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Who’s on the Chopin block? This week, someone poetic, pianistic, and Polish-ed.
Howdy, howdy, howdy! I’m Solomon Reynolds, and this is: Saturday Morning Car Tunes! This morning…
Frédéric Chopin was born in Poland in 1810 and became one of the greatest pianist-composers of the 1800s, right after Mozart and Beethoven. His earliest music was based on the polonaise, a traditional Polish folk dance, and shaped by the “brilliant style”—music that’s fast and virtuosic. His grandest polonaise, Chopin’s Op. 22 is one of the best pieces ever written in the “brilliant style.”
Chopin’s variation sets were part of that same world. When Robert Schumann heard his Variations on “Là ci darem la mano,” he famously said, “Hats off, gentlemen, a genius!”
Rondos were another part of Chopin’s early music. A rondo repeats a main theme, or refrain, between different sections. This one was based on the krakowiak, a Polish folk dance.
While studying at the Warsaw Conservatory, Chopin learned to write sonatas, an important musical form used by Beethoven, Mozart, and Haydn. Also at the conservatory, Chopin studied counterpoint, or melodies stacked on top of each other. Bach, a counterpoint master, was a big influence on Chopin’s “Waterfall” étude.
Polish folk music was very important to Chopin’s composing. His early mazurkas were inspired by folk instruments like the violin, the Polish bagpipe, and the string bass. In addition to folk music, Chopin was influenced by Italian opera and shaped his piano playing to sound like singing, like in his Nocturne No. 19.
The nocturne, invented by the Irish pianist John Field, is meant to sound like nighttime. Chopin built on Field’s nocturnes and made the form his own. Some say the slow movement from Chopin’s Piano Concerto No. 2 is his first nocturne.
Chopin’s music is full of melody. That might be why the rock band Blonde Redhead borrowed from one of his nocturnes for their song “For the Damaged Coda,” famously used as “Evil Morty’s Theme” from the TV show Rick and Morty.
Chopin is the man.
I’m Solomon Reynolds. I write and produce Saturday Morning Car Tunes, with research assistant Carolina Correa and audio engineer Stephen Page, only on Classical California. Tune in—or out of your car—next Saturday morning!
