musical Quarterly, January 1944, p. 8
- ^ Seiffert, Dr. Wolf-Dieter. "G. Henle Publishers | Frédéric Chopin | Piano Sonata b flat minor op. 35". G. Henle Verlag. Retrieved 8 July 2018.
- ISBN 9781480390577.
- ^ Ekier (2013)
- ^ Gramophone (1 January 2015). "Percy Grainger - a tribute". Gramophone. Retrieved 6 July 2018.
- ^ Sergei Rachmaninoff, piano (1930), CHOPIN: Sonata in B-flat Minor, retrieved 8 July 2018
- ^ "Piano Sonata No. 2 in B flat… | Details | AllMusic". AllMusic. Retrieved 15 August 2018.
Sources
- Boczkowska, Ewelina (2012). "Chopin's Ghosts". 19th-Century Music. 35 (3): 204–223. .
- Chechlińska, Zofia (8 December 1994). "Chopin reception in nineteenth-century Poland". In Samson, Jim (ed.). The Cambridge Companion to Chopin. ISBN 9781139824996.
- Chopin, Frederic (1 January 2013). Ekier, Jan (ed.). Sonatas, Op. 35 & 58: Chopin National Edition 10A, Vol. X (Bilingual ed.). PWM Edition. ISBN 9781480390782.
- Hadden, James Cuthbert (1903). Chopin. J.M. Dent & Company.
- Hedley, Arthur (1962). Selected Correspondence Of Fryderyk Chopin. Universal Digital Library. Heinemann.
- Huneker, James (1900). Chopin: The Man and His Music. C. Scribner's Sons.
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- Huneker, James (1895). "Three Sonatas". Complete works for the piano. By Mikuli, Karol. G. Schirmer. pp. xiii–xiv.
- Jonson, George Charles Ashton (1905). A Handbook to Chopin's Works. Doubleday.
- JSTOR 10.1525/ncm.2001.25.1.3.
- Karasowski, Maurycy (1879). Frederic Chopin: His Life, Letters, and Works. W. Reeves. p. 338.
- Kelley, Edgar Stillman (1913). Chopin the Composer: His Structural Art and Its Influence on Contemporaneous Music. G. Schirmer. ISBN 9781404790483.
- Kramer, Lawrence (Spring 2001). "Chopin at the Funeral: Episodes in the History of Modern Death". Journal of the American Musicological Society. 54 (1): 97–125. .
- Leikin, Anatole (2001). "Repeat with Caution: A Dilemma of the First Movement of Chopin's Sonata op. 35". The Musical Quarterly. 85 (3): 568–582. JSTOR 3600997.
- Leikin, Anatole (8 December 1994). "The sonatas". In Samson, Jim (ed.). The Cambridge Companion to Chopin. ISBN 9781139824996.
- Liszt, Franz (1863). Life of Chopin. Ditson.
- McCutcheon, Mark A. (21 April 2018). The Medium Is the Monster: Canadian Adaptations of Frankenstein and the Discourse of Technology. Athabasca University Press. ISBN 9781771992244.
- Metzer, David (1997). "Shadow Play: The Spiritual in Duke Ellington's "Black and Tan Fantasy"". Black Music Research Journal. 17 (2): 137–158. JSTOR 779366.
- Neuhaus, Heinrich (1993). The Art of Piano Playing. Kahn & Averill. ISBN 9781871082456.
- Oleksiak, Wojciech (2015-02-23). "3. Funeral March" in Breaking It Down: Chopin's Funeral March at culture
.pl - Oshry, Jonathan (1999). Shifting Modes of Reception: Chopin's Piano Sonata in B Flat Minor Opus 35 (OCLC 441730454. Web version at www)
.joshry .com (2010). {{cite thesis}}
: External link in
(help)CS1 maint: postscript (link|postscript=
- Petty, Wayne C. (Spring 1999). "Chopin and the Ghost of Beethoven". 19th-Century Music. 22 (3): 281–299. JSTOR 746802.
- Potter, Caroline (13 May 2016). Erik Satie: Music, Art and Literature. Routledge. ISBN 9781317141792.
- ISBN 9780674779334.
- Willeby, Charles (1892). Frederic François Chopin. S. Low, Marston.
External links
- Piano Sonata No. 2: Scores at the International Music Score Library Project