Chopin's Polish Ballade: Op. 38 as Narrative of National Martyrdom

by Jonathan D. Bellman

Overview

Chopin's Second Ballade, Op. 38 is frequently performed, and takes only seven or so minutes to play. Yet the work remains very poorly understood—disagreement prevails on issues from its tonic and two-key structure to its posited relationship with the poems of Adam Mickiewicz. Chopin's Polish Ballade is a reexamination and close analysis of this famous work, revealing the Ballade as a piece with a powerful political story to tell.

Through the general musical styles and specific references in the Ballade, which use both operatic strategies and approaches developed in programmatic piano pieces for amateurs, author Jonathan Bellman traces a clear narrative thread to contemporary French operas. His careful historical exegesis of previously ignored musical and cultural contexts brings to light a host of new insights about this remarkable piece, which, as Bellman shows, reflects the cultural preoccupations of the Polish émigrés in mid-1830s Paris, pining with bitter nostalgia for a homeland now under Russian domination. This vital connection to the extramusical culture of its day forms the basis for a plausible relationship with the nationalistic poetry of Mickiewicz. Chopin's Polish Ballade also solves the long-standing conundrum of the two extant versions of the Ballade, making an important point about the flexible notion of "work" that Chopin embraced.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780195338867
Publisher:	Oxford University Press
Publication date:	10/26/2009
Pages:	216
Product dimensions:	6.20(w) x 9.30(h) x 0.80(d)

About the Author

Jonathan D. Bellman, a pianist and musicologist, earned his doctorate at Stanford University and is now Professor and Head of Academic Studies in Music at the University of Northern Colorado. He has published articles in a variety of musicology journals. His primary research interests include nineteenth-century musical style and performance practices, especially involving Frederic Chopin and musical exoticism.

Table of Contents

List of Musical ExamplesIntroduction1. Two Versions, Two Keys, and Certain Poems of MickiewiczTwo VersionsTwo Keys"Certain Poems of Mickiewicz"2. Genesis of a Narrative ProcessStories in TonesAmateur Program MusicBallad Poetry and Musical Form3. Hearing Konrad Wallenrod: Chopin's Ballade No. 1, Op. 23Overview and Stylistic Summary of the First BalladeKonrad Wallenrod: Plot and StructureKonrad Wallenrod as Ballade ScenarioiThe Lay of Aldona's Fate/i4. Op. 38 and the Genre IssueA Formal Overview of Chopin's Second BalladeThe Second Ballade and the Sonata ProblemBallade as GenreThe Operatic Ballade to 18315. The Polish Pilgrims and the Operatic ImperativeA Pilgrims' Ballade; A Polish BalladeThe Great Migration and Polish Culture in ExilePersonal Anguish and Literary ApotheosisiSapienti Pauca/i6. Martyrdom and Exile: The Narrative of Chopin's F Major BalladeInternal Evidence I-The A Material: SicilianoInternal Evidence II-The B Material: StormInternal Evidence III-The C ThemeOp. 38 as Narrative of National MartyrdomVersions, Tonic Keys, and Mickiewicz RevisitedThe Forest and the TreesAppendix: "À M. F. Chopin, sur sa Ballade Polonaise," by Félicien Mallefille.BibliographyIndex

Editorial Reviews

"A solid study. Recommended." —Choice

"Ingenious, entertaining, and convincing - Jonathan Bellman's book deftly demonstrates how the study of a single piece of music can open a new window onto an entire cultural world."—Kenneth Hamilton, author of After the Golden Age: Romantic Pianism and Modern Performance

"Chopin's Polish Ballade is a highly original and much needed contribution to the literature on Chopin. Jonathan Bellman is the perfect author for the first book-length analysis of second Ballade, as he brings to the project the instincts of a practiced historian of music and a seasoned performer. This is a book that will appeal to musicologists, to performers, and to amateur pianists and music-lovers."—Jeffrey Kallberg, Professor and Chair, Department of Music, University of Pennsylvania and author of Chopin at the Boundaries: Sex, History, and Musical Genre

"Highly recommendable to performers and music students alike, and more especially to anyone who still underestimates Chopin." —Classical Music Magazine

"An intriguing contribution to a fresh look at the composer and his music...Although never "dumbed down," this volume is highly readable, even compelling." —Clavier Companion

"By synthesizing, building on, and complicating existing scholarship on the Chopin ballades, Bellman has, with thoroughness, sophistication, and analytic verve, gone far to complete the expressive picture that Chopin indicates in his Second Ballade." —Notes

"An interesting, albeit controversial, interpretation of Chopin's Op. 38 Ballade as a tale of the martyrdom of the Polish nation...This book is important for our understanding of the work's reception in the Parisian milieu...The author helps us to understand why it was seen as Polish and national. The polyvalence of instrumental music admits various interpretations,
yet listeners choose the reading which they most desire and expect." —Fontes Artis Musicae

From the Publisher