Classical Principle Weekly
March 7, 2023
Happy Birthday Frederic Chopin 🎶 🎼 📣 📯
March 1st, 2023 was Frederic Chopin's 213th birthday, and his music sounds as fresh as ever. Chopin may be one of the most misunderstood composers. So we would like to celebrate him by telling you some things about him that you might not know!
CLASSICAL COMPOSER
Today, Fredric Chopin is almost always referred to as a Romantic composer. Yet, he is steeped in the Classical tradition. His idols were Bach and Mozart. Chopin loved Bach’s music so much that he memorized all 48 prelude and fugues of Bach’s Well-Tempered Claviers. He would play them at concerts and salons, and he had his students play Bach every day as well. He composed preludes in all 24 keys, after the example of Bach's Well-Tempered Clavier.
Let us take an example. Etude, Op. 10, No. 1, the famous "Waterfall", which is often played as quickly as possible.
Musicologist Wim Winters, who investigates many long-accepted "traditions" on his YouTube site: "Authentic Sound", insists that Chopin's metronome markings are accurate, and indicate this tempo.
While we cannot vouch for this, you certainly can hear the relation to Bach's famous Prelude #1 in C major from the Well-tempered Clavier, Book 1.
Then, take Bach's Prelude in C# minor from the WTC
and compare it to Chopin's Mazurka, Op 50, # 3, also in C# minor.
Some very good accounts of Chopin's method can be found in the works of Jean Jacques Eigeldinger.
INSTRUMENT
The instrument Chopin played was quite different from today's concert grand. He was not fond of loud playing, and would often compare it to a dog barking. Liszt's favorite piano, the Erard, was increasingly built for the speed, volume, and projection of romantic music and flamboyant pianists. Chopin called the Erard a "perfidious traitor" (according to a student), with its pre-shaped beautiful sound. He preferred his Pleyel, which he called "bien nuancé" where he had to work to extract the sound he wanted. Pleyel was from Vienna, and the Viennese pianos featured a lighter, more shallow action that was more like a chamber instrument. Nevertheless, Chopin revolutionized piano technique.
Here is a recording from 1948, of Polish pianist Raoul Koczalski celebrating Chopin's 138th birthday by playing on Chopin's personal 1847 Pleyel piano. The pieces include the “Nocturne in Db major, Op. 27 No. 2”,, “Waltz in Bb major, Op. 18, and the “Berceuse in Db, Op. 57 (cradle song).
Here’s a recording from Moritz Rosenthal, who was a student of Chopin's teaching assistant, Karol Mikuli. He preferred the Viennese instruments, which allowed for a very light and rapid phrase. Modern grands can be played this fast,or faster, but seldom achieve the same degree of light articulation.
BEL CANTO VOCALIZATION OF POETRY
“Under his fingers each musical phrase sounded like song, and with such clarity that each note took the meaning of a syllable, each bar that of a word, each phrase that of a thought.”
- Karo l Mikull, student of Chopin
Chopin understood that music and language are intimately linked together. He said: “Thought is expressed through sounds. The indeterminate language of men is sound. Word is born of sound—sound before word."
Chopin’s student, Jan Kleczymki said: “All the theory which Chopin taught to his pupils rested on this analogy between music and language… In a musical phrase of something like eight measures, the end of the eighth will generally mark the termination of the thought, that which, in language written or spoken, we should indicate by a full point; here we should make a slight pause and lower the voice. The secondary divisions of this phrase of eight measures…after each two or four measures, require shorter pauses..commas or semicolons.”
Jan Kleczynski reported that Chopin's ideas on declamation were grounded on rules that guide vocalists, and that he exhorted his students to hear specific “bel canto” singers singing specific works. He constantly cited the tenor, Rubini, as a model for pianistic declamation.
Chopin took his piano students to the opera, and was said to be able to imitate the great singers on the keyboard. "This is the way Rubini would sing it, always full voice in the head register." He could also imitate the great female singers, Pasta and Malibran. One of his prized possessions was an autograph score of Bellini's great aria, "Casta Diva."
Here is well known modern pianist playing the “Nocturne in Eb Major, Op. 9, No. 2. It is beautiful, and you can hear vocal qualities. However, does it sound like an aria to you?
Now, listen to the composer Sergei Rachmaninoff, who knew the voice very well, play the same work like an aria.
Polish pianist Krystian Zimerman, after what many considered a definitive performance of the Chopin Concerti in 1980, formed the Polish Festival Orchestra, and spent 10 years mastering Chopin's works for piano and orchestra. Here, they play the 2nd movement of Chopin's Piano Concerto No. 1, with a beautiful singing sound.