Frederic Chopin

In recent years research into music cognition and perception has increasingly gained territory. A fact which is not always realised by music theorists is that, from the perspective of cognitive psychology and empirical methodology, the representatives of the expanding field of cognitive music research frequently address questions and propose theoretical frameworks that ought to have implications for music theory of a more traditional kind. Yet, such cognitive theories and empirical findings have not had radical impact on general analytical practice and teaching of music theory.

For theorists interested in musical meaning the emotional impact of music has always been a major concern. In this paper I will explore how multiple cognitive theories and empirical findings can be applied to account for emotional response to three subjectively chosen excerpts of strongly emotion-inducing music: Namely Penderecki’s ‘pain-inducing’ Threnody to the Victims of Hiroshima (1959-61), Wagner’s ‘weepie’ Prelude to Act II from Tristan und Isolde (1859), and the opening bars of Chopin’s ‘shocking’ Scherzo no. 2 (1837).

Although ambitious multiple-mechanisms theories have recently been proposed by e.g. Huron (2006) and Juslin & Västfjäll (2008), we still lack a complete and all-embracing theory of musical emotions, and none of the existing ones actually reaches a level of methodological specificity rendering it directly and unambiguously applicable to specific musical scores and recordings. This is an area where music theorists can be instrumental in bridging the gap between cognitive music research and music analysis.

Cette thèse examine le rôle structurant du timbre à partir du répertoire pianistique de la première moitié du dix-neuvième siècle, période exploratoire où le timbre, composé multidimensionnel, occupe une place centrale. Fondée sur une conception architectonique et organique de la forme, elle convoque l’acoustique et la psychologie, dans une perspective transdisciplinaire. Le rapport entre timbre et langage se fonde sur les ressources timbriques de l’écriture. Ce matériau aux fortes potentialités structurales est modélisé par des facteurs pianistiques et texturaux en interaction. Les unités timbriques de niveau inférieur, délimitées par différents types d’articulations, trouvent leur cohésion dans des groupements timbriques aux propriétés émergentes. Les structures orientées résultantes convergent ou divergent avec les autres dimensions musicales. Le déploiement formel du timbre met en jeu des associations timbriques, donnant lieu à des espaces orientés et polarisés et à des structures en réseaux. Les prolongations timbriques, impliquant l’extension temporelle, la générativité et la récursivité de la forme, concernent les dimensions spectrale et temporelle du timbre et interrogent la notion de structure fondamentale. Les hiérarchies timbriques, envisagées sous l’angle de la subordination et de la réduction, mettent en jeu des structures fractales et arborescentes. Le rapport entre timbre et plan formel global implique l’examen des unités timbriques de niveau supérieur, résultant de groupements statistiques et syntaxiques, et dont les articulations présentent maintes similarités avec le niveau inférieur. La typologie des formes rend compte de la diversité des structures résultantes et met en évidence les notions de point culminant, symétrie, progression, anticipation et retour. Le timbre, structuré en niveaux interreliés, constitue ainsi une dimension essentielle à la compréhension de la nature et de l’évolution des formes pianistiques.

This thesis examines the structuring role of timbre through the pianistic repertory of the first half of the nineteenth century, an exploratory period in which timbre, as multidimensional compound, occupies a central place. Based on an architectonic and organic conception of form, it conveys acoustics and psychology, in a transdisciplinary perspective. Relationship between timbre and language is based on the timbral resources of writing. This material, provided with strong structural potentialities, is modelled by pianistic and textural factors in interaction. Low-level timbral units, delimited by different types of articulations, find their cohesion in timbral groupings provided with emerging properties. The resulting orientated structures converge or diverge with the other musical dimensions. Formal deployment of timbre involves timbral associations, giving rise to orientated and polarized spaces and to network structures. Timbral prolongations, implying temporal extension, generativity and recursion of form, concern the spectral and temporal dimensions of timbre and question the notion of fundamental structure. Timbral hierarchies, considered in terms of subordination and reduction, involve fractal and treelike structures. Relationship between timbre and overall formal plan implies the examination of high-level timbral units, resulting from statistical and syntactic groupings, and whose articulations present many similarities with low level. The typology of forms renders the resulting structures’ diversity and brings to light the notions of climax, symmetry, progression, anticipation and return. Timbre, structured in interrelated levels, thus constitutes a dimension essential to the comprehension of nature and evolution of pianistic forms.

Parsimonious voice leading is a term, first used by Richard Cohn, to describe non-diatonic motion among triads that will preserve as many common tones as possible, while limiting the distance traveled by the voice that does move to a tone or, better yet, a semitone. Some scholars have applied these principles to seventh chords, laying the groundwork for this study, which strives toward a reasonably comprehensive, usable model for musical analysis.

Rather than emphasizing mathematical proofs, as a number of approaches have done, this study relies on two- and three-dimensional geometric visualizations and spatial analogies to describe pitch-class and harmonic relationships. These geometric realizations are based on the organization of the neo-Riemannian Tonnetz, but they expand and apply the organizational principles of the Tonnetz to seventh sonorities. It allows for the descriptive “mapping” or prescriptive “navigation” of harmonic paths through a defined space.

The viability of the theoretical model is examined in analyses of passages from the repertoire of Frédéric Chopin. These passages exhibit a harmonic syntax that is often difficult to analyze as anything other than “tonally unstable” or “transitional.” This study seeks to analyze these passages in terms of what they are, rather than what they are not.

How may posture and touch reconstructed from Viennese piano method books of the early 19th-century influence phrasing and sound in piano playing today? In this article, Norwegian pianist and researcher Christina Kobb introduces the reader to relevant sources as well as their practical application. In text and video, she demonstrates how a practice of the past may be approached. Insights are gained from unlocking descriptions of physical actions and meticulously imitating these movements. After almost ten years of work, she also gives specific advice for studying well-known piano works from the early romantic repertoire, applying aspects of her reconstructed ‘Viennese technique’.

Please view https://www.musicandpractice.org/volume-4/viennese-piano-technique-of-the-1820s-and-implications-for-todays-pianists/ to access the video material related to the article!

This article focuses on one of the most influential French virtuosos and pedagogues of the nineteenth century, Pierre-Joseph-Guillaume Zimmerman (1785–1853), and his magnum opus, the Encyclopédie du Pianiste Compositeur (1840). During his tenure as Professor of Piano at the Paris Conservatory (1816–1848), Zimmerman trained dozens of famous virtuosos and composers (i.e., Alkan, Gounod, Franck, and Bizet). In his Encyclopédie, Zimmerman shares the secrets of his pedagogical success. The treatise exceeds almost every other instrumental method of the time in its structure and completeness, for it not only comprises a piano method, but covers the entire canon of subjects a pianist-composer had to master (i.e., sight-reading, transposition, harmony, thoroughbass, partimento, improvisation, counterpoint, and composition). Zimmerman’s Encyclopédie offers far-reaching insights into a highly developed, “holistic” teaching tradition that had set the standard for Liszt’s and Chopin’s education and can still inspire modern approaches to teaching keyboard skills.

Although 19th-c. sources imply the existence of Chopin's concert works in chamber versions, modern scholarship has never fully addressed their whereabouts, the nature of ensembles involved, and the circumstances of those performances. References to performances of orchestral works 'in quartets' found in Chopin's letters have traditionally been understood as designating performances either by the string section of a symphonic orchestra or by an actual string quartet. However, accounts by Chopin's contemporaries show that the term 'quartet' was used to denote not just an ensemble of four string instruments, but also chamber music in general and orchestral music performed by a variety of salon-size groups, including chamber orchestras. Evidence from Chopin's manuscripts and early editions, as well as references in other 19th-c. sources (press, correspondence, etc.) are presented to explore the make-up of the various ensembles and to interpret the existing musical texts for such performances. The same historical and musical data determines that chamber renditions required the pianist's participation in the tuttis, in the vein of the 18th c. continuo. Acknowledging these traditions places Chopin's concert works in a new performance-practice context and sheds light on Chopin's scoring choices. Moreover, it alters our perception of 19th c. audiences having learned orchestral music almost exclusively through the limited medium of piano transcriptions.

But he was the greatest innovator too. He wanted systematically to use his hands and his feet as if every single hand, every single foot and every single finger were all independent and separate instruments. He tried all possibilities: feet alone for the organ, left hand alone for the piano, right hand only for the piano, and of course the full organ and the two hands on the piano. This gives a music that is necessarily multi-rhythmic, multi-phonic and many other explosions of the sort. His music then is cubist since it looks at one musical objects from all possible angles and brings together without merging them these various angles we are supposed to hear together, at once, and yet all separate. This is what I call cubist music, a lot beyond impressionistic music though his music is superbly and impressively expressive.

1- CHARLES VALENTIN ALKAN – ALBERT FRANTZ – GRANDE SONATE, LES QUATRES ÂGES – TROIS GRANDES ETUDES
GRANDE SONATE – LES QUATRE ÂGES
TROIS GRANDES ÉTUDES

2- CHARLES VALENTIN ALKAN – ESQUISSES – LAURENT MARTIN

3- CHARLES VALENTIN ALKAN – PRELUDES – LAURENT MARTIN

4- CHARLES VALENTIN ALKAN – VINCENZO MALTEMPO – GRANDE SONATE « LES QUATRE AGES », SYMPHONIE POUR PIANO SOLO, TROIS GRANDES ETUDES (NUMERO 3)

5- CHARLES VAN LENTIN ALKAN – MARC ANDRÉ HAMELIN – CONCERTO FOR SOLO PIANO – TROISIÈME RECUEIL DE CHANTS

6- CHARLES VALENTIN ALKAN – ORGAN WORKS/MUSIC VOLUME 1 – KEVIN BOWYER – ORGAN OF BLACKBURN CATHEDRAL

7- CHARLES VALENTIN ALKAN – ORGAN WORKS/MUSIC VOLUME 2 – KEVIN BOWYER – ORGAN OF BLACKBURN CATHEDRAL

8- CHARLES VALENTIN ALKAN (1813-1888) – THE RAILWAY, PRELUDES, ETUDES, ESQUISSES AND OTHERS – LAURENT MARTIN – BERNARD RINGEISSEN

Entre les arrangements pour le violon faits par Sarasate, relativement peu nombreux, il y a cinq œuvres de Chopin transcrites pour violon et piano : deux nocturnes et trois valses. Cela n’est pas rare, il y a d’autres violonistes qui ont recours aux œuvres du compositeur polonais. Les lyriques mélodies de Chopin s’adaptent très bien à un instrument comme le violon, dont le son est chaud et vibrant, et pour cela plus approprié à l’expression des sentiments. Néanmoins, le succès des arrangements de Sarasate a dû être formidable, surtout l’adaptation du célèbre Nocturne en mi bémol majeur op. 9 nº 2, une des pièces les plus exécutées par lui et avec lesquelles il a eu le plus de succès.

Between Sarasate's relatively few arrangements for violin, there are five works by Chopin transcribed for violin and piano: two nocturnes and three waltzes. This is not uncommon, there are other violinists who use the works of the Polish composer. Chopin's lyrical melodies are very adaptable to an instrument like the violin, whose sound is warm and vibrant, and therefore more appropriate for the expression of feelings. Nevertheless, the success of Sarasate's arrangements must have been formidable, especially the adaptation of the famous Nocturne in E flat major, Op. 9 No. 2, one of the most performed by him and with which he had the greatest success.

Chopin compuso la Polonesa-Fantasía op. 61 en 1846, durante sus últimos años de vida. Se trata de una obra comprometida para el pianista ya que presenta algunas innovaciones en la forma y estructura.
Este artículo desvela interesantes hipótesis descubiertas por Kallberg al estudiar los manuscritos de la obra. ¿Cuánto hay de polonesa en esta polonesa-fantasía?
¿Puede ser el motivo de la polonesa un elemento temático en vez de una característica rítmica de la danza de polonesa? ¿Qué consecuencias pueden tener estas hipótesis en la interpretación?

How to cite: Syroyid Syroyid, B. (2021). Volatile Lyricism: Modes of Listening to Silences in Music and Analytical Implications in the Four Scherzi by Frédéric Chopin. In A. Dörfler, R. Parncutt, B. Brabec de Mori & L. Radovanovic (Coord.) Annual Meeting of the Austrian Society for Musicology 2020 “Listening – Focusing – Ignoring”. The Austrian Society for Musicology (ÖGMW) & University of Graz.

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In the face of the increasingly large amount of literature on musical listening, a discussion of modes of listening to silences in music is much needed. Silence is a necessary component for music to exist, acting as canvas, frame, and content (Judkins, 1997). Silence as a canvas is the background that allows listeners to differentiate intentionality from non-intentionality (Cage, 1961/1973). Silence as a frame defines the start and end of a piece, as well as other perceptual sensorial limits (Littlefield, 1996). Most notably, silence as content can foster “reflections on what preceded the silence, expectations about what may follow it or what might have substituted for it” (Margulis, 2007, p. 246). Silence as content is not a particularly recurrent feature in music. In this sense, Braman (1956) clarifies that, “since composition is a process of choosing or rejecting, the composer may or may not use silences” (p. 330).
The main goal of this paper is to provide a comparative discussion of three theoretical perspectives that address the process of listening to silences, namely: the negative dynamics of rests by Hugo Riemann (1884), the perception of surprise and anticipation of temporal silences by Thomas Clifton (1976), and the perception of tension-repose in aural analysis by Suzanne Alepin (2001). Similarities and differences between these approaches are underlined by analyzing selected passages from the Four Scherzi by Frédéric Chopin. According to Lissa (1964), “pauses intertwine the entire sixty-bar introduction section in the B-flat minor Scherzo, bringing into sharp relief the dramatically contrasted short-breathing phrases, the contrasting elements in their facture, registers, and dynamic tension” (p. 449).  Chopin’s usage of silence in his Scherzi is diverse and elaborate, becoming an excellent vehicle for discussing a wide variety of modes of listening to silences in music.

La presente tesi propone un'analisi dei tratti caratteristici della tecnica pianistica romantica e  un approfondimento su tre brani tratti dagli Études op.10 di Chopin, dagli Études d'exécution transcendante  di Liszt e da una variazione dalle Études Symphoniques  op. 13 di Schumann.

[The Chopin games. The history of the International Fryderyk Chopin Piano Competition 1927–2015 ]

https://www.wuw.pl/product-pol-12255-Chopinowskie-igrzysko-Historia-Miedzynarodowego-Konkursu-Pianistycznego-im-Fryderyka-Chopina-1927-2015.html

The idea of consciousness cites “that human beings have only limited insight into the deep structures of both matter and mind, at the same time as they have a full grasp of themselves” (Ware & Ainslie, 2014) first addressed by English seventeenth century philosopher John Locke in his Essay of Human Understanding (1690). Across centuries, composers have often attempted to, some succeeding, elevate their own perception of society’s concerns and worries to the point in which it is coherently reflected in their works, through experimenting with the form and techniques manifested within their respective genres, and the investigation of certain preoccupations relevant to the time of composition.

Resumo: Este artigo visa a discutir as mudanças no conceito de expressão a partir do romantismo musical, em especial, a partir de Chopin. Ele defende que o conceito romântico de expressão ainda guia eixos importantes da estética contemporânea. Abstract: This article aims to discuss the changes in the concept of expression upon the musical romanticism, specially upon Chopin. The article sustain the idea that the romantic concept of expression still guide some important discussion in contemporary aesthetics.

This article considers the reception of Frédéric Chopin, both as a pianist and com-poser, in Great Britain during his lifetime. Examination of British attitudes to Cho-pin between 1830 and 1849 reveal an exceptional position in reception history; even though Britain was one of three locations for publication of his first editions, the po-larised reactions to Chopin’s music greatly influenced the reception and performances of his works after his death, ultimately revealing a different set of attitudes to those exhibited in France and Germany. Much of the material presented in this article is relatively unknown, and in presenting press attitudes to Chopin during his lifetime, we can trace how British critics reflect debates going on the Continent. Understanding how the press represented and viewed Chopin during his life time, help to build a picture of various tropes that developed later in the nineteenth-century.

During his second sojourn in Vienna Frédéric Chopin on 7 March 1831 served as godfather of Alexander Steinkeller, son of the Polish banker and entrepreneur Peter Steinkeller whose brother Rudolf Steinkeller at that time was the owner of the Leopoldstädter Theater in Vienna. This article sheds light on Chopin's activities in Vienna, his friends (especially the family of Dr. Johann Malfatti) and finally resolves the question as to whether Chopin in 1831 really made two concert appearances in Vienna.

Der Beitrag untersucht Max Richters Verwendung von präexistenter Musik in Ari Folmans »Waltz with Bashir«. Die populären Klassikstücke hat Max Richter so bearbeitet, dass sie teilweise kaum noch erkennbar sind. Die Suche nach der verlorenen Erinnerung des traumatisierten Soldaten im Film spiegelt sich auf diese Weise auf der Tonspur. Einerseits wird das Publikum durch die Integration von bekannter Musik selbst zum Wiedererkennen und Erinnern angeregt, andererseits wird dieser Prozess durch Richters Bearbeitung der Musik maßgeblich erschwert.

"Jean-Christophe", roman de l’écrivain français Romain Rolland (1866-1944), Prix Nobel de littérature de l’année 1915, exerça une influence considérable sur les intellectuels chinois à partir des années 1920 , dont la famille Fu fut un exemple typique. Ce roman-fleuve, qui raconte la vie d’un pianiste allemand en Europe, rencontra un écho dans la lointaine culture asiatique chez le pianiste Fou Ts’ong 傅聰 (1934-2020)  et son père Fu Lei 傅雷ou Fou Nou-En傅怒安 (1908-1966), ancien étudiant en lettres de la Sorbonne . Fu Lei fut le premier traducteur de la version complète de ce grand ouvrage de dix tomes qu’il traduisit deux fois durant sa vie . Il fut connu en Chine par ses traductions d’une série d’auteurs français (Balzac, Mérimée, Voltaire, Hippolyte Taine). Son fils Fou Ts’ong, lauréat du troisième prix et du prix spécial des mazurkas du Ve Concours international de piano Frédéric Chopin en 1955, est considéré comme le premier pianiste chinois de notoriété internationale. 
    La vie de Fou Ts’ong, ce personnage légendaire, s’est interrompue brusquement le 28 décembre 2020 à Londres à cause du Covid-19. Il laisse plus d’une cinquantaine de disques pour les amateurs de musique classique du monde entier. L’un de ses admirateurs, Hermann Hesse (1877-1962), alors âgé de 83 ans, connut le jeune pianiste de 26 ans de façon imprévue par la radio et il fit ce commentaire dans son article « À un musicien » (1960) : « Ce que j’ai entendu était non seulement l’interprétation magistrale, mais aussi Chopin, le vrai Chopin ».

In the early 1820s, during a series of summer sojourns in the Polish countryside, Frederick Chopin imagined himself as a Jewish klezmer musician. Meanwhile, the Polish composer Stanisław Moniuszko reportedly convinced the most famous nineteenth-century cantor, Yoel-David Strashunsky, to abandon Judaism for a career on the Polish stage. These strange, forgotten instances of Polish-Jewish musical encounter defy conventional images of a strict separation between nineteenth-century Polish and Jewish cultures. In this article, I employ literary and archival sources to peel back the layers of myth that encrust these encounters. Pushing past the consistent focus on vertical cultural relationships in eastern Europe, I argue that we should focus instead on the horizontal plane of interethnic aural contacts in order to see the historical dynamics of culture and power at work in Polish Jewish relations and recover the full imprint of empire on the modern eastern European cultural imagination.

The purpose of the present text is to investigate the influence of Chopin’s piano music in the 12 Valsas de Esquina of Francisco Mignone. It also aims at introducing a theoretical model of music analysis based on the actual observation of the intertextual phenomenon. As a phenomenological research, the present work
employs, the writings of Charles Rosen, Plagiarism and Inspiration. 19th Century Music, 1980; Joseph Straus, Remaking the past: musical modernism and the influence of the tonal tradition, 1990; and Kevin Korsyn, Toward a new poetics of musical influence, 1991. To describe the Polish composer’s musical influence
on Mignone’s music, the prominent and characteristic musical elements of Chopin’s idiomatic writing are identified, according to the analytical model employed, as well as the peculiarities of the musical dynamics of his writings. The data collected in this process are, then, compared to the 12 Valsas de Esquina
and traces of influence are identified.

Buscando el linaje de las raíces e influencias musicales que fueron formando el mundo musical de hoy en día me causó mucha curiosidad a la hora de ver de dónde venimos para intentar dar forma al lugar adonde vamos, intentando que la música sea algo para todos y no un medio de negocios, exclusivamente.
En principio, la idea empezó queriendo saber por qué, aunque las mezclas y la tecnología hacen que la música de hoy en día suene mejor, la gente que realmente sabe de música se traslada más al pasado, ¿cuál es la clave que está haciendo perder el toque humano en la música? Los porqués, los pros y los contras de esta guerra analógica/digital, la piratería, los negocios y la música comercial.
Creo y mantengo que la música no es solo entretenimiento, es el espíritu que hace girar al mundo y, por ende, debe llevar un mensaje, un propósito y una virtud para dar aliento a los necesitados y albergar a los desentendidos en su trance, al fin y al cabo, la música nació con un gran propósito: La expresión y unificación de la humanidad.
A continuación, investigaremos los compositores, los artistas, su desempeño y los contenidos musicales para lograr encontrar una unión entre el paso del tiempo, la sociedad, la evolución misma de la música y el negocio musical.

This article shows how the musical references in Oscar Wilde’s novel The Picture of Dorian Gray are important to the identity of the dandy, especially in relation to the literary-critical work of Matthew Arnold, whose guiding presence in Wilde’s oeuvre has traditionally been somewhat underestimated. Wilde’s male characters, although famously fond of music, reveal ‘disinterestedness’ in earnest musical pursuits, similar to the ‘Indian virtue of detachment’ outlined by Arnold in his exploration of ‘The Function of Criticism at the Present Time’ (1864, in Arnold, Culture and Anarchy and Other Writings, ed. by Stefan Collini (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1993), pp. 26–51). Furthermore, the critical attitude of the dandy–aesthete intersects with the implications that we can read into the posture of the lounging opium smoker. Extensive scholarship has already established the relationship between the East and opium in fictional works by Thomas de Quincey, Wilkie Collins, Charles Dickens and Oscar Wilde. Music is an essential ingredient to this literature, too, both in terms of its narrative presence and because it is a key element in an ongoing, nineteenth-century British exploration of how stylistic innovations could be represented as ‘music’. After disclosing the close connections between dandyism and those nineteenth-century composers whose lives and works were often represented as dandyish (Berlioz, Chopin and Schumann), the essay builds from the tradition of opium-inspired fiction. It suggests Wilde’s debt to Dickens’s The Mystery of Edwin Drood (1870), while also showing Wilde’s innovations in making shifts in character and narrative voice into indicators of narcotic consumption.

L'article est consacré a Frederic Chopin et ses rapports avec le théâtre et, en particulier, à son engagement dans le théâtre amateur. Lauteur montre comment est ne l'intérêt de Chopin pour la scène, mentionne ses préférences de répertoire et décrit ses performances quasi théâtrales, si appréciées par ses amis et connaissances. D'abord, il y a la formation de l'artiste sur la scène de Nohant, en particulier au milieu des années 1840 quand, en compagnie de George Sand et de ses enfants, Solange et Maurice, ił s'engage dans la création théâtrale. Le rôle du compositeur consistait à improviser des morceaux de musique sur lesquels les domestiques et les invités mimaient des scènes aussi improvisées.
Cet épisode semble de peu d'importance dans la vie et l'oeuvre de Chopin. II influence par contre, d'une manière indirecte, le développement artistique et intellectuel du théâtre de marionnettes en France. Les soirées théâtrales de Nohant ont inspiré l'activité de Maurice Sand, qui, en 1847, installe un théâtre de marionnettes mi-amateur mi-professionnel, offrant des spectacles pour les invités de sa rnère. Avec le ternps, le théâatre devient la principale occupation de Sand, qui l'installe dans son hôtel particulier de Passy lui donnant le nom du Théâtre des Amis.
Larticle décrit brièvement l'histoire du théâtre de marionnettes de Sand, présente son répertoire riche et varié, s'intéresse à la création des marionnettes, de leurs costumes et du décor, Les textes dramatiques de Maurice mettent l'accent sur un personnage héroïque créé de ses propres mains : Balandard. II se pose la question sur la réceptlon du théâtre de Sand par les classes sociales élevées et sur son rôle dans le développernent du théâtre de marionnettes dans la seconde moitié du XIXe siècle en France.

Nos recherches s’articulent autour du dernier style de Chopin (compris entre les prémisses de 1840 et sa mort en 1849). Notre corpus d’étude de 22 œuvres musicales, dont la Ballade op. 52 en fa mineur fait partie, a été analysé en prenant en compte simultanément le signifiant et le signifié. Pour cela, le premier niveau analytique étudie la partition et son langage « écrit » (le « signifiant », aspect formel : tonalités, parties, sections, phrases, etc.). Pour l’étude du « signifié », nous utilisons les topiques musicaux (d’autres terminologies existent comme les « intonations » ou encore « sèmes »), autrement dit un réservoir de figures caractéristiques issu du savoir musical historique occidental qui détermine les styles et genres expressifs utilisés au sein d’une œuvre musicale : style agitato, alla breve, style brillant, pastoral, hymne, marche, etc. Ces derniers sont les « sujets » du discours car ils participent au processus évolutif de la musique en tant qu’unités discrétisées par leurs caractéristiques stylistiques issues de l’utilisation de tous les paramètres musicaux (rythme, tempo, densité, texture, harmonie, tonalités, tessiture, etc.) et des indications de la partition. Dans le cas de la Ballade, les topiques sont nombreux et différenciés, faisant notamment varier les deux thèmes principaux dans différents styles (valse, style savant, nocturne, hymne, hymne accompagné, etc.).

Après avoir listé les topiques mis en jeu, nous tenterons de rendre compte de leur empreinte affective, issue de notre héritage socio-culturel occidental et qui peut être plus ou moins dramatique (le style pastoral de l’introduction crée une atmosphère non dramatique (ou « euphorique ») par exemple). L’étude de l’enchainement de ces unités signifiantes (ou concaténation) permet de mettre en avant les différents types de contrastes et de ruptures qui laissent entrevoir la structure narrative de la pièce musicale.  Dans le cas de la Ballade op. 52, ils créent une phase de tension progressive (par les contrastes, les moments de ruptures redondants, la variations des thèmes, la complication des moyens, etc.) qui aboutit, depuis l’introduction pastorale, à la coda virtuose et agitato. La « stratégie narrative complexe » qui en résulte (caractérisée par ces nombreux topiques contrastants) sera ensuite mis en relation avec une étude empirique de l’enregistrement qui va extraire du fichier-son des données objectives de tempo et de nuance. Y’a-t-il finalement un lien entre les résultats thymiques obtenus par une analyse réalisée par un musicologue et les résultats informatiques ? C’est là toute la dialectique qui se noue avec cette tentative de nouvelle méthodologie analytique de la narrativité et de la sémiologie musicale.

Resumen: Chopin es una de influencias capitales en el estilo de Debussy y, muy particularmente, en su música para piano. Frente a las tendencias wagnerianas del momento, asumidas por parte de una generación intermedia de compositores franceses, desde 1850, Debussy quiso recuperar la verdadera esencia francesa en la música, recurriendo al poso de los clavecinistas barrocos y al pianismo de Chopin, el primero de los compositores románticos que reaccionó contra la música de Beethoven. A partir de un estudio comparativo de determinados parámetros estilísticos –forma, melodía, ornamentación, armonía, etc.– se pretende mostrar la presencia de Chopin en el ámbito sonoro de Debussy, sobre todo, en las obras más afines a ambos, los respectivos cuadernos de Préludes y Études.

Gdy w listopadzie 1838 roku George Sand, dwoje jej dzieci i podupadający na zdrowiu Chopin zawitali do
portu w Palmie, wydawać by się mogło, że trafili do raju – lub przynajmniej zakpili z paryskiej pluchy,
z powodzeniem uciekając od późnojesiennej szarości. Rzeczywistość szybko jednak okazała się odległa od
oczekiwanego ideału, a paryscy podróżnicy musieli mierzyć się nie tylko z nieprzychylnymi warunkami
bytowo-pogodowymi, ale i z wrogim nastawieniem mieszkańców wyspy. George Sand nie pozostała im
dłużna i wkrótce po powrocie z i tak skróconego pobytu na Majorce opublikowała „Zimę na Majorce”,
gdzie daje upust swoim negatywnym emocjom i, nie przebierając w słowach, opisuje Majorkańczyków
jako „małpy”, „dzikusów” i „barbarzyńców”.
W niniejszym artykule zamierzam przyjrzeć się „Zimie na Majorce” w kontekście dzisiejszej turystyki
i coraz bardziej popularnych zimowych ucieczek w cieplejsze rejony, przyjmując, że rzeczywiście Sand
i Chopin odegrali pionierską rolę w rozwoju tego trendu. Nie skupię się jednak bezpośrednio na przygodach
i doświadczeniach obojga artystów, proponując w zamian ostrożną analizę zjawiska, które ilustruje
skomplikowaną naturę współczesnej turystyki i związanego z nią przemysłu „wakacyjno-podróżniczego”.
Opierając się na współczesnych dyskursach podróżniczych, a także teorii wyparcia i abjektyfikacji
spróbuję przedstawić i zbadać mechanizmy, które z nasiąkniętego żalem i rozczarowaniem tekstu Sand
stworzyły „labour of love” i swoisty hołd dla Majorki, a jednocześnie – strategiczne narzędzie biznesowe
o niesłabnącym działaniu.
Słowa kluczowe: Fryderyk Chop

The 18th-century tradition of partimento and thoroughbass exercises has come under intense scrutiny of historians, theorists, and pedagogues during the last years. Much less attention has been paid to the vivid persistence of this tradition in the 19th century all over Europe. Not only the education of organists but especially the training of pianiste-compositeurs proved to be fertile ground for the practical training in the partimento tradition: Performances of fantasies, improvisations of cadenzas, interludes, lead-ins and ornaments were part of their daily-business. 19th-century manuals and teachers imparting the skills necessary for this kind of improvisation rely on thoroughbass and partimento exercises almost exclusively. At the same time they refrain from contemporary theories of „modern harmony“. This shall be shown in this paper with the help of three examples: Friedrich Kalkbrenner, Friedrich Hiller and Frédéric Chopin. This 19th-century tradition is of interest not only for historians and theorists; romantic partimenti also open up new approaches and perspectives for a present music theory pedagogy, which in recent years has started to challenge the customary boundaries between theory, composition, improvisation, and performance.

A slightly reworks English version has been published as "Romantic Thoroughbass: Music Theory between Improvisation, Composition and Performance" in: Theoria. Historical aspects of Music Theory, vol. 18 (2011). A PDF may be obtained from the author on request.

The acts of improvisation and composition have often been considered two different disciplines (Dobian, Chris, 1991). Many to this day assume that music written down by notational methods must be composed. Likewise, a performance that seems spontaneous has to be improvised. However, this does not mean that the notated score was always the product of careful drafting before the music is premiered. And what really makes an ‘improvised’ performance seem improvised?

It becomes evident that a piece of music may incorporate the acts of improvisation, composition or indeed both methods. With this in mind, how can we identify the improvised from the composed?