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The Form of Chopin's Ballade, Op. 23
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7/17/2019 The Form of Chopin's Ballade, Op. 23
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The Form of Chopin's "Ballade," Op. 23Author(s): Karol BergerSource: 19th-Century Music, Vol. 20, No. 1 (Summer, 1996), pp. 46-71Published by: University of California PressStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/746667
Accessed: 25/07/2010 22:16
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7/17/2019 The Form of Chopin's Ballade, Op. 23
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T h e
o r m
o f
Ch opin s
Bal lade ,
O p
2 3
KAROLBERGER
The main
challenge facing
a
composer
of
a
relatively long
and
complex
work is
that of
continuity.
A
short
piece may
be
built
from
a
single phrase,
or a few
phrases arranged
n a
simple pattern
(such
as
Chopin's
favorite,
and
infinitely
varied,ABA).
In a
longer
work,
how-
ever,
the
question
arises: When the end of a
phrase
has been
reached,
what comes next?
Change
by
itself
is
easy
to achieve:
it is
enough
to
string
one
phrase
after another. The
difficul-
ties
begin
when one
wants not
just
one-phrase-
after-another
but
a continuous
discourse,
a
"configuration"
(to
use Paul Ricoeur's
term)
in
which "one-after-the-other"
becomes "one
because-of-the-other,"
a
whole rather than a
heap-that
is,
when
the
form
of the work is
"narrative"
as
opposed
to
"lyric."
In
a
separate
essay,
I
have
explained why
one
might
want to
understand narrative
and
lyric
as
the two most fundamental
forms
of
compo-
sition.'
In a
narrative
(ortemporal)form, partssucceed one anotherin a determined
order,
and
their
succession is
governed by
the relation-
ships
of
causing
and
resulting by necessity
or
probability.
On the other
hand,
in a
lyrical
(atemporal)
form,
the
parts,
whether
existing
simultaneously
or
succeeding
one
another,
are
governed by
the
relationship
of the
necessary
or
probable
mutual
implication.
Thus,
in
creat-
ing
a narrative
work,
one must not
only give
each
phrase
a function
within the
whole,
but
also
establish,
for
instance,
that the
later
phrases
are in
some
way
caused or
prepared by
some-
thing
that
happened
earlier
(although
not nec-
19th-Century Music XX/1 (Summer 1996).@by The Re-
gents
of the
University
of California.
'See
my
"Narrativeand
Lyric:
Fundamental
Poetic
Forms
of
Composition,"
in
Musical
Humanism and Its
Legacy:
Essaysin Honor of Claude V.Palisca, ed. N. K. Bakerand
B. R.
Hanning (Stuyvesant,
N.Y., 1992),pp.
451-70.
46
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essarily
in
the
immediately preceding
phrase).
The
relationships
of
causing
and
resulting
are
the
main
means
of
achieving
narrative
conti-
nuity.
In
identifying
the main
problem
of
any large,
complex,
narrative
form with
continuity
and
its solution
with
probabilistic
causality,
one
need
not see either
issue
as
being
faced
only
by
the
composer.
The
listener
and the
performer
face
the same
problem
and have the same
means
of
solving
it at their
disposal.
Once
they
as-
sume
that
they
are
dealing
with a
single
work,
performersand listeners must attempt to de-
termine
(by
continuously proposing,
trying
out,
and
revising hypotheses,
in the
process
of
play-
ing
or
listening)
how the whole
is divided
into
parts
and
what function
each
part
has in
mak-
ing up
the
whole.2
And once
they
assume
that
the work
is
narrative,
they
must then look
for
the
relationships
of
causing
and
resulting
among
the
parts.
Both the problem and its solution pertainto
the structure
of
the work
itself,
as I shall
dem-
onstrate.
Neither
the
composer's
nor the
performer's
and
the listener's
thought
processes
will matter
here;
rather
what matter
primarily
are
the
constitution
and
significance
of the
world that the
composer's
work
presents
as an
occasion for the
performer's
and listener's
in-
terpretations-the
world
that,
after
all,
is al-
ways
someone's
interpretation
(in
this
case,
my own).
But it
would not
be
surprising
if
the
young Chopin
consciously
shared
the classicist
ambition
to create
wholes
rather than
heaps,
since this
was
clearly
the tenor of
the music
education that
he received
in Warsaw.
Indeed,
at the
beginning
of his
stay
in
Paris,
he received
a
letter
from his
composition
teacher,
J6zef
Elsner, writing
from Warsaw
on
27
November
1831,
advising
him that "the
concept
of the
whole
in
the work
is the mark
of a true
artist;
a
craftsman
puts
one stone
on
another,
places
one beam
on another."3
What
follows, then,
is an
exercise
in formal-
ist close readingof, in this case, Chopin's First
Ballade
in
G
Minor,
op.
23
(published
in
1836).
This is a silent
imaginary performance,
a read-
ing
that would be
followed most
profitably
with
the
score
in
hand.
Elsewhere,
in a
companion
essay,
Ihave
attempted
to show how one
might
subject
the
results of such
a
reading
to
a
further
interpretation
and
might
move
beyond
formal-
ism,
without
sacrificing
its
insights
and with-
out falling into the familiar trapat the bottom
of
which
waits,
grinning,
Hermann Kretz-
schmar.4
I
I
consider first the
"punctuation
form,"
the
way
the work is articulated
into a
hierarchy
of
parts
by
means
of
stronger
and weaker ca-
dences.5
Form,
after
all,
involves
a
relationship
between the parts and the whole, and if the
form is
temporal,
the
parts
succeed one an-
other.
In
the
last two
centuries,
musical form
has been
commonly
thought
of as
produced by
the
manipulation
of two
factors,
key
and theme.
The musical
form,
on this
view,
results from
an interaction
of a tonal
plan consisting
of
a
succession
of stable and unstable tonal areas
and a thematic
plan consisting
of an
exposi-
tion,
development,
and
recapitulation
of
themes.
This view
suppresses
a much
older,
"rhetorical"
onception
(Dahlhaus's
term),6
till
well remembered
by
theorists
in
the late
eigh-
teenth
century, whereby
a form results
in
the
KAROL
BERGER
Chopin's
Ballade,
op.
23
21
have
argued
that
the
unity
of the work
is the reader's
necessary,
not
optional,
assumption
in
"Diegesis
and
Mi-
mesis: The Poetic Modes and
the Matter of
Artistic Pre-
sentation,"Journalof Musicology
12
(1994),
407-33;
and I
have discussed the
temporal
nature
of the
process
of musi-
cal
interpretation
in
"Toward
a
History
of
Hearing:
The
Classic
Concerto,
A
Sample
Case,"
in Convention in
Eigh-
teenth-
and
Nineteenth-Century
Music:
Essays
in
Honor
of
Leonard
G.
Ratner,
ed. W.
J.Allanbrook,J.
M.
Levy,
and
W. P.
Mahrt
(Stuyvesant,
N.Y., 1992), pp.
405-29.
3"Pojqcie
calosci
w dziele znamieniem
jest
prawdziwego
artysty;
rzemie4lnik
stawia
kamienf
na
kamiefi, belkq
na
belkp
kladzie"
(Fryderyk Chopin, Korespondencia,
ed.
Bronislaw
Edward
Sydow,
vol.
I
[Warsaw, 1955], p. 198).
(All
translations
in
this article are mine unless otherwise
indicated.)
4See
my "Chopin's
Ballade
Op.
23
and the Revolution
of
the
Intellectuals,"
in
Chopin
Studies
2,
ed.
John
Rink
and
Jim
Samson
(Cambridge,
1994),
pp.
72-83.
5Foran introduction to the
concept
of
"punctuation
form"
and for an
explanation
of the
punctuation terminology
used
here,
see
my
"The First-MovementPunctuation Form
in
Mozart's Piano
Concertos,"
in Mozart's
Piano Concer-
tos:
Text, Context,
Interpretation,
ed. N.
Zaslaw
(Ann
Ar-
bor, 1996),pp.
239-59.
6Carl
Dahlhaus,
"Das rhetorische
Formbegriff
H. Chr.
Kochs und die Theorie der
Sonatenform,"
Archiv
fiir
Musikwissenschaft
35
(1978),
155-77.
47
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19TH
CENTURY
MUSIC
first
place
from
"punctuation"
(to
speak
with
Koch),7
an articulation
of the
musical
discourse
by
means of
cadences
of
varying
strength.
The
cadentialpunctuationarticulatesthe whole into
successive
parts
and
provides
the
framework
within
which
the
respective
roles of
other for-
mal
factors,
of
keys
and
themes,
can be under-
stood.
By
the
1830s,
theorists
lost
much
of the
interest
in cadences
and
punctuation
that
ani-
mated their
predecessors
from
the
sixteenth
through
the
eighteenth
centuries.
Cadence
was
too
conventional
an
object
to
attract
much
at-
tention in an age that appreciatedoriginality
above
all
else and
found
it
in the
uniqueness
of
the
thematic
and
harmonic
invention
and ma-
nipulation.
But this
lack
of theoretical
interest
should
not blind
one to the
continued
impor-
tance
of
punctuation
in the
practice
of
a com-
poser
for
whom the
music of
Bach
and Mozart
continued
to
be
a
living
presence.
The
main
musical
discourse
of the
G-Minor
Ballade, the Moderato (in 6; mm.
9-208),8
is
framed
on
both
sides,
by
the
Largo9
ntroduc-
tion
(in
C;
mm.
1-8)
and the Presto
con fuoco
coda
(in
0;
mm.
209-64).
The two
parts
of the
frame could not
be less balanced: at the
begin-
ning, a mere eight measures, without so much
as a hint
of cadence
either
internally
or at the
end,
articulated
only by
brief
rests,
as
if
the
speaker
were short
of breath
or,
better,
still
turning
in
his
mind the
subject
of the about-to-
be-opened
story;
at the
end,
fifty-six
measures
7Heinrich
Christoph
Koch,
Versuch
einer
Anleitung
zur
Composition,
3 vols.
(Leipzig,
1782-93).
8Throughout
his
article,
I
measure
a section
from
its
first
melodic
downbeat,
no matter
how
long
the
preceding
up-
beat,
to
its last
melodic
downbeat,
even
when
the
first
melodic
downbeat
of the
next section
is simultaneous
with
this
last
downbeat
(i.e.,
even
when
the two
phrases
are
"elided"),or when the upbeatof the next section follows
immediately
in
the
same measure
(and
the
two
phrases
are
"linked").
9Largo
s the
indication
in
Chopin's
autograph
(formerly
in the
collection
of
Gregor
Piatigorski,
Los
Angeles)
and
in
the
French
first
edition
(Paris,
1836),
which was
certainly
prepared
on
the basis
of this
autograph
and
probably
proof-
read
by
the
composer.
In the
German
first
edition
(Leipzig,
1836),
the
indication
is
Lento. Of
the
two
principal
mod-
ern
editors
of
the
Ballade,
Ewald
Zimmermann
chooses
the
autograph
and
the
Schlesinger
edition
as the
basis
of
his
text,
implicitly
rejecting
the
readings
of
the
Breitkopf
and
Hartel
edition as inauthentic (see the "Kritischer
Bericht"
accompanying
Fr6deric
Chopin,
Balladen,
ed.
Ewald
Zimmermann
[Munich,
1976],
p.
3),
whereas
Jan
Ekier
argues
for the
authenticity
of
the
German
first edi-
tion, claiming
that
it was
"basedon
corrected
proofs
of
F
[the
French
first
edition]
on
which
Chopin
made a
number
of
additional
changes"
"Critical
Notes"
to
Fred6ric
Chopin,
Balladen,
ed.
Jan
Ekier
[Vienna,
1986], p.
xxi;
for detailed
arguments
on
which
this
conclusion
is
based,
see the
Komentarze
ir6ddowe
published
with
Fryderyk
Chopin,
Ballady, Wydanie
Narodowe
A.1,
ed.
Jan
Ekier
[Cracow,
1970]).
Ekier's
claims
for the
authenticity
of the German
first edition do not convince. (Compare also Zofia
Chechlinfska,
"The
National
Edition
of
Chopin's
Works,"
Chopin
Studies
2
[1987],
7-19.)
He
asserts,
for
instance,
that
a
change
of
tempo
indication
was too
major
a
revision
to
have
been
introduced
by
anyone
other than
the com-
poser,but he himself refers
to a number
of
Chopin's
works
where
tempo
indications
differ between
the
French and
German
first
editions,
without
being
able
to
show that
these
differences
can
be attributed
to
Chopin.
Similarly,
he claims
that
the celebrated
Breitkopf
and
Hirtel
reading
of the
left hand
in
m.
7,
with
d
instead
of
eb1,
represents
too
important
a revision
to
have been
introduced
without
the
composer's
authorization,
but since-as
Ekier
himself
notes-the
revision
corrects
the
parallel
fifths between
the
right
and left hands
(mm.
6-7),
it
might
well have
been
introduced
by
a
pedantic
house editor
in
Leipzig.
By
claim-
ing
that
Breitkopf
and
Hirtel
based
their
text on
corrected
proofs of the Schlesinger edition, Ekier ignores the fact
that
a
manuscript
of the
Ballade,
whether
the
composer's
autograph
or a
copy,
was
still
in the
possession
of
the
Leipzig
publishers
in
1878
(see
their
letter
to
Chopin's
sister,
Izabela
Barciflska,
dated
Leipzig,
1
February
1878,
quoted
and
discussed
in
KrystynaKobylafiska,
Rekopisy
Utwor6w
Chopina:
Katalog,
vol.
I
[Cracow,
1977],
p.
126;
see also
Kobylafiska,
Frederic
Chopin:
Thematisch-
bibliographisches
Werkverzeichnis,
ed.
Ernst
Herttrich,
trans.Helmut
Stolze
[Munich, 1979],
p.
46).
Most
likely,
the
German
first
edition
was based
on
this
manuscript
andnever
proofread
by
the
composer.
(See,
however,
n.
19
below.) This would be fully consistent with Chopin'snor-
mal
publishing
practices,
as described
by
Jeffrey
Kallberg
("Chopin
n
the
Marketplace:
Aspects
of the
International
Music
Publishing
Industry
in
the
First
Half
of the
Nine-
teenth
Century,"
Notes 39
[1982-83],
535-69,
795-824):
"Throughout
his
career,
he
would
ordinarilygive
an
auto-
graph
manuscript
to
the
French
publisher
for
use
in en-
graving
he edition.
...
In his
middle
years
(roughly
1835-
41), copyists
were allowed
to
read over
proofs,
and
at
least
some
of the
time,
Chopin
would
check
over
these
copyist-
corrected
proofs
before
submitting
them
to the
publisher.
But
during
these
years,
Chopin
did
not
entirely
relinquish
proof-reading ... [p. 551]. Until mid-1835, Chopin's Ger-
man
editions
were
engraved
from
printed
proofs
originat-
ing
in France.
From ate
1835
through
the
remainder
of
his
career,
manuscripts
were
as a
rule
sent
eastward.
As
in
France,
the
years
1835
to
1841 saw
copyists'
manuscripts
employed
along
with
autographs
....
Most
of the
manu-
scripts
were
reviewed
by
Chopin
prior
to
being
forwarded
to
Leipzig
.
.
[pp.
808-09].
While
the
composer
in
his
early years
and
once
or
twice
later
sent
proofs
of
his
music
to
Germany
to
serve
as
engraver's
copy,
no case
is
known
where
he corrected
proof
sheets
engraved
by
one
of
his
German
publishers.
Once
his
music
in whatever
form
...
left his handsforLeipzig,Vienna, or anotherGermanpub-
lishing
center, Chopin's
ability
to
oversee
the
musical
text
ceased"
(pp.
815-16).
An
important
additional
consideration
should
be
men-
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of
emphatic
peroration,
ending
(in
m.
250)
with
a cadence
whose
powers
of
closure
are
enhanced
as much
by
the
length
of the dominant
preced-
ing the final tonic (mm. 246-49) as by the dura-
tion
of the
appendix
prolonging
the tonic
(mm.
250-64),
and
articulated
internally
by
three
weaker
cadences
(mm.
212,
216,
224).
In
spite
of
(or
rather
because
of)
the introduction's
hesi-
tant
and
open
character
at the
beginning,
the
design
is
insistently goal-oriented
and closed
at
the end.
This
is a discourse
in search of
an
aim.
Once the
aim
is
reached,
it
is
repeatedly
stressed. One could imagine a number of ways
in which the
"speaker"
might
have eased
his
way
into the
Moderato,
but
after the
Presto
absolutely
nothing
remains
to
be said.
The Moderato
itself
preserves
unmistakable
traces of the
sonata-allegro
tradition.
The
regu-
lar
first
period
(mm. 9-90),
to
speak
in
punctua-
tion terms
(or,
in thematic
terms,
the
exposi-
tion),
consists of
two balanced
(antecedent-con-
sequent) phrases (mm. 9-36 = 8 mm. + 20 mm.;
and
mm. 68-82
=
8
mm.
+
7
mm.),
the
first
followed
by
three
appendixes
prolonging
the
final cadential
tonic of the
phrase
(mm. 36-44,
45-48,
and
49-56)
and the second
by
one such
appendix
(mm. 83-90).
The
two
phrases
are
connected by a twelve-measure unpunctuated
and
uncadenced
transition
(mm. 56-67).
As is
the
norm
in
Chopin's
sonata
practice,
the ab-
breviated
ast
period
(the
recapitulation)
restates
only
the second
half of the
"expositional"
first
period,
that
is,
only
the second balanced
phrase
and
its
appendix
(mm.
166-88
corresponding
o
mm.
68-90).
But
what
happens
n between these
two
broad
periods
(mm. 91-166)
and after
them
(mm. 189-208) defies any explanation in terms
of
the
sonata-allegro
tradition.
For want of
bet-
ter
terms,
one
might
speak
in a
preliminary
fashion
of
a
complex two-part
transition
(mm.
91-137)
preparing
he central
episode(mm.
138-
66)
and
another,
simpler
one-part
transition
(mm.
189-208)
preparing
the coda.
Now it is
immediately
apparent
hat
the latter transition
(mm. 189-208) corresponds
o
(or
recapitulates)
the first partof the former transition (mm. 91-
106)
in its
punctuation
form
as
well
as its
har-
monic and thematic
content: the
four mea-
sures of modulation
ending
with
a hint of a half
cadence
(mm. 91-94)
are
recapitulated
in six
measures
(mm. 189-94),
and the twelve-mea-
sure
appendix prolonging
the cadential
domi-
nant
(mm. 95-106)
is
recapitulated
in
twelve
measures
(mm.
195-206)
and followed
by
a
two-
measure appendix that resolves the dominant
to the tonic
(mm. 207-08).1o
Moreover,
the
cen-
tral
episode
(mm. 138-66)
resembles
in
its
rela-
tive
harmonic
stability
and
especially
in
its
KAROL
BERGER
Chopin's
Ballade,
op.
23
tioned here.
As far as
I
know,
none of
the student
exemplars
of the Ballade that survive
with
the
composer's
autograph
annotations correctsthe
introductory tempo
indication or
the
left-handchord
n m. 7 to conform
with the
Breitkopf
nd
Hirtel readings.(See Kobylafiska,Rekopisy,I, 127; idem,
Werkverzeichnis,
p.
46;
Frederic
Chopin,
CEuvres
our
pi-
ano:
facsimil
de
l'exemplaire
de
Jane
W.
Stirling,
ed.
Jean-
JacquesEigeldinger
and
Jean-Michel
Nectoux
[Paris,
1982]).
Thus,
in
the
unlikely
case
that these
readings
tem
from the
composer
himself, they
would
represent
an
ultimately
re-
jected
momentary
hesitation
on his
part.
Finally,
an
early
autograph
of the first fifteen
or
sixteen measures
of the
Ballade,
known to exist
in
a
private
collection,
is also
marked
Largo Kobylafiska,
Werkverzeichnis,
Erginzungen:
Berichtigungen,"
Musikantiquariat
Hans
Schneider,
Bedeutende
Musikerautographen,
Catalog
No.
241
[Tutzing,
1980],p. 16).Insum,while completecertainty n this matter
is
unlikely
(unless
the
manuscript
mentioned
in
Breitkopf
and
Hirtel's
letter to
Barcifiska
comes
to
light),
it seems
most
plausible
to conclude
that the
readings
ransmitted
n
the German first edition are
not authentic
and
that the
authorized ext is best
represented
by
the
French irst
edition
read
n
conjunction
with the
autograph
nd
whatever
can be
learned rom the annotations
n
the
exemplars
hat
belonged
to the
composer
or his students.
Needless
to
say,
this
conclusion
in no
way
detracts
from the
interest that
the
Breitkopf
and
Hartel
readingsmay
hold
for
the
student of
the
performance
and
reception
history
of
the work outside
FranceandEngland.Heinrich Schenker'sargument n favor
of
the German
reading
of
m.
7
is as
telling
as
it is unconvinc-
ing.
See
Schenker,
Der
freie
Satz
(2nd
edn.
Vienna, 1956),p.
110 and
fig. 64,
ex.
2.
'oGiven
the
very
close
correspondence
of mm. 189-208
and
91-106,
no
analyst
that
I
am aware
of considers the
latter section
to be a
part
of the
exposition,
and
Chopin's
well-known practice of recapitulatingnormally only the
second
half of the
exposition,
it is
puzzling
that so
many
analysts
of
op. 23, including
most
recently
even
the
usu-
ally
admirablyperceptive
Jim
Samson, identify
a mirror
or
symmetrical
recapitulation
(with
the first theme
recapitu-
lated
after the second
one)
in
the
work.
Compare
Jim
Samson,
Chopin:
The Four Ballades
(Cambridge,
1992),
pp.
45-50.
The most
noteworthy analyses
of the Ballade
to
appear
after Samson's
book are
John
Daverio,
Nine-
teenth-Century
Music and
the German Romantic Ideol-
ogy
(New York,
1993),
pp.
39-41,
and Charles
Rosen,
The
Romantic
Generation
(Cambridge,
Mass., 1995), pp.
323-
28. Daverio talks of "an overridingpalindromic form" (p.
40). Rosen,
on the other
hand,
considers both returns
of
theme
A
as "a ritornello"
or "a refrain"
p.
327)
and avoids
any suggestion
of a
recapitulation.
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19TH
CENTURY
MUSIC
punctuation form,
although
not
in
its thematic
content,
the
coda
(mm.
209-64):
both
consist of
three
short incises followed
by
a
very
large
one
(in the episode, three four-measureincises are
followed
by
a
seventeen-measure
one;
in the
coda,
two incises of four
measures each
are
elided
with one of nine
measures,
which is
elided in
turn with a
twenty-seven-measure
one,
followed
by
a fifteen-measure
appendix).
I
shall show that the
correspondences
between
the
episode
and
the
coda
go
further than
that.)
Thus
only
the second
part
of
the first transition
(mm. 106-37) seems to be left without a direct
recapitulation
or at least a
corresponding
sec-
tion in the last third of the
piece.
Since this
is,
however,
a
developed
restatement of the
sec-
ond balanced
phrase
of the main
period
(mm.
106-26
=
8
mm.
+
13
mm.,
corresponding
to
mm. 68-82
=
8
mm.
+
7
mm.),
this time
ending
with a half rather than full cadence
(m.
126),
with
the
final
cadential dominant
prolongedby
the following appendix(mm. 126-37), even this
music finds its
corresponding
counterpart,
if
not an
exact
restatement,
at the
beginning
of
the
recapitulation
(mm. 166-88).
Figure
1
summarizes the
punctuation
form
of the
Ballade.
(The
recapitulating
sections are
linked with the sections
they recapitulate by
continuous
vertical
lines;
sections
correspond-
ing
in some
other,
weaker
way
are
linked
by
interruptedlines; I andV mark sections ending
with a
full
or half
cadence,
respectively;
+I
and
+V
in
parentheses
mark
appendixes prolonging
the final tonic
or dominant of
the
preceding
cadence,
respectively;
1 indicates that the sec-
tion is
linked
with the
following
one,
e-that
it
is elided
with the
following
one;
Arabic numer-
als count
measures within
a
section.)
Several
points clearly emerge.
First,
the norm
underly-
ing Chopin's balancedphrases (that is, the an-
tecedent-consequent phrases
that
present
the
two main
themes)
seems to be
two
eight-mea-
sure
incises,
but the
norm
is
obeyed (estab-
lished)
in the first incise
only
to be
departed
from in the second.
In
the first
(unrecapitulated)
phrase (mm. 9-36),
the
generous
expansion
of
the second incise to
twenty
measures
may per-
haps
adumbrate the overall end-oriented
shape
of the work. Even if all parenthetical repetition
(mm.
24-25
repeat
mm.
22-23)
as
well as the
parenthetical expansion
of the
penultimate
cadential
dominant
(mm.
32-35-the
only
mea-
sures
that could
be
removed from
the incise
without a loss of
motivic
substance
or
gram-
matical integrity)were removed from the sec-
ond
incise,
a
sizable
consequent
of
fourteen
measures would still
remain. On
the
other
hand,
the
behaviorof
the
second
(recapitulated)
hrase
(mm.
68-82 and
166-80)
is
quite
different. Here
the
slightly
shorter
consequent
weakens the
sense of
closure and
necessitates a
continua-
tion.
(When
the
phrase
is
recapitulated/devel-
oped
in mm.
106-26,
the
consequent
is made
longerto make room fora modulation.)Whereas
the
balanced
phrases
are
conceived
in
terms of
the
eight-plus-eight
norm,
the
episode
and the
coda
suggest
another
underlying
norm,
an
addi-
tive
construction
of
four
four-measure
incises
(I
shall offer
arguments
for this
reading
later),
with the norm
observed
only
in
the first two or
three
incises,
and with an
enormous
expansion
of the
last incise.
(Together
with the conse-
quent of the first phrase, these are by far the
largest
incises of the entire
work.)
Once
again,
the end-oriented
shape
of
the
whole is reflected
in
the structure of
these two sections.
This
contributes to the sense of a discourse that
constantly
yearns
for
(and
finally
attains)
an
emphatic
conclusion.
Second,
the
handling
of the cadences shows
an
abiding
concern for
continuity.
To be
sure,
the discourse is marked by a number of ca-
dence
articulations,
and all are
additionally
strengthened by
one or more
appendixes
pro-
longing
their final
chords.
Nevertheless,
these
cadences
and
appendixes
(save,
of
course,
the
last
one)
are either linked or elided
with the
following
music.
This ensures that the sense
of
articulation is never
very
strong-never
as
em-
phatic,
for
instance,
as the one
commonly
en-
countered at the end of the first period(exposi-
tion)
of the Classical
sonata-allegro.
In
addition to
such obvious devices
as
the
link and the
elision,
Chopin
also
uses
subtler
ways
of
smoothing
over
the
joints
between
suc-
cessive sections. The
introduction,
for
example,
is left without a cadence.
The cadence
that
should have
closed it comes at the
first down-
beat of
the
following phrase (m.
9),
but because
this downbeat is preceded by an upbeat, this is
not
a normal case of elision
(in
which the
last
melodic downbeat
of a
preceding
section
and
50
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Measure:
1 9
36
45 49
56 68
83
91 95
106
126
13
81 81+
20e
(5e
+
51)
(21[21])
(8e)
121
81+ 71
(41[41])
41
(12e)
81+13e
(121)
41,
Punctuation:
Ie
(+
11)
(+II)
(+
Ie)
II
(+I )
VI
(+Ve)
Ve
(+V1)
Section:
Intro.
First
period:
Transition:
Ep
phrase
1
Transition
phrase
2
part
1
part
2
Measure:
166
181
189
195
207
20
81+ 71
(41
41])
61
(121)
(21)
41,
Punctuation:
II
(+I )
VI
(+Vl)
(+I )
Ie
Section:
Last
period:
Transition:
Co
phrase
2
part
1
Figure
1:
The
Punctuation
form
of
Chopin's
Ballade,
op.
23.
U,
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19TH
CENTURY
MUSIC
the
first of
the
following
one
coincide).
Instead,
the
melody
of the
introduction
is
interrupted
in
midstream
rather
than
concluded,
and it
is
only covertly
continued
through
the
upbeat
and
first
downbeat of
the
following
phrase.
One
might
call this
a
superelision.11
Similar
cases
of
superelision
occur at the
ends of the
only
other
two
sections that lack
cadences,
the
transition
between
the
first and
second
phrase
of the
first
period
(mm.
56-67)
and the
episode
(mm.
138-
66), parallel spots
to
the extent
that
both
pre-
cede the
same
material,
the second
phrase
of
the period. In the formercase, the cadence oc-
curs in
m.
69,
that
is,
one
measure
after the
new
phrase
had
begun
(on
the
last
quarter
of
m.
67).
Like the
introduction,
the
transition
is
in-
terrupted
in
midstream and
only covertly
con-
tinued as the new
phrase begins
with the
same
dyad
the transition
died out on.
And
similarly,
the
cadence that should
have endedthe
episode
is
delayed
until m.
167,
that
is,
one
measure
after the beginning of the next phrase. The
melodic link
(the
dyad)
between the
episode
and the
following
phrase
is
lacking
this
time,
but the harmonic bond
between them
is much
stronger,
since the cadence
begins
within
the
episode
and is
completed
within
the
phrase:
the cadential
dominant is reached
in
m. 158
in
the form of the six-four
(EL) hord,
which is
prolonged
through
the
downbeat of m. 162 and
resolvedby way of the chromaticpassingchords
in
mm.
162-65 to
the
V5(BM)
hord at the
begin-
ning
of the new
phrase
in
m.
166.
Here,
as
throughout
the
Ballade,
Chopin's
evident
goal
is to
punctuate
without
stopping,
to
suggest points
of articulation
without
im-
peding
the drive toward the final
destination.
The
composer's
concern
with
such issues
may
be
graphically
illustrated
by
his subtle revision
of the phrasingin mm. 54-5 7. In the autograph,
mm.
54-55
(i.e.,
the last two measures of the
final
appendix
to the first
phrase)
are
placed
under one
slur,
and
mm.
56-57,
the first two
measures of the
following
transition,
are
placed
under another.
In this
way,
Chopin
originally
marked a
point
of
articulation
between the
ap-
pendix
and the
transition
very
clearly.
In
the
French
first edition, however, he decided to
cover all four
measures
with a
single
slur,
thus
increasing
the
sense of
continuity
between the
two sections.
Third,
full
cadences are
used
to close the
relatively
stable
sections
that
state or
restate
their material
(the
two
balanced
phrases
of both
periods
and the
coda),
and
half
cadences close
the
relatively
unstable
sections,
with the
func-
tion of preparing he appearanceof the follow-
ing,
more stable sections
(the
two
phrases
of
transition).
Here
Chopin
strictly
observes
the
Classical
usage.
The
central
episode, however,
is
anomalous,
since-as
observed
earlier-it
promises
to
close with
a full
cadence but
post-
pones
its
completion
until
after the be
inning
of the next
phrase
and ends on
the
V3
chord.
This
imaginative
ending
makes it at
once a
section of relative stability and transition.
Fourth,
the
relative
strength
of a cadence
depends
primarily
on the
length
of its
domi-
nant;
observe
where the
strongest
cadences oc-
cur and
how
they
are handled.
The
dominants
of
longest
duration
are
placed
as
follows:
mm.
94-106
(thirteen
measures),
the
appendix
of the
first
part
of the
transition
between the
first
period
and
the central
episode
through
the
first
measure of the following phrase (anothercase
of the
superelision
that
always precedes
the
appearance
of this
material);
mm.
126-37
(twelve
measures),
the
appendix
of the
second
part
of the
first
transition;
mm. 158-66
(nine
measures),
the
already
discussed
cadence
supereliding
the
episode
with
the last
period;
mm.
194-207
(fourteen
measures),
the two
ap-
pendixes
of the second
transition;
and
mm.
238-49 (twelve measures),the final cadence of
the work. It is clear
that once the main the-
matic material has been
presented,
that
is,
im-
mediately
after the first
period
(exposition),
the
discourse consists
essentially
of one
strong
cadential
statement after another.
Although
there are no
seriously prolonged
dominants
through
the end of the first
period (the only
dominant-prolongation, lasting
four-and-a-half
measures, occurs at the cadence of the first
phrase,
mm.
312-35), every phrase
after
the
first
period,
with the sole
exception
of
the
"The articulation between the introduction and the first
period
is
further
weakened
by
a subtle textural
transition,
as the monophony of the paralleloctaves in mm. 1-5 gives
way
to
the
first hint of the
homophonic, melody-with-
accompaniment,
texture in mm.
6-7,
thus
preparing
he
homophonic
texture
of the first
period.
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Measure:
1
9
36 45 49 56 68 83 91 95 106 126
138
Theme/motif:
a
A al a2 a3 x B b "b" "A" "B"
y
C
I
-->
(V)
wt"Vb"-l-
(V)
I
Key: (V) i -- "VI"/VI VI
Punctuation:
Ie (+ Il)
(+I1)
(+
Ie)
Il
(+II)
V1
(+Ve)
Ve
(+Vl)
Section:
Intro.First
period:
Transition:
Episode
phrase
1
Transition
phrase part
1
part
2
Measure:
166 181 189 195
207
209
250
Theme/motif:
B b "b" "A"
z
D
"A"
Key:
--
(V)
i
Punctuation:
II
(+II)
V1
(+Vl)
(+II)
Ie
(+I)
Section:
Last
period:
Transition:
Coda
phrase2 part1
KAROL
BERGER
Chopin's
Ballade,
op.
23
Figure
2: The
Harmonic
and thematic
plans
of
Chopin's
Ballade,
op.
23.
recapitulatory
phrase
of
the
last
period,
ends
with
a
seriously prolonged
dominant.
But it is
noteworthy that only one, the final, of these
strong
cadences
is suited
to conclude
the dis-
course,
since
only
it is
simultaneously
a
full
cadence and has
a final tonic
prolonged by
an
appendix.
The
impression,
again,
is of
a
dis-
course
in
search of
a
suitably strong
conclu-
sion,
reached
only
after a
number of less suc-
cessful
rehearsals.
II
In
music
analysis
the
"what"
questions,
al-
though indispensable,
are
generally
less
inter-
esting
than the
"why" questions.
It
is
clear at
this
point
what
the
punctuation
form
of the
Ballade
is,
but not
why
the work has this form
rather than another.
To make
the
first
step
in
this
direction,
I shall turn to the harmonic
and
melodic matter
of the musical discourse.
Fig-
ure 2 summarizes
the harmonic and thematic
plans
of the
work,
mapping
them
against
the
already
identified formal
units.
Upper-and
lowercase Roman
numerals stand for
major
and
minor
keys
respectively;
an arrow marks a
modulation;
V in
parentheses
signifies
the domi-
nant
preparation
of the
following
key;
quota-
tion marks around
a
Roman
numeral indicate
that the
key
in
question
has
not been
adequately
prepared,
that we are
"on,"
but not "in"
it,
as
Tovey
would
say;
a
key
is crossed-out
when it
is
prepared
but withheld.
Capital
letters iden-
tify major
thematic
ideas,
lowercase
letters,
with or without Arabic
numerals,
identify
mi-
nor motivic ideas that serve to individualize
less
important
formal
units,
such as
appen-
dixes;
quotation
marks
around a
letter indicate
that the theme
in
question
is
being
developed,
rather
than
stated.
Through
the end of the first
period,
the har-
monic
plan
of the Ballade more or less meets
sonata-allegro expectations,
at
least
to
the ex-
tent that
it
establishes the
main
key,
modu-
lates,
and establishes the second
key.
After-
ward,
it
goes
its
own
way.
To be
sure,
the
further modulation one
might
expect
does oc-
cur,
but,
instead of
leading
toward new har-
monic
regions,
it
circles back to the second
key;
and the retransition and
reestablishing
of
the main
key
occur
much later
than
they
would
in a
sonata-allegro.
Thus,
the basic
plan
con-
sists of two
tonic
areas
of
roughly
similar
di-
mensions at the
beginning
and end
framing
a
much
longer
(more
than twice
as
long
as either
of
the two tonic
regions)
central submediant
area,
the latter
in
three
parts:
a
tonally
stable
one
corresponding
to the
second
phrase
of
the
first
period;
an unstable one
corresponding
to
the
transition;
and another stable one corre-
sponding
to
the
episode
and last
period.
In ef-
fect,
two tonal
recapitulations
can be
identi-
fied,
one
occurring
before and one after the
thematic
recapitulation:
the return of the
submediant
in m.
138
and
of the tonic
in
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19TH
CENTURY
MUSIC
m.
209.
It
is
worth
observing
that
there
is
rela-
tively
little tonal
instability
in
the
piece;
the
principal
areas
of
instability
are
confined
to
the
transitions.
Otherwise,
the
discourse is
remark-
ably
reluctant to
modulate
and
proceeds
in
broad,
stable tonal areas of either the tonic or
submediant. Measured
against
the
sonata-alle-
gro expectations
raised
at the
beginning,
the
most
striking
feature
of
this tonal
plan
is
the
postponement
of the
main
key's
return until
the
coda,
that
is,
until well after the thematic
recapitulation
had been
completed.
This shift
of the tonic's return from the point where it
would
coincide with the
beginning
of
the
the-
matic
recapitulation
to the
beginning
of
the
coda,
lending
so
much more dramato the
point
of
return,
confirms
and reinforces our sense of
the
work's
general shape
as imbalanced
and
end-oriented.
A
few harmonic details
deserve additional
comment.
First,
the dominant
preparation,
he
essential harmonic content of the introduction,
emerges
only
gradually
out of the
opening
II6
(Neapolitan
sixth)
chord;
ts first elements show
up only
in
m.
3,
which
emphasizes
c3
and
f#2,
the
two
indispensable
pitches
of the
V7
chord,
itself
fully
spelled
out
only
after the introduc-
tion
is
over
in
m.
8. This
beginning
is
harmoni-
cally
as
strikingly
reluctant as
the
ending
will
be
strikingly
emphatic.'2
The
specific harmony
Al, which dominates the first three measures
and out
of which
the dominant
emerges,
may
hint at the
importance
the
pitch
Ab
will
have
in
the
tonal
plan
of
the
whole,
as
it is
the
only
step
of the submediant
key
missing
from the
tonic G minor.
Second, Chopin's already
noted reluctance
to modulate is
nowhere
more
evident than
in
the
transition
between
the two
key
areas of
the
first period.He not only follows the first phrase
with three
appendixes,
thus
postponing
the
moment
when
the
tonic
key
will have to
be
abandoned,
but
also continues
to hesitate
even
after the
transition
gets underway
in m.
56.
Strictly
speaking,
there is no
real modulation
here,
in
the sense of an
adequate
preparation
of
the
following key-only
a
chromatic sliding
down of the
bass from
GG
in
m.
56
through
GGl
in
m.
62
to FF in m.
63,
all
of
which
is
executed with
such vacillation that until the
downbeat of
m. 63
the
music could
still
slide
back
easily
to
g
minor. As a
result,
when the
new
key,
El
major,
appears
n
m.
68,
it
is
quite
unprepared,
and even the cadence in m.
69
is
not sufficient to
stabilize
it. In
fact,
the tonal
instability of the second phrase is initially so
great
that it
is
not even clear whether
El or Bl
will be
its
key:
the
hint
of
a
cadence
in
El
at
the
end of the first incise
in
m. 69 is
immediately
followed
by
another hint of a cadence
in Bl at
the
end of
the
second incise
in
m.
71.
For
a
strong
cadential confirmation of
the
second
key,
one must wait until the end of the
second
phrase
in
m. 82. Like the
whole
Ballade,
the second
phrasemoves from an ambiguous, hesitant be-
ginning
to
a
clearly
defined
goal
at the
end.
The
remarkable reluctance
with which the
main
key
is
abandoned and
the second one
reached
contrasts
strongly
with the
normal Classical
practice
of an
energetic
drive toward
the sec-
ond
key (although
the
concealing
of
a
hint
of
what this second
key might
be
in
the
first
mea-
sures of the work does
have Classical
prece-
dents).The relative lack of a forwardharmonic
drive
is
compensated
for,
at least
in
part,by
the
seamlessness
of the transition
from the
main
to the second
key
area
and,
again,
this
is
in
contrast
with the normal
Classical
practice
of
placing
a
strong
point
of
'articulationbefore
the
second
phrase.
Needless to
say,
Chopin's
mas-
tery
of the
mechanics
of modulation
cannot
be
in
doubt.
Rather,
his aesthetic
goals
are
differ-
ent from those of his Classical masters. At
every step
one discovers
that
he aims not
for
the
Classical
balance
and
symmetry
of
clearly
articulated
formal
units
but for
an overall
shape
that
projects,
from
an
unassuming
and
reluc-
tant
beginning,
a sense
of a
relatively
seamless,
gradual
accumulation
of
energy
and
accelera-
tion toward
the
inevitable,
frantic
conclusion.
Third,
the
longest
section
of tonal
instabil-
ity in the Ballade, the transition between the
first
period
and
the
episode, represents
a move-
ment within
the second
key,
rather
than
away
'2Moreover, t
is
reluctant
not
only
harmonically
but
also
texturally,
with the
gradual
emergence
of
homophony
out
of
monophony,
and
rhythmically,
with measured
rhyth-
mic differentiationof values emergingonly graduallyout
of the
initial
lack
of
metric
definition
and
rhythmic
differ-
entiation;
on
every
level,
mm. 6-7 furnish
the crucial me-
diating
step.
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from it.
The new
key,
BN
enharmonically
no-
tated
as A
(I
shall offer
my
reasons for this
interpretation
later),
is
adequately
prepared
by
the dominant-function six-four appendix in
mm.
94-105
(strictly speaking,
its
parallel
mi-
nor,
b
,
is
prepared),
but
the
confirming
BN-
major
cadence is
reached
only
in m.
107,
after
the
beginning
of the next
phrase
on V7 of
the
new
key
in m. 106
(the already
discussed
superelision);
because toward the end
(from
m.
118
on)
the new
phrase
initiates
a
move
back
to E6and ends
with a
half
cadence
in that
key
(or rather its parallel minor), the key of B? is
never confirmed
by
a
full cadence
coinciding
with either the
beginning
or end
of the
phrase.
The
daring
diminished-fifth
relationship
be-
tween
E6
and
B?
is
certainly
noteworthy,
defin-
ing
as
it does the
high point
of
harmonic insta-
bility
in the work.
Chopin,
who
loved to
flatten
the fifth
degree
of
a
chord,
here transfers
his
predilection
from the
level of chordal structure
to that of key structure.
The thematic
plan
of
the
Ballade,
like the
harmonic
one,
follows
the
sonata-allegro
model
through
the end of the first
period,
to
the
ex-
tent at least
that
it
presents
two
thematic
ideas
in
two different
keys,
and
alludes
to them once
more in the last
period,
where the second
theme
is
recapitulated,
although, against
all sonata
precedents,
in the second
rather than the main
key. This lack of correlation between the the-
matic and harmonic
recapitulations
and the
introduction of two new thematic
ideas,
C
and
D
after
the
first-period
exposition,
constitute
the two
most
striking
features
of the
thematic
plan
as
measured
against
the
sonata-allegro
ex-
pectations
raised at the
beginning.
The
two
features
are related to this extent:
that the sec-
ond theme is
recapitulated
in
the
subsidiary
rather than main key necessitates the continu-
ation of
the discourse
beyond
the end of the
last
period
so
that the main
key
can
return in
the coda. The introduction of
a new theme at
the
point
where the tonic
key
returns
gives
this
point
additional
emphasis
and
importance
and
confirms our fundamental
reading
of the over-
all
shape
of the work
as
focused on the final
goal.
Like theme
D,
theme C itself articulates
and
emphasizes
the arrival of the tonal reca-
pitulation:
it has been noted
above that the
Ballade
contains two such
points
of tonal re-
turn,
first
to the submediant
in
m. 138 and
second
to the tonic in m.
209.
This
and
because
C
and
D
are
the two new themes introduced
after the first-period exposition further
strengthen
the
correspondence
between
the
epi-
sode
and the
coda
already
noted on
the
basis of
punctuation
alone. In
fact,.the
correspondence
goes
even
deeper:
both themes have a similar
motivic
construction.
The four
incises of both
themes,
C and
D
(see fig. 1),
are filled with
motivic
content
that could be labeled mmnn'-
that
is,
in
terms
of the motivic
content,
the
second incise repeatsthe first, while the fourth
wants to
repeat
the
third, but,
unable to con-
tain
its
energy,
bursts its
limits
as
if
losing
self-
control
in
a
giddy
rush
to
the cadence.
Thus
the
episode
takes on the
appearance
of a re-
hearsal
for the
coda,
and the whole
sequence
of
events
from m.
166
on can be read as
a
rectifi-
cation of the
sequence
of events
from m.
68 to
m.
165,
as
if
the search
for a
proper
conclu-
sion-the essential content of the work-did
not
get
it
right
the first
time
and
had
to
be
repeated
and corrected on second
try.'3
KAROL
BERGER
Chopin's
Ballade,
op.
23
'3Needless
to
say,
the
similarity
of the overall thematic
plan,
a-b-b1
(mm. 1-67, 68-165,
and 166-264
respectively),
to the form
of the
medieval ballade
is
fortuitous.
In
choos-
ing
a
name for the
genre
his
op.
23
was
to
inaugurate,
Chopin
was
certainly inspired by
the tremendous Euro-
pean vogue for the poetic ballad among the Romantics,
and
in
particular
by
that
virtual
manifesto
of
Polish liter-
ary
Romanticism,
Adam Mickiewicz's collection of
Ballady
i
Romanse
(Ballads
and
Romances)
of
1822. There
is no
good
reason
to distrust Robert Schumann's
testimony
in
this matter:
"He
spoke
then
[when
he met Schumann in
Leipzig
on 12-13
September
1836]
also of the
fact that
he
got inspiration
for his ballads from some
poems
of
Mickiewicz"
(Er
sprach
damals auch
davon,
daf
er zu
seinen
Balladen
durch
einige
Gedichte
von
Mickiewicz
angeregt
worden
sei.) (Schumann,
Gesammelte
Schriften
fiber
Musik und
Musiker,
vol.
II,
ed. M.
Kreisig
[5th
edn.
Leipzig, 1914],p. 32).See, however,ChristianeEngelbrecht,
"Zur
Vorgeschichte
der
Chopinschen
Klavierballade,"
n
The Book
of
the
First International
Musicological
Con-
gress
Devoted to the Works
of
Frederick
Chopin,
Warszawa
16th-22nd
February
1960,
ed.
Zofia
Lissa
(Warsaw,
1963),
pp.
519-21;
Giinther
Wagner,
Die
Klavierballade um
die
Mitte
des
19.
Jahrhunderts,
Berliner Musikwissen-
schaftlicheArbeiten9
(Munich-Salzburg,
976),
pp.
42-48;
and Anselm
Gerhard,
"Ballade und Drama:
Frederic
Chopins
Ballade
opus
38
und
die franzbsische
Oper
um
1830,"
Archiv
ffir
Musikwissenschaft
48
(1991),
110-25.
See also
James
Parakilas,
Ballads Without Words:
Chopin
and the Tradition of the Instrumental Ballade(Portland,
Or.,
1992),
pp.
26-27. For the date
of
Chopin's
meeting
with
Schumann,
see Schumann's
letter to Heinrich Dorn
in
Riga,
written
in
Leipzig
on
14
September
1836: "Eben
55
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CENTURY
MUSIC
I
have
commented
above on
the
relative lack
of tonal
instability
in
the
Ballade.
Similar
and
closely
related to
it
is the
scarcity
of
genuine
thematic development in the piece-and the
little
there is is
confined to
the two
transitions,
just
as the
areas of
harmonic
instability
were.
Even
many
of
the
passages signaled
by quota-
tion
marks in
fig.
2
as
developmental
do
not
quite
live
up
to the Classical
image
of
thematic
working:
mm.
91-94
and
189-94
merely
con-
tinue to use
the motif of
the
preceding appen-
dix
to shift the
key up by thirds;
in
mm. 106-
26 the second theme is not so much developed
as
restated with a
modulatory
change
at
the
end
(thus,
one
might
speak
of a
development
only
after m.
117)
and with
its
charactertrans-
formed from the
original
sotto voce
pianissimo
to the
chordally
reinforced
ortissimo;
and
mm.
250-64 do not so much
develop
as
make
refer-
ences to
previously
heard ideas. Even
mm.
95-
106
and
195-206,
which
are as close to
genuine
development as the Ballade ever gets, begin
with restatements of
the main
theme and
only
later
lapse
into a brief and
rudimentary
the-
matic
working.
But in these two
passages,
at
least,
one
cannot
really
speak
of
a
thematic
restatement
(as
in
mm.
106-26),
since
too little
of the
original
theme is
repeated
and
both the
expressive
character and the
function of the
material
is
transformed,
reversed
in
fact,
from
a thematic statement to a preparationfor an
upcoming
one
(mainly through
harmonic
means,
as the whole
passage
is based on the
dominant-function six-four
pedal).
Forthe
most
part,
then,
the work
seems
to
state and
restate
its ideas rather than
developing
them. The rela-
tive lack of
development
of the
second theme
in
mm. 106-26 and that this is the
only
subject
to be
recapitulated give
theme
B
the character
of a
recurring
refrain.
(Goethe
observed in
1821
that "the
refrain,
the
recurrence
of
the
same
closing sound,
gives
this
genre
of
poetry [the
ballad] its decisively lyrical character."'4)To
claim
that
Chopin
consciously
invokes the
model of the
poetic
strophic
ballad with
refrain
would
probably
be an
over-interpretation.Still,
the idea should not
be
hastily rejected:
it
is
plausible
to
claim,
after
all,
that
Chopin's
next
Ballade would
explore
this
very
model.15
III
This relative lack of tonal instability and
especially
of thematic
development
might
eas-
ily give
a
superficial
observer
the
impression
of
a
work
more
"lyrical"
than
"narrative" n
its
basic
character,
n
which the
temporal
ordering
of the events and
the
logic
governing
their suc-
cession matter
far less than
the
dimensions of
the work would lead one
to
expect.
But
nothing
could be
further from
the
truth. Motivic devel-
opment is all-pervasive in the Ballade. It ex-
tends from the first to
the last
measure
and
does not
have to
be confined to the
ghetto
of
the
(nonexistent)
development
section. But
this
development
is
conceived
in
terms different
from those of
the Classical
masters,
in
terms
more akin to
the Brahmsian
developing
varia-
tion than
to Beethovenian
thematic
working.
To
be
more
precise:
neither
"development"
nor
"variation"accuratelydescribesChopin'stech-
nique.
These terms
imply
a
distinction between
a model
(motif, theme)
and
its elaboration
(de-
velopment,
variation),
between
something origi-
nal and
primary,
and
something
derived
and
secondary.
But
distinctions of this
sort
are
ir-
relevant to the
technique
found
in
Chopin's
Ballade. It
is
evident that
its thematic
and
motivic statements are
interrelated,
but
they
are not derived from one another: they are all
equally
original,
or-what
amounts to
the
same
thing-equally
derived from a
single,
extremely
concentrated
motivic source.
ls ich
vorgestern
Ihren
Brief erhalte und antworten
will,
wer tritt herein?
Chopin
Das war
grosse
Freude.
Einen
schinen
Tag
lebten
wir,
den
ich
gestern
noch nachfeierte"
(quoted
from
Chopin,
Korespondencia,
, 420).
See also the
12
September
1836
entry
in Schumann's
personal diary,
quoted
in
Jean-Jacques
Eigeldinger, Chopin:
Pianist and
Teacher as Seen
by
His
Pupils,
ed.
Roy Howat,
trans.
Naomi
Shohet
with
Krysia
Osostowicz and
Roy
Howat
(Cambridge,1986), p. 268. Concerning Chopin's visit to
Leipzig
and
meeting
with
Schumann,
see in
particular
Gastone
Belotti,
F.
Chopin
l'uomo,
3 vols.
(Milan
and
Rome, 1974), pp.
571-74.
14"Der
Refrain,
das Wiederkehren ebendesselben
Schluifklanges,
gibt
dieser Dichtart den
entschiedenen
lyrischen Charakter" (Johann Wolfgang von Goethe,
"Ballade,Betrachtung
und
Auslegung,"
Werke,
Hamburger
Ausgabe,
vol.
I
[Munich, 1981], p.
400).
'SSee
Gerhard,
"Balladeund
Drama,"
pp.
110-25.
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The narrative
continuity
in the Ballade
is
established
mainly by
a
tight
network
of motivic
interrelationships.
Some
of
these
lie at the
sur-
face and are easily noticed. The ascending ar-
peggio
that
opens
the main
motif of the
first
theme,
A
(m.
8),
echoes the
ascending arpeggio
that
opened
the
introduction,
a
(mm. 1-3).
The
motif of the
first
appendix
that
follows the
main
theme,
al, againopens
with an
ascending
arpeggio
(m. 36).
In all three
cases,
the ascent
is
followed
by
a
stepwise
descent.
The same
con-
tour of
an
at least
partly arpeggiated
ascent
followed by a stepwise descent reappearsn the
motif of the
appendix
to the second
theme,
b
(mm.
82-83).
Thus,
when the contour
reap-
pears
in
the
appendix
of the coda
(mm.
253-54
and
257-58),
a backward
glance
is
cast
simulta-
neously
at theme A and at motives
a,
al,
and
b-that
is,
a final reference
is made
to
the most
overt motivic link of
the
whole discourse. Since
appendixes
a2
and a3 have no
genuinely
me-
lodic content, consisting instead of an increas-
ingly
nervous and
agitated
sempre pih)
mosso
figuration
that
gives
way
to
the
(again )
arpeggiated
chords of the
transition,
and
given
that
x,
y,
and
z
are
melodically
even more
neu-
tral,
of the
melodically significant
ideas of the
Ballade,
only
themes
B, C,
and D are free of
references to
the
just-identified
motivic con-
tour.
Another,
equally
overt,
motivic
interrela-
tionship links theme C with the first appendix
of the main
theme,
al:
compare
the left-hand
motif
in
m. 138 with the
one in
m.
36.
A
much
less obvious
link,
but
still close to
the
surface,
relates the
theme
to
the
introduction:
compare
the
right
hand
in
m.
138 with m.
3.
Thus,
on
the surface
at
least,
only
themes
B and D
ap-
pear
to be without
significant
links to other
ideas
in the
piece.
Although these overt motivic links, how-
ever,
do
play
a role
in
establishing
connections
between
individual
ideas of the
discourse,
I
believe the motivic
interrelationships
and deri-
vations
one
discovers
beneath the
surface are
far more
significant.
The narrative
continuity
in the Ballade
mainly
relies on those. The meta-
phor
of what is on or
beneath
the
surface stands
here for the
distinction between an overt me-
lodic shape and its underlying structure that
can be revealed when this overt
shape
is
re-
duced to its
most fundamental
pitches. By
be-
ginning
to reduce the individual melodic
phases
of the
Ballade
in
this
way,
one
discovers a
narrative thread
of
astonishing logic
running
through the whole discourse, astonishing cer-
tainly
to this writer
and,
judging by
the
pub-
lished
literature,
probably
also to other
Chopin
critics.
m. 1 3 4 5
6 7 8
9
-
6
in
g
Example
1:
Chopin,
Ballade,
op.
23,
mm.
1-9,
reduction.
A reduction f the
introduction
ex. 1)
revealsthat
its
underlying
melodicmotif s
formed
y
the
c2
and
bL1
mm. 6-7),
with the
structural
2
prepared
rom
the
beginning
y
the
initial
opening-up
f
the
tonal
space
from c
(or
even
C)
to
c3
(mm. 1-3)
and the
following tepwise
descent o
c2
(mm.3-6),
and
with
the furtherdescent down to the tonic
prime,
gl,
completed,
s
already
een,
only
at the
beginning
f
the
following
phrase
(mm.
8-9).
The
motif
is
the
Classicalmusicalemblemof a
sigh,
and
t
encapsu-
lates the
expressive
world of the
following
dis-
course.16 middle-voice
ounterpoint
n
mm.
7-8
reproduces
he
motifa sixth loweras
ebl-dl.17
truc-
turally,
he most
striking
eature f the
introduction
is
its
emphasis
n C as the melodic
beginning,
trik-
ing because he fourthscaledegree 4),not beinga
member
of
the tonic
triad,
s an
unexpected
hoice
forthe
beginning
f
the
melody
rom he
standpoint
of
Classical onal
practice.
t
is
surely
worth
noting
that on the
surface
mm.
6-7)
the accented
melodic
beginning,
2
(4),
s
directly
related o
gl (1)
before
resolving
o
bbl
in
a
gesture
that
echoes
the
first
descent rom
c3
to
bb2
ia
g2
in m.
3:
the
introduc-
tion
encapsulates
what
matters
n a
most
economi-
cal
fashion.Boththe
sigh
motif and
ts
specific
ni-
KAROL
BERGER
Chopin's
Ballade,
op.
23
16In
rederickNiecks's
words,
op.
23 is "full
of
sighs,
sobs,
groans,
and
passionate
ebullitions"
(Frederick
Chopin
as a
Man and a
Musician,
vol.
II
[London,
1888;
rpt. Neptune
City, N.J.,
n.d.],
p. 268).
More
recently, Anatoly
Leikin
claims that the
sigh gesture
in
op.
23
evokes the seven-
teenth-century
operatic genre
of the
lamento.
Compare
Anatoly
Leikin,
The
Dissolution
of
Sonata Structure
in
Romantic Piano Music
(1820-1850) (Ph.D. diss.,
Univer-
sity of California,LosAngeles, 1986),p. 242.
'7Chopin
s as
unconcerned with
the
hidden
parallel
fifths
between the
top
and the middle
voices
in
mm. 7-8
as he
is
with the overt ones
in
mm.
6-7;
see n.
9 above.
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19TH
CENTURY
MUSIC
m.
8 9 10 11 12
13
14
15
16
17
18 19
20
21
23 26
28 30 31
36
in
Ig
in
g
Example
2:
Ballade,
mm.
9-36,
reduction.
m.
36
37 38 40
41
42
44
in
g
Example
3:
Ballade,
mm.
36-44,
reduction.
tial
pitch
will
have
profound repercussions
in
what
follows.18
A reduction of theme A
(ex.2)
reveals
the
hidden
polyphonic
nature
of
its
melody.
The main
struc-
tural
melody (markedby
ascending
stems
in
ex.
2)
is
constructed
mostly
of the
dyadic sigh
motif
encoun-
tered in the
introduction
(mostly,
because
on
two
occasions
the
motif's direction
is
inverted to
ascend
and at the end the dyadsare abandoned n favorof a
longer
linear
descent).
The antecedent
(mm.
9-16)
as
a whole can be reduced to a
single sigh,
5-4,
but the
consequent
(mm.
17-36) goes
back to
5
and
com-
pletes
the
stepwise
descent
all the
way
to 1. This
melody
is
accompanied by
a
counterpoint (descend-
ing
stems
in
the
example) composed wholly
of
thirds
descending by
step.
It is most
striking
that the theme
is constructed of
the same motif
governing
the in-
troduction.
(Note, by
the
way,
how the
sigh
motif
reappears
twice on the surface in the left-hand ac-
companiment
at
the
cadence,
m.
35.)
The
fourth
scale
degreegives way
to the
fifth
one as
the
opening
melodic
tone,
but does not
disappear
rom view
com-
pletely, interrupting
the
structural melodic descent
at
the
end
of
the antecedent. It
reappears
lso,
on
par
with
the
fifth
degree,
as a
significant
surface
detail,
when
in
mm. 21-23
(and
again
in
mm.
24-25)
the
g2-gl
octave is divided
by
d2
and
c2.
Even more
on
the surface (so much that it does not appearat all in
my reduction),
but
certainly
no less
significant,
is
the
insistent
droning
of the
accented
cls (right
hand,
mm.
8,
10, 12, 16,
18,
and
20).
A new
feature
(with
consequences
in
the
future)
is
provided
by
the
stepwise
descending
thirds
of
the
counterpoint.
Every significant
interpreter
of
Chopin's
music
knows to what
extent the
composer's
surface
ho-
mophony
covers
multivoiced
textures.
If
the
melody
of theme A
was characterized
by
hidden
polyphony,
that of
the
following
appendix,
al,
might
be dubbed
heterophonic:the right-handmelody is reduced to
its
structurally
most
important
pitches,
rhythmi-
cally
displaced,
and
doubled
an
octave lower
in
the
left
hand.
A
reduction of the
melody (ex.
3)
shows
that it
is,
again,
constructed
wholly
of the descend-
ing-dyad sigh
motif.
A
new
feature,
and
worth re-
membering
for its future
repercussions,
is that both
halves of the
appendix
begin
on
f2,
again
a
striking
choice for
a
starting
point
of
a
melody,
since
7
is not
a member of
the tonic triad.
It has
already
been mentioned that in the follow-
ing
two
appendixes,
a2 and
a3,
true
melody
has
given way
to an
increasingly
nervous
figuration.
But
this too
can
be
reduced to its
structurally
most
im-
portant pitches.
The
two
two-measure
incises
of a2
(see
fig.
1)
differ
(apart
rom
being
sounded
in differ-
ent
octaves)
only
in
that the
first
ends with
the
fifth
scale
degree
in
the
bass,
whereas
the
second ends
with
the
conclusive
prime,
which
ensures
that the
repetition is not heard as redundant.Melodically,
both incises consist
essentially
of two tetrachords
descending
by
step,
one
from
C
to
G and the other
from
F
to
C
(see
the
reduction
of mm. 44-45
in
ex.
4),
which condenses and summarizes the
pitch
rela-
tionships
observed
before,
namely,
the
emphasis
on
4
in
its
relation to
1
(as
earlier
in the
introduction,
mm. 3 and
6-7)
and the
emphasis
on
7,
which is now
revealed
as
related
to
4
(i.e.,
as the
4
of
4,
a sort
of 4 to
the second
power).
The following appendix, a3, begins with the figure
reduced in ex.
5,
repeating
it
four
times,
in
different
octaves,
in mm.
48-52. Then
it
continues as
in
ex.
6,
repeating
the
pattern
initiated
in
m.
54
four
times
in
"8In
his well-known
analysis
of the
Ballade,
Hugo
Leichtentritt also derives
the whole work from
a
single
motivic
source,
but
he
locates
this source
in m.
5. See
Leichtentritt,Analyse
von
Chopin'schen
Klavierwerke,
ol.
II
(Berlin,
1921),
p.
2.
Leichtentritt's claim
is
disputed
in
Wagner, Die Klavierballadeum die Mitte des 19. Jahr-
hunderts, pp.
13-16.
On the
other
hand,
Leikin
correctly
identifies the
sigh
motif as
being
of
pivotal importance
n
op.
23. See
Leikin,
The Dissolution
of
Sonata
Structure,
p.
250.
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m.
44
45
in
g
Example
4:
Ballade,
mm.
44-45,
reduction.
m. 48
49
in g
Example
5:
Ballade,
mm.
48-49,
reduction.
mm.
54-55,
so
that
by
the end of the
appendix
the
melodic
cl remains
unresolved,
its
importance
un-
derscored
by
the
bass,
which summarizes
the
cen-
tral
pitch
relationship
of
the
discourse
so far
by
alternating
repeatedly
c
and
G
(again
related
directly,
with
economy
equal
to
that
of the
introduction).
Thus
the inconclusive
appendix
flows
directly
into
the
following
modulating
arpeggiation.
The
reduc-
tion reveals again the exclusive reliance on the sigh
motif
and,
moreover,
a
return
of
the motif to the
pitch
level at
which
it was
initially
introduced
in
mm.
6-7.
The
pitch
C
dominates
the whole
appen-
dix
and is as
important
at the end
of m. 55 as it
was
at
the
beginning
of
m. 1.
As the motion to
the
second
key
and
theme
begins,
the
sigh
motif
and the
4 that
wants,
but does
not
quite manage,
to
exploit
it to descend
to 3
are
firmly
established
as the main
melodic protagonists
of
the discourse.
m. 52
53
54
in
g
Example
6:
Ballade,
mm.
52-54,
reduction.
The
only
motivically significant
element of
the
transition, x,
is
provided
by
the
empty
vertical fourths
and
fifths
in
the left
hand
(mm.
56-57,
60-61,
and
64-67),
which
in their recollection
of
horns,
the
ro-
mantic
emblem
of
sylvan
nature,
help
to
achieve
the
calando-smorzando-ritenuto
transition
from the
agi-
tated
figuration
of the
appendixes
to the meno
mosso
and sotto voce second
theme.
It
is
striking
that,
once
the
key
of G
minor has
finally
been
abandoned,
the
horn calls use
exclusively
cl and
the
Fs
above and
below
(mm. 64-67).
Thus
the
cl in mm.
64-67
picks
up
the cl
abandoned,
unresolved
at
the
end
of m.
55,
and
this
in
turn is
picked up, together
with
the
accompanying
fl,
in
m.
67
by
the
right
hand
as it
begins
the second theme. The
key
may
have
changed,
but
the
melodic
pitch
on which the
continuity
of
the
whole so
centrally
depends,C,
together
with its
tributaryF,
remains as
firmly
in
charge
as
ever.
The
second
theme,
B
(reduced
in ex.
7),
is,
like
the first
one,
polyphonic-consisting again
of
a
struc-
tural
melody
(in
ex.
7, upward
stems
plus
a few
embellishing
unstemmed
note
heads)
and
a lower
counterpoint.
This textural
similarity by
itself es-
tablishes
a link
between themes
B
and A. But there
are also
other,
more
specifically
motivic links with
the
preceding
music,
as
well
as links
of
pitch.
The
antecedent and
consequent
are almost identical me-
lodically, consisting essentially of two sighs, one on
fl,
the other on
c2,
and
a
descent from
5
to
1,
articu-
lated into individual
sighs
in the
antecedent,
linear
(despite
the
missing
4)
in the
consequent.
(In
view of
this
near
identity,
what
necessitates
the
consequent,
what makes it
nonredundant, is,
of
course,
that
in
the antecedent 1 is reached on a weak beat and is not
supported
by
the EL-tonic
chord,
both weaknesses
being
corrected
in
the
consequent.) Moreover,
in
theme
A the
consequent
had consisted
of
a
few
sighs
followed by a linear descent from 5 to 1, and the
antecedent had stated
the first and last
sigh
motives
at the same
pitch
level.
In
both
themes,
A
and
B,
the
melodic
highpoint
in
the
consequent
gets
additional
emphasis by
being prolonged
an octave
apart
n
two
registers
(cf.
mm. 21-25 and
79-80).
More
impor-
tant,
the
ubiquitous sigh
appearing
at several scale
degrees
is
again
the main motivic
component
of the
melody (on
a
most
fundamental
level,
both
the
ante-
cedent
and
consequent
of B are
large-scalesighs,
as
was the antecedent of
A).
And the
pitches singled
out
for
attention,
in
addition
to the
expected
bb2
and
eb2
5
and
1
in
the local
key),
happen
to
be their
upper
neighbors,
c2
and
fl,
the two
crucially important
pitches
mentioned above.
Note
the extent to
which
they
are
singled
out for
attention
on
the surface:the
vertical
dyad,
fl-cl,
itself
coming,
as
seen,
directly
from
the
horn
calls
of the
preceding
ransition,
opens
both the
antecedent and
the
consequent,
stressed
with an accent in the former and an arpeggio n the
latter.19
The
counterpoint
that
accompanies
the first
KAROL
BERGER
Chopin's
Ballade,
op.
23
'9The
arpeggio
s
present
in
Chopin's autograph
but not
in
the
French
and
German
first
editions,
in which
Chopin's
sign
has
been mistaken
for
a
redundant
natural,
a mistake
the
composer
missed
in
reading
Schlesinger's proofs.
This
situation,by
the
way,
might
lend
some credence o
Jan
Ekier'sclaim that the
Leipzig publishers
based their text
on
corrected
proofs
of
the
Schlesinger
edition
(see
n.
9
above).On the otherhand, it is also possible that whoever
copied
Chopin's
autograph
for
Breitkopf
and
Hartel
mis-
read the
composer's
notation
in
the
same
way
as
Schlesinger'sengraver
did.
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19TH
CENTURY
MUSIC
m.
68 69
70 71 72
73 74
75 76
77 78
79 80
81
82
IJJ
IinE
1i/
in
EB
Example
7:
Ballade,
mm.
68-82,
reduction.
halves
of
both the antecedent and
consequent
is
again
relatedto the
one that
accompanied
he
melody
of the
first
theme,
consisting
of thirds filled
linearly,
this
time,
however,
ascending
rather than
descend-
ing. In short, whereas theme B could not be related
to the
remaining
thematic and
motivic material
of
the
Ballade while
remaining
on the
melodic sur-
face,20
this reduction has revealed
such
a
wealth
of
textural,
motivic,
and
even
pitch-centered
inks with
theme A and other music
preceding
theme
B
that
nothing
centralto the new theme now
appears
o
be
completely
new.
m. 82 83 84 85
86
S
WE
in
E6
Example
8:
Ballade,
mm.
83-90,
reduction.
The
appendix
of the second
theme,
b
(reduced
n
ex.
8),
is also
entirely
derivedfrom the main theme
or,
to be
exact,
from its
counterpoint.
Likethe coun-
terpoint of A, it consists entirely of thirds descend-
ing by
step.
In
addition,
it
is
constituted
by
one such
third, which,
moreover,
s sounded at
the same
pitch
level as most of those
in
theme A
(although
this
time,
of
course,
with an
ail,
since
the
key
has
changed).
That the structural ine descends
now
only
to 3 rather than
to 1
diminishes the sense
of closure
and
thereby
increases the
continuity.
In
this
respect,
the
appendix
of the second theme behaves as
para-
doxically
as those of the first
theme,
which
also
introduced
increasing
restlessness instead
of
con-
firming
the
stability
of
the theme's cadence.
Further
features
linking
the
appendix
with the
preceding
music include a
subtle echo of
a
gesture
from the
second
theme,
when
the
appendix
is
repeated
and
the
strong-beat
bils
in
mm.
87
and
88 resonate an
octave
higher,
n a recall of the transfer
of
the
melody
to the higher register, from
b'l
to b62(mm. 71 and
79).
And
finally,
note the
inner-voice
counterpoint
in
mm.
85-86
echoing
the
initial
thirds,
d2-c2-bi1,
in
the
minor
mode,
d6
1-ci 1-b.
This is the first
time
that the
c2-bil
motif,
followed
since the introduc-
tion,
gets
inflected to
cl
-bi
(and
note that
Chopin
marks
these
two
pitches,
not the initial
d
l,
with
accents).
The
significance
of this
inflection
will
be-
come
apparent
ater.
Thus,
by
the end of the first
period
the main
features on which
the work's
narrative conti-
nuity
depends
are
in
place.
The individual
phases
of
discourse are
connected
by
economi-
cal
and
rigorous
links of
motives and
pitches.
Everything
of
melodic
significance
is con-
structed
from a
single
motif
of extreme sim-
plicity
and
expressive-emblematic
resonance:
the
descending step,
with
the
descending (or
ascending)
linear thirds
playing
a
secondary,
accompanying
role.
Equally significant
is the
emphasis
on a
single pitch,
C,
and
secondarily
on
F,
as the threads
connecting
distinct and
often distant
phases
of
discourse,
threads
main-
tained even
through
a
change
of
the
local
key.
(Chopin may
have
chosen
these rather
than
other
pitches
because
they
are
the
only
two
diatonic scale
degrees
shared
by
G
minor and
Ek
major
that
are not members of the tonic
triads
in
these
keys;
consequently,
they
provide
par-
ticularly
unstable,
dynamic,
forward-pressing
melodic elements.
They
thus contribute to
the
overall
shape
of
the
piece,
which moves from
an
ill-defined,
uncertain
beginning
to an em-
phatically
stable and final
closure.)
The transition from Ei major in m. 90 to V of A
minor
in m.
94
proceeded
by
shifting
the bass
up-
ward
by
thirds,
from
Ei
(Ei major,
m.
90),
through
G
(G minor,
m.
91)
and Bi
(Bi major,
m.
92),
to d
(D
20Compare,
owever,
Alan
Rawsthorne's
observation:"This
second theme is a kind of
complement
to the
first,
a re-
statement
in
the
major
mode and
in
a more
consolatory
mood of the earlier utterance
in
G
minor. Both consist
basically
of the dominant thirteenth
resolving upon
the
tonic,
and both
proceed melodically
from the mediant to
the
key-note"
("Ballades,Fantasy
and
Scherzos,"
in
The
Chopin Companion:
Profiles
of
the Man and the Musi-
cian,
ed. Alan Walker
[New
York,
1973],p.
47).
60
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m. 94 95 96 97 98 99
100 101 102 103
104
105
106
on
V/a/b
b
Example
9:
Ballade,
mm.
95-106,
reduction.
m.
106 107 108 109110
111 112
113 114
115
116 117 118
120
122
123
124
125 126
8/-------------------------
-----------------
------------------------------
I/A/B$
-V/eb
Example
10:
Ballade,
mm.
106-26,
reduction.
m. 126 130 131 132 133 134136 137
-
-V/e-
-
-/E- -- ---
.
?
-__
6/E
-
6
Example
11:
Ballade,
mm.
126-37,
reduction.
KAROL
BERGER
Chopin's
Ballade,
op.23
minor,
m.
93).
The
corresponding
shift
in
the struc-
turally
most
important
melodic
pitch
is
from
gl
in
m.
90,
through
d2 in
m.
91
(thus
recapturing
the
melodic
point
of
departure
of the first
theme),
to
eh
in
m.
94,
a motion
by
step again,
but
moving
upward
this
time,
the first
suggestion
after the inverted
sighs
of
the
main
theme that
upward
motion
may
come
to
play an importantrole in the melodic structuringof
the work.
By
the
beginning
of the
following
appen-
dix
(m.
95),
the e is transferred o the
appropriately
high register,
e2
(see
the reduction
in
ex.
9).
As the
reduction
shows,
the whole
dominant
preparation
that
follows
(mm. 95-106)
adopts
the
melody-with-
counterpoint
texture of the main
theme,
just
as it
adopts
its motivic
substance,
but
freely
mixes de-
scending
with
ascending steps (thus exploiting
the
inverted
sigh
motif observed
in
the
preceding
transi-
tion)
and creates from this mixture the first
signifi-
cant
ascending
structural melodic line of the work:
e2-f#2-g#2-a2-b2.21It
is
perhaps
not accidental that
the
beginning
of this
line
involves the same
pitches
as the
only ascending dyad
n
the
main
theme:
el-f#1
in
mm. 11-12
and 19-20. It should be
increasingly
clear that
Chopin
likes to
impart significance
to
specific pitches
and
to maintain
their
identity
through
changes
of
underlying keys.)
The b2
just
reached
(m.
106)
becomes the
melodic
point
of
departure
of
the
following phrase
(melody
reduced
in
ex.
10).
Until the
middle of the conse-
quent, this essentially reproduces he originaltheme
B
"on"
a
new
key (cf.
ex. 10 with ex.
7).
But the
second half
of the
consequent (after
m.
117),
instead
of
descending
from 5
to
1,
introduces a second as-
cending
line similar
to the
one
in
the
preceding
appendix:
e3-f#3-g#3-a#3-b3/cl1.
nly now,
when
the
B,
which
began
the
melody
of the
phrase,
has
been
reached
again
and
enharmonically
respelled,
does
another
descending
dyad
appear,
ontracted
this time
to a
semitone,
c
l-bk.Thus,
the
melody
of the
whole
phrase
can be reducedto the same
large-scale
sigh,
CO-BK.
he
appendix
that follows
(reduced
n
ex.
11)
serves then to
prolong
the
melodic
B6
reached in
m.
126 over the
dominant
harmony
preparing
the fol-
lowing key, embellishing
this B6
prominently
with
its
upper neighbor
CK.
It
is
because
of these
Cbs
hat
the
prepared
key
is E6minor
through
m.
134.
Only
in
mm. 135-36
is
ch3
prominently
introduced as
a
component
of
the
d3-c30-b2
motif
in
the left
hand,
so that the preparedkey changes into E6major.)
It
is
apparent
o what extent the
melodic
content
of the
introduction
and
of the
first
period
was
domi-
nated
by
one
pitch,
C,
and
the
dyad
descending
from
61
21Adorno
heard a
quotation
of this
passage
in
the second
movement of
Mahler's
Fifth
Symphony
(mm.
137-41),
"in
a momentof breathless ension"
(indeed,
a
very close,
although probably fortuitous, resemblance). Theodor W.
Adorno,
Mahler:
Eine
musikalische
Physiognomik,
Gesam-
melte
Schriften,
ol.
13
(Frankfurt
m
Main, 1971),
pp.
224-25.
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19TH
CENTURY
MUSIC
it,
C-BK.
The
melodic
events
just traced,
the
events
of the transition
between the first
period
and
the
episode,
can
be
interpreted
as a
contraction
of this
descending
whole
tone,
C-B1,
into
a
semitone,
CK-
B6.22
The principal stages of this process are the
establishment of b2as the main
melodic
pitch
in
m.
106
(an
event
whose
importance
is
emphasized
on
the surface
by
the
highest dynamic
level
reached so
far,ff,
and
by
b2
opening
the
repetition
of
theme
B
in
its
expressively
transformed
character),
he
reconfir-
mation
of
b3
in
m.
124
(again
underscored
on the
surface
by
the further
dynamic
intensification to the
climactic
fff),
he
enharmonic
respelling
of the
pitch
to cl
1
n m.
125,
and
its
resolution
to
b6
n
m.
126.23
The
correspondence
between the
C-B1
motif
of the
introduction
and
the first
period
and
the C1-B1
motif
of the
transition is
underscored further on
the sur-
face
by
the
striking
similarity
of
texture
and
register
between the
first
four measures of
the
appendix y
with
their
oscillation between
b6
and
cl1
(mm.
126-
29)
and the last
two measures
of
appendix
a3
with
their
oscillation
between
b6
and cl
(mm.
54-55).
As
mentioned
earlier,
the
scherzando24
pisode
in
EDmajor (mm. 138-66) consists of three harmoni-
cally
very
stable four-measure ncises followed
by
a
much
longer
and much
less
stable
final
incise,
which
reaches
a
cadential six-four
in m.
158,
prolongs
this
harmony,
and
then resolves
it
by
way
of
chromatic
passing
chords
in
mm.
162-65
to
V3,
at
the
begin-
ning
of the next
phrase
in
m. 166. The first incise
(mm.
138-41)
offers another
instance of
Chopin's
characteristic
"heterophonic"
texture in
which the
melody
is
presented
simultaneously,
although
with
considerablerhythmic displacementsandvariations,
in
two different octaves. Here the
melody
in
the
left
hand
(ex. 12)
reveals,
once
again,
exclusive reliance
on
dyads descending (or ascending)
by step,
with the
whole
melody
reducible to our Ur-motif
of
C-BK.
The
melody
in
the
right
hand
(ex.
13)
is a
variant of
the one
in
the
left,
to
the
extent that it
also
is reduc-
ible to the
C-B1
sigh. (A noteworthy
surface detail:
m.
138 139
140 141
'
oin
A
E-
n
Eb
Example
12:
Ballade,
mm.
138-41,
left
hand,
reduction.
m. 138
139
140 141
in
E6
Example
13:
Ballade,
mm.
138-41,
right hand,
reduction.
m. 146 147
148
149
150
in
E6
Example
14:
Ballade,
mm.
146-50,
reduction.
g2 always
intervenes between
c3
and
b62, just
as
it
did
in the
introduction
in
mm.
3 and
6-7.)
The
sec-
ond incise
(mm.
142-45)
is a close
variation,
almost
a
repetition,
of
the
first,
with
the left hand
giving
up
its
melodic role in the last
measure,2s
while
the
melody
in
the
right
hand
continues its
descent
chro-
matically
to
gl
in m.
146. The third
incise
(mm.
146-
49) gives up
the
heterophony altogether
and works
instead with
the
chromatic-scale idea
introduced
in
the
last measure of
the
preceding
one
(m. 145).
Its
melody (reduced
n ex.
14) essentially
prolongs
the
gl
to m. 150by means of a chromaticmotion up to and
down
from-what
else?--c2.
And
the last incise
(mm.
150-66)
works
initially
with
chromatic
dyads,
as-
cending
and
descending
(see
the notes
emphasized
in
the
right
hand in
mm.
150-53),
in
referenceto the
preceding
chromatic
scales,
producing
essentially
a
chromatic ascent from e
l
(m.
150)
to
c#2
(m.
154).
The
remaining
part
of
the
incise
(mm. 154-66)
oper-
ates with
motivically
neutral scales and
arpeggios,
with
no
genuinely
melodic
content,
and with the
main "line"transferred o the bass. The line reverses
the direction
of the chromatic-scale
motion to
pro-
duce the descent from
C#
(m. 154), through
BB#
=
C
(m. 156)
and C6
(m.
157),
to
BBI
(m.
158).
Thus as the
cadential
six-four
is
reached
on
the
downbeat of
m.
158,
the
BBI n
the bass
is
approached
rom
C6 in a
motion
recalling
the contracted form
of the
Ur-mo-
22Recall
he first
suggestion
hat
c1
might
be
inflected
o
cb1
n the
inner-voice
ounterpoint
f
appendix
(mm.
85
and
89;
see
ex.
8)
and
note the
accentswith
which
Chopin
marks
these
cdls,
but
not
the
preceding
dbls,
as
well
as
the
fact that the second time
around,
in
m.
90,
he does not
place
an accent
on
bb,
as
he
did
in m.
86,
wanting
he
unresolved
1
to
linger
n
the
memory
s
a
preparation
or
the
first
beatofm. 106.
Symmetrically,
he left-hand oun-
terpoint
d3-c3-bb2
n mm. 134-36
(see
ex.
11)
announces
that the Ur-motif
will
be
shortly
einflected
ack
o
C-Bb.
2It
was
this
sequence
of events that motivated
my
earlier
suggestion that the key of mm. 106-17 was "really"BM
major, enharmonically
notated to facilitate
reading.
24So
markedn the
autograph,lthough
ot in
the French
first
edition.
25At
some time between the
autograph
and
the
French
first edition, Chopin sharpened he interruptionby delet-
ing
a chord
in
m. 145: with the
chord,
the
chain of de-
scending steps
would extend
to
dl;
without
it,
an
eb1
s
deletedand he chain
tops
at
fl.
62
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m.
166 167
168 169
170 171172173 174
175 176
177178 179
180
in
E6
Example
15:
Ballade,
mm.
166-80,
reduction.
m. 195 199 200 202
205 206 207
208
in g6 V7
ing
V4
V7 i
Example
16: Ballade, mm.
195-208,
reduction.
KAROL
BERGER
Chopin's
Ballade,
op.
23
tif that is
recognizable
from the transition and that
might
have been
thought
overcome
in
the
episode.
The
following prolongation
of
the bass
BBI
through
the bass motion from BBI
(m. 158),
through
cl
(m.
162)
and
C6
(m.
165),
back
to
BBI
(m.
166) manages
to
combine both forms of
the
motif,
C-B1
and
C0-B6,
n
a
grand summarizing gesture
as the
episode gives
way
to the last
period.
In
fact,
the
whole
episode,
from m. 138 to
m.
166,
can be seen as a
gigantic
prolongation
of
the
pitch
Bb,
prominently
embellished
with
both C and Cb.
The
appearance
of theme
B in mm.
166-80
(ex.
15)
is
in
pitch
content
an almost
literal
recapitula-
tion of
mm.
68-82
(cf.
with
ex.
7).
Two subtle vari-
ants,
however,
should be noticed.
First,
the omis-
sion of the first melodic note from the antecedent
(i.e., the missing fi in m. 166) is clearly designedto
focus all of the attention on
the
bass
BB6;
ts crucial
motivic
significance
has
just
been discussed. Sec-
ond,
the
counterpoint accompanying
the
main
melody
has been revised
in
orderto
stress,
instead of
the thirds
ascending by
step,
the more
typical
thirds
and
dyads
descending
by
step.
In
the
recapitulation
of
the
following
appendix
b
(mm.
181-88;
compare
with
the reduction of
the
correspondingpassage
in
ex.
8),
the
original
db
cl
-bb
counterpoint
is
not
completed (bb s missing in both m. 184and m. 188).
This not
only
returns
to
the
contracted form of the
Ur-motif,
but,
paradoxically,places
emphasis
on the
missing
bb,
as
if
to
say
that the descent from
Bb
o
Eb
in
the
preceding phrase
did
not
manage
to
challenge
Bbs
preeminence.
The retransition
from
Eb
major
back to
V
of G
minor
(mm. 189-94)
is
again
not a
true
modulation,
but
only
a
simple
shift from
the
E6-major
riad
(mm.
188-89)
to
the G-minor triad
(mm.
190-92),
which
accompanies the transferenceof the main melodic
pitch
from
gl
(m. 188)
to
bb1
(m.
189)
to
d2
(m. 190).
By
the end
of
the retransition
phrase,
this
d2
is not
only
established as the
point
of
departure
or the
structural
melody
of
the
following
two
appendixes (d2
in m.
195),
but
is
also shifted
to
the
bass
register,
where it
provides
a dominant
pedal
point
for the
appendixes
(d
and
D,
mm.
194-207,
with
DD
added
n
the last two
measures).
Moreover,
the
melodic
reduction
of
the
appendixes ex. 16)
shows
that
even when the tonic of
G minor is reached n m.
208,
d2
(i.e.,
5)
remains the
melodic
pitch,
which,
of
course,
is
one of the main
reasons
why
the music has to
continue,
even
though
the
tonic has been
regained.
It
will
be the tonal
function of the coda both to
confirm the tonic and
to
reach the melodic
1 in
a
convincing way.
The
coda,
like
the
episode,
consists
of
four
in-
cises whose motivic
content
might
be
represented
as
mmnnl,
with the final
incise
getting
out of con-
trol and exploding the eight-measureframework es-
tablished
in
the
preceding
one
(strictly
speaking,
it
had
consisted of nine measures
with
elision;
see
fig.
1).
The first and
second incises
(mm.
209-12
and
213-16;
ex.
17) prolong
d2,
embellishing
it with the
upper-neighbor
sighs,
and
then
descend,
again by
way
of
sighs,
to
bb .
The
third
incise
(mm. 216-24;
ex.
18)
continues the
stepwise
descent
all
the
way
to
gl. Significantly,
this
is
reached not
through
the
diatonic
A,
but
through
the chromatic
Ab--surely
a
backwardreference to the prominent Absin the in-
troduction.26 have
already
interpreted
this
promi-
nence
as a
way
of
preparing
he second
key
of the
work.
Retrospectively,
another
layer
can
be addedto
this
interpretation:
the
flattened
2
descending
to
1
makes
a
clear
reference
to the
contracted semitone
form of the
Ur-motif,
which
played
such
an
impor-
tant
role in
the central
phase
of the discourse.
In
26Rawsthornelso believes hat
the
Neapolitanharmony
in
the
passage
eginning
n m.216
may
echo the introduc-
tion
("Ballades,
antasy
nd
Scherzos," . 48).
63
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19TH
CENTURY
MUSIC
m. 208 209 210 211
212
212
213 214
215
216
in
g
Example
17:
Ballade,
mm.
208-16,
reduction.
m.
216
217 218 219 220 221 222 223
224
n
Example
18:
Ballade,
mm.
216-24,
reduction.
m.
224
225 226 227 228
229
230 231232 233 234 235
236 237 238 239 240 244 245
246
248 250
S--------------------
6
in
g
V4
V7 i
Example
19:
Ballade,
mm.
224-50,
reduction.
addition o
this overall tructural
igh-motif
escent
from
Ab
o
G,
the incisebrimsover
with
significant,
characteristic
details.
It
consists
first of a twice-
repeated
Ab-G
sigh
motif
(mm.216-19)
and
hen of
a
stepwise
octavedescent rom
g2
to
gl
through
wo
perfect
ourths,
rom
l
to cl
(mm.220-21)
and
rom
c2
to
gl (mm.222-24),
a descent hat
emphasizes
he
two
pitches
that
played
such
an
important
ole
be-
fore, l and,
n
particular,l/c2,
and
hatmanageso
articulate ncemore
in
m.
222)
he
c2-bbl
motif.
The last
incise
(mm. 224-50;
ex.
19) begins
like the
previous
one,
with twice
repeated sigh
motif
AL-G
(mm. 224-27).
It
continues,
also
similarly
to the
preceding
one,
with
a
tetrachord
descending
from
fl
to cl
(mm.
228-30).
The
chromatic
passing-note
c#1,
ntroduced
his time
into
the
descent, gives
the final
cl
a new em-
phasis,
and this becomes the
springboard
for
the
remaining portion
of the fourth
incise,
which
diverges
from
the
third one. Instead of
the descent
from c2 to
gl
in mm.
222-24,
there
is now a
prolongation
of C
through
three
oc-
taves,
from cl to
c3
(mm.
230-34).
Thus,
this
crucial
pitch
and scale
degree
is once more
explicitly
emphasized.
But what
happens
next
is the most
dramatic and
climactic reversal
in
the Ballade-a true
"catastrophe"
n the Aris-
totelian sense of
the term. On the surface
ap-
pears
the
awaited
tetrachordal descent from
c3
to
g2
by way
of
sighs
(mm. 234-35, repeated
an
octave
higher
in mm.
236-37).
The structural
melodic motion in the
background,
however,
is
upward,
from
c3
(m. 234)
to d2
(m. 235)
and
hence to
d3
(m.
237)
and
d4
(m.
238);
this last
pitch
is reached
simultaneously
with the
in-
crease
in
the
dynamic
level to
ff
and with
the
arrival of the
cadential dominant-function
six-
four chord. As the cadential harmonies move
from the six-four chord
(m.
238)
to V7
(m.
246)
to
i
(m. 250),
the
melodic
d4
is
moved to the
register
three octaves lower
(dl
in
m.
239),
and
then the ascent
from
C continues
through
el
(m. 240)
and
f#1
(m. 248),
both embellished
by
the
sigh-motif
upper neighbors,
to the
final
GG
(m.
250).
In
other
words,
whereas the third
incise ended
with
the tetrachord
descending
from 4 to 1 and thus
completed
the descent
already
promised
in mm.
6-7
of the
Ballade,
the last incise
gives
renewed
prominence
to
the
4,
with
which
the work
began
and which
reverberated
hrough
so much of the
discourse.
It then
"catastrophically"
and
heroically
re-
verses the direction
of the structural
melody
so
that
the final line of
the
work
is the
climactic
ascent from
4 to 1. Note
that this ascent
does
not come
unprepared;
on the
contrary,
it has
significant precedents.
Even on the
surface,
the
motivic
shapes
(intervallic
and
rhythmic)
in
64
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Marcia funebre sulla morte d'un Eroe
p
. . . . i--El] m-. ? ..Ir OW
73
4r l
KAROL
BERGER
Chopin's
Ballade,
op.
23
Example
20:
Beethoven,
Piano Sonata
in
Ab,
op. 26,
Marcia funebre
sulla
morte
d'un
Eroe,
mm.
1-4.
mm. 242-50 recall those
of two earlier
pas-
sages,
the
parallel points
of dominant
prepara-
tion
based on the
first theme
in mm. 101-06
and
201-06,
the
only
traditionally
developmen-
tal ones
in
the
work. Beneath the
surface,
the
structural melodic
ascent
D-E-F#-G
(=
5-#6-
#7-8)
in mm. 238-50
(see
ex.
19)
recalls the
ones
in
the
preceding
passages:
E-F#-G#-A-B
(= 5-#6-#7-8/1-2)
in mm.
99-106
(see
ex.
9)
and
D-E-F#-G-A-B
(=
5-#6-#7-8/1-2-3)
in mm.
195-
206 (see ex. 16). But while the earlier two as-
cents overshot their
targets,
the last
finally
gets
it
right
and
stops
at
the tonic's
prime,
thus
realizing
for the first
time the
closure
previ-
ously
implied.
The basic
function of
the
concluding appen-
dix
(mm. 250-64)
is to reinforce this
sense of
harmonic and melodic
closure
by
prolonging
the final tonic. The
appendix
does this
prima-
rily by covering much of the tonal space with
two
ascending,
G
melodic-minor
scales
(mm.
250-52 and
254-56)
and then
with
a
descend-
ing
chromatic one
(mm.
258-62;
combined
with
the left hand's
contrary-motion
chromatic as-
cent in mm.
258-59),
the
concluding
gestures
of tonal saturation that look
backward to the
opening-up
of
the tonal
space
in the initial
three measures of the
Ballade.27
In
purely
for-
mal terms, it would be difficult to imagine a
stronger,
more
emphatic
closure.
But the im-
port
of these final fifteen
measures is
not
purely
formal. Amid
the
clamor of
the
f-fff scales,
two
hushed moments
of
three
piano
ritenuto drum
strokes each
(mm.
252-53 and
256-57)
bring
to
mind,
subtly
but
insistently,
a funeral march
heard from
a
distance.28
The
allusion
may
be
even more
specific
than that. The
dotted-
rhythm upbeat-to-downbeat
form of
the motif
is identical
to
that
opening
the slow
move-
ments
in
Beethoven's Piano Sonata in
Ab,
op.
26
(1800-01),
the
Marcia
funebre
sulla
morte
d'un
Eroe
(this
was the Beethoven
sonata that
seems
to
have been
most often
played
and
taught by Chopin;29
ex.
20),
and
in
his
Sym-
phony
in
Eb
Eroica),
op.
55
(1803),
the Marcia
funebre (ex. 21), the two most famous, early
nineteenth-century
funeral marches celebrat-
ing
the death of
a
revolutionary
hero. The end-
ing
of
the
Ballade,
no matter how
emphatic
and
conclusive,
is
not
triumphant,
joyous,
or
ecstatic,
but
catastrophic,
heroic,
and
tragic.
The narrative ends
successfully
in
the sense
that it reaches its
appointed goal,
but,
as in the
biography
of a
revolutionary,
the
achievement
of the conclusion requiresa heroic effort and is
paid
for with the
protagonist's
death.
The most overt
motivic reference
in
the
final
appendix
is,
of
course,
the
twice-repeated
evo-
cation of the
opening
of the main
theme
(itself
an idea
with several motivic cross-references
in the
work)
in
mm.
253-54
and
257-58.
The
first of these
presents
for the last time
the
Ur-
motif
sigh
of
cl-bb
with which the Ballade had
opened in mm. 6-7 (see ex. 1 again). The sec-
ond raises the motif a third to
eb2-d2,
reproduc-
ing
the middle-voice
counterpoint
that accom-
panied
the first
presentation
of the Ur-motif
in
mm.
7-8.
Thus,
in the final
measures of the
27And f one glances beyond the closed context of this
composition,
the
gestures
look also forward to the
final,
"cadential"
measures of
Schoenberg's Erwartung.
See
Rosen,
Arnold
Schoenberg(New
York,
1975), pp.
57-59.
28An
allusion
to
an
unspecified
funeral march
in
these
low-register
chords is identified
by Igor
Belza in
Fryderyk
F. Chopin(2ndedn. Warsaw,1980),p. 184;and by Leikin,
The
Dissolution
of
Sonata
Structure,
p.
256.
29See
he references to the work
in
Eigeldinger, Chopin:
Pianist
and Teacher.
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19TH
CENTURY
MUSIC
Marcia unebre.
Adagio
assai
Fl.
Ob.
Ci.
Bsn.
I. I nC
III in Es
Trpt.
n C
Timp.
sotto voce
Vn.II
PP
Vn.
b
Via. __Ii
-P
Vc.
A
I
-9.
2
pp
Example
21:
Beethoven,
Symphony
in
E6
Eroica),op.
55,
Marcia
funebre,
mm.
1-2.
Ballade,
its main motivic idea
reappears
suc-
cessively
at the
pitch
levels at which it
had
originally appeared
almost) simultaneously.
IV
A
summary
is
now
in
order. The narrative
continuity
in the G-MinorBallade
depends pri-
marily
on two factors:
(1)
the
threads
provided
by
a
single sigh
motif,
which
generates
with
astonishing economy
the essential motivic sub-
stance of the
work;
(2)
the obsessive
focusing
on a
single
pitch,
C,
which maintains its iden-
tity
even
through
the
changes
of
underlying
keys
and
which,
as the
opening pitch
of the Ur-
motif
C-Bk, generates
the
expectation
of
the
structural
melodic descent
from the
fourth
to
the first
scale
degree
of the main
key.
The
expectation
is
repeatedly
frustrated,
and
the
work concludes
instead with a
climactic,
cata-
strophic-heroic
reversal of the
structural
melody's
direction,
that
is,
with an ascent from
4
to
1 in mm.
230-50.
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These essential
threads
of narrative
continu-
ity
would
remain
undiscovered
without
reach-
ing
below
the
surface
and
reducing
the
melody
phrase by phrase.
Reduction
of
this sort
does
not have to
go very
deep
(to
go
deeper
might
prove
counterproductive):
when
analyzing
the
music
of
composers
not
known for a
taste
for
ciphers
and
puzzles,
one
should
remain
close
to
what
is
aurally perceivable.
All
that is re-
quired
is
to
strip
the surface
of
the
most obvi-
ous
embellishments
and
distinguish
individual
melodic
lines
and
counterpoints
that
may
be
hidden in the ostensibly homophonic texture.
In
a
characteristically
perceptive
"dialecti-
cal" observation
designed
to
answer
the obtuse
accusation
that
Chopin's
was
merely
"salon
music,"
Carl
Dahlhaus
argued
that
the term
"salon
music"
is
thoroughly appropriate,
pro-
vided
the authentic
spirit
of
the
philosophical
and
literary
salon
is not
misconstrued:
This spirit was markedby essays and dialoguesin a
conversational
tone,
not
by
disquisitions
and learned
treatises.
We
need
only
take
the
Classical
sonata
literally
as a
thematic
disquisition,
a meditation
in
notes,
to understand
why
the sonata
principle
and
salon
music
were
mutually
exclusive.
.
. .
Salon
music's
conversational
tone
in no
way implied
that
the
composer
had
studiously
to avoid
saying
any-
thing
substantial
lest he
be accused of
pedantry.30
Writing of the G-Minor Ballade, Dahlhaus sub-
sequently
observed:
"If
sophistication
and
idio-
syncrasy
are
hidden beneath
the
seemingly
straightforward
surface of
this
work,
the
genu-
ine
spirit
of
the salon
demands
not
only
that
the music harbor
an element
of artifice
but
that
this element
be
kept
concealed.
(Ever
ince
the
Renaissance,
the aesthetic
motto of
aristo-
cratic music culture
was nascondere
l'arte:
art
must be concealed.)"31 n reaching below the
melodic
surface
of the
Ballade,
one
is able to
uncover
the
threads
of
continuity
that
provide
the discourse
with a musical
logic equal
in its
rigor
to that
of a
sonata,
without
displaying
this
logic
directly through
the
techniques
of
thematic and
motivic
development,
and with-
out
forcing Chopin
to abandonhis
light-handed
aristocratic
sprezzatura
foracademic
gravitas.32
Thus
the
composer's
individual answer to
the
generalproblem
of
continuity
raised
by any
narrative
orm,
an answer
given
from the
stand-
point
of the aesthetics
of the
salon,
involved
the
invention of a new
kind of
"developmen-
tal"
technique33
and
its
deployment
in a new
kind of
genre,
arguably
he first
artistically sig-
nificant
result
in a series of
nineteenth-century
attempts
to
provide
a viable alternative to the
Classical
sonata.34 chumann's
report
ndicates
the
importance Chopin
himself attached to
his
op.
23 in what he told Schumann about
the
work
during
their
meeting
of 12
September
1836:
"I
also
told
him
that
this was
my
favorite
among
all
[his
works].
After a
long thoughtful
rest,
he said
with
great emphasis:
'I
like
this,
it
is also
my
favorite'."35
And no wonder:
at
the
time,
it
was
undoubtedly Chopin's
most ambi-
tious,
original,
and
successful
large-scale
com-
KAROL
BERGER
Chopin's
Ballade,
op.
23
30Dahlhaus,
Nineteenth-Century
Music,
trans.
J.
Bradford
Robinson
(Berkeley
and Los
Angeles,
1989),
p.
148.
3'Ibid.,p.
149.
32Chopin's
mondanite
is
exceedingly
well documented
in
his
correspondence.
Less
well
known,
but
equally
charac-
teristic,
is his ironic
attitude toward
academic manners
he
had
a chance to observe
during
a
scientific
congress
in
Berlin
in
September
1828.
The three extant
letters from
Berlin to
his
family
in
Warsaw
are
peppered
with
quickly
drawn, biting
anecdotes
and caricatures. See
Chopin,
Korespondencia,
,
81-85.
33Note
Jim
Samson's
related observation
that
in
the So-
nata
in B
Minor, op. 58,
thematic
links are
not
only
a
means of
unifying
thematic contrasts but also a contribu-
tion
to
"a
process
of continuous
development
and trans-
formation
within
the
bar-by-bar
rogression
of the move-
ment,
an unbroken
thread
spun
of
related ideas."
Samson
writes
further of "the
subtle,
minutely
detailed
motivic,
harmonic
and
rhythmic
cross-references
which ensure
con-
tinuity
of
thought"
(The
Music
of
Chopin [London,
1985],
p. 133).
34Emile
Bosquet,
J6zef
Chomifiski,
and
Jim
Samson
are fun-
damentally
correct to see
in
Chopin's
Ballades
predeces-
sors
and
pianistic
equivalents
of Liszt's
symphonic poems.
EmileBosquet,"Chopinprecurseure poeme pianistique,"
Annales
Chopin
3
(1958),
63-67;
J6zef
M.
Chomifiski,
Fryderyk
Chopin,
trans.
Bolko Schweinitz
(Leipzig,
1980),
p.
100; Samson,
The Music
of
Chopin,
p.
175.
35"Auch
sagte
ich es
ihm,
dass
es
mir
das
Liebste unter
allen
sei.
Nach einer
langen
Pause
Nachdenken
sagte
er
mit
grossem
Nachdruck:
Das ist
mir
lieb,
auch
mir
ist es
mein
Liebstes"'
(Robert
Schumann's
letter to Heinrich
Dorn
in
Riga, Leipzig,
14
September
1836,
quoted
in
Chopin,
Korespondencia,
I,
420).
Compare
the
entry
in
Schumann's
personal
diary, Leipzig,
12
September
1836:
"In
the
morning,
Chopin
... 'His
Ballade I like best of
all.'
I am verygladof that; I am very glad of that" (quotedfrom
Eigeldinger,
Chopin:
Pianist and
Teacher,
p.
268).
On
the
question
of whether Schumann's
words refer to
op.
23 or
op.
38,
see
Belotti,
F.
Chopin
l'uomo,
pp.
571-74.
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19TH
CENTURY
MUSIC
position,
his answer to those
compatriots
who,
like
Mickiewicz,
urged
the
composer
to under-
take a
larger
work and not to waste his
creative
powers
on miniatures.36
But
while
the
novelty
and the
far-reaching
implications
of both the
technique
and the
genre
are
undeniable,
neither
the
technique
nor
the
genre
is
completely
without
precedent.
As
Schumann remarked: "The word 'ballad' was
transferred to music
first
by
Chopin.
By
the
way,
only
the word seems new to
us,
one can
find
the matter
already
in Beethoven and
Schubert."37 have alreadynoted the exact ex-
tent and limits of the debt
that the form of
Chopin's op.
23
owes
to the
Classical
sonata-
allegro.
The
developmental technique
of the
work also has its roots
in sonata
practice, spe-
cifically
in Beethoven's
principle
of
"contrast-
ing
derivation" of
a later theme from an earlier
one,38
but
was
deployed
by
Chopin
with un-
usual
rigor,
so
that,
instead of
supplementing
the Classical techniques of thematic and
motivic
development,
it
could
replace
them.
The
general
formal
shape
of the
Ballade,
with
its intense orientation
toward the
ending, may
also owe
something
to the
example
of the tri-
umphantly
emphatic
Beethovenian
codas,
al-
though
Chopin
characteristically replaced
the
sense
of
triumph
with
one of
tragedy.39
Of all the
greatcomposers
of his remarkable
generation,Chopinhas always seemed the least
touched
and least awed
by
what so
many
of
his
contemporaries
experienced
as the simulta-
neously liberating
and
paralyzing
example
of
Beethoven.40
Chopin
himself extolled Bach and
Mozart
above all other
predecessors,
and
his
best-known remark
concerning
Beethoven
(made
to
Eugene
Delacroix on
7
April 1849),
to
the
effect
that
Mozart never
turned his
back
on
the eternal
principles
of
counterpoint,
as
Beethoven
occasionally
did,
is characteristicof
his
classicist convictions
(only
classicists
be-
lieve that
artistic
principles
can be ever
eter-
nal).41But,
while
there is no
reason
to
doubt
the
composer's
sincerity,
the
affinity
between
the
technique
uncovered
here that
provides
the
Ballade with continuity and Beethoven's prin-
ciple
of
"contrasting
derivation"
suggests
that
Chopin may
have
paid
closer attention
to
Beethoven's sonatas than has hitherto been sus-
pected.
Indeed the G-Minor
Ballade seems
to show
several further traces of such
attention,
traces
that
go
beyond
the
affinity
of
technique.
One of
these has
already
been mentioned: the allusion
to the Marciafunebre sulla morte d'un Eroein
the
concluding
appendix.
In
addition,
I
hear
in
the Ballade traces of a
preoccupation
with the
first
movement of Beethoven's Piano
Sonata
in
D
Minor,
op.
31,
no.
2,
of
1802. First and fore-
most,
Chopin's introductory Largo
s reminis-
cent
of the
Largo
sections
in
Beethoven's
open-
ing
theme
(mm.
1-2 and
7-8
in ex.
22):
both
arpeggiate
a
major
triad
in
first
inversion,
and
both provide a somewhat tentative, hesitant
beginning
to a
tempestuous composition.
Chopin
links the introduction
and the main
theme
by
not
completing
the former until
the
latter had
already begun;
Beethoven
makes
the
beginning
of the
main theme sound
like an
introduction. The
similarity
is even
stronger
when Beethoven's
theme is
recapitulated
(mm.
143-58
in ex.
23),
and the
arpeggiated
chords
evolve into instrumental recitatives, the way
the
opening
chord
does in
Chopin's
introduc-
tion
(and
the similarities
extend here
even
to
individual
recitative
gestures:
compare
36See
Niecks,
Frederick
Chopin
as
a Man and a
Musician,
I, pp.
276-78.
37"DasWort Ballade'rugwohl zuerstChopin n die Musik
iiber.
Obrigens
scheint
uns
nur das Wort
neu,
die Sache
kann
man schon
in
Beethoven
und
Schubert finden"
(Schumann,
Gesammelte
Schriften,II, 343).
38In
his discussion
of the
Ballade, Dahlhaus
(Nineteenth-
Century
Music,
p.
148)
notes
the derivationof
what I
have
labeled
in
fig.
2
as b from
the
opening
of
A,
and he relates
this to
Beethoven's
"contrasting
derivation"
principle.
39In
an
1836
review,
Schumann
observed:
"A
genuine
mu-
sical
structure
will
always
have a certain
focal
point
to-
ward which
everything gravitates,
on which
all the
imagi-
native strands
converge.
Many composers place
it
in the
middle (as Mozart does), others toward the close (like
Beethoven)" quoted
rom
Reinhold
Brinkmann,
Late
Idyll:
The Second
Symphony
of Johannes
Brahms,
trans. Peter
Palmer
[Cambridge,
Mass., 1995],p.
203).
4?Compare
Rosen's
view:
"Perhaps
only
Chopin,
coming
from
a
provincial
musical
culture,
succeeded
in
being
com-
pletely
free from its
[the
prestige
of
Beethoven]
spell"
(The
Classical Style: Haydn, Mozart, Beethoven [New York,
1972],p.
379).
41EugEne
elacroix,
Journal,
vol.
I,
ed. Andre
Joubin
Paris,
1932),
p.
284;
trans. Walter
Pach
(New York,
1961), p.
195.
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Largo
Allegro
Adagio
Ii
7
Largo
Allegro
p p
cresc.c
14
p-N-f
---
.--
- -
-
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KAROL
BERGER
Chopin's
Ballade,
op.
23
Example
22:
Beethoven,
Piano Sonata
in
D
Minor, op. 31,
no.
2,
Largo-Allegro,
mm. 1-22.
137
Largo
p
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Allegro
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cresc.:
.
153
Largo
I
con
espressionesemplice
I.
Example
23:
Beethoven,
Piano Sonatain
D
Minor,
op.
31,
no.
2,
Largo-Allegro,
mm.
137-58.
69
7/17/2019 The Form of Chopin's Ballade, Op. 23
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19TH
CENTURY
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Example
24:
Beethoven,
Piano Sonata
in
D
Minor,
op.
31,
no.
2,
Largo-Allegro,
mm.
39-76.
Beethoven's
mm.
147-48
with
Chopin's
mm.
6-8).
Second,
the
Allegro
sections
of
Beethoven's
main theme
(mm.
3-6
and
9-21
in
ex.
22)
are
constructed from two-note
groups,
most of
which,
at least
initially,
take
the form of
the
sigh motif. The motif is, of course, too ubiqui-
tous
in
music to establish
by
itself
any
rela-
tionship
between the two
works,
but
in
con-
junction
with the more
specific
similarity
of
the
two
openings,
its
presence
is
telling.
Third,
the Beethoven movement
can
serve, together
with
many
other
sonata
movements
by
the
composer,
as
a model
of motivic derivation
of
one thematic idea from another: note the ex-
tent
to which the
thematic ideas of the
second-
key
area
are
permeated
by
the two-note
groups,
70
7/17/2019 The Form of Chopin's Ballade, Op. 23
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and
specifically
the
sigh
motif,
of
the
main
theme
(see
in
particular
mm. 42-54 and
69-75
in
ex.
24).
Taken
individually,
each
of
these
Beethovenian traces in the Ballade may be of
little
consequence
(although
the allusion
to
the
funeral march of
op.
26
is
significant
and
the
similarity
of the introduction
to
the
Largos
of
op.
31,
no.
2,
seems to
me
too
close
to be
wholly accidental).
Taken
together,
they
sug-
gest
that
Chopin
may
have
developed
his
tech-
nique
of narrative
continuity
and
his
new
genre
of the
Ballade
that embodies it in a more direct
confrontation with some aspectsof Beethoven's
legacy
than
previously suspected.
In
saying
this,
I
do not
wish
to
challenge
Chopin's
self-image.
His
work
does stem from
Mozart's to
a
much
greater
extent than
from
Beethoven's.
If,
with
Dahlhaus,
one
recognizes
not
one
but two
"twin musical
cultures"
in
the
nineteenth
century,
a
Rossinian culture of the
beautiful centeredon self-sufficient
melody (an
aristocratic, operatic, Romance culture for
which
music was
a
real
performing
event)
and
a
Beethovenian
culture
of
the sublime centered
on
processual
form
grounded
in
thematic de-
velopment (a middle-class,
symphonic,
Ger-
manic culture for
which music was an
ideal
work
requiring
interpretations),42
Chopin's
af-
finity
with the former and
distance
from
the
latter cannot be in doubt.
But dichotomies
of
this sort are useful only when they are treated
not
as
rigid systems
of
classification
("Rossini
qua,
Beethoven
la")
but
as flexible heuristic
tools
allowing
one
to
recognize that,
in
any
actual
phenomenon,
features
of
the twin
ideal
types
are mixed
and
intertwined
in a
complex
fash-
ion,
and to describe the
mixture
with some
pre-
cision. With
exhilarating
(and
for the
pedants,
maddening)abandon,Chopin
transgressed
most
of the familiar boundariesone can think of, the
boundaries
between
aristocracy
and middle
class,
femininity
and
masculinity,
performance
and
print,
nationalist
periphery
and
cosmopoli-
tan center of
Europe,
classicism and
romanti-
cism,
political
and social
conservatism and
revo-
lution,
to
pick just
a few
at
random.
True,
he
was a
Mozartian,
with
his relative
lack of
inter-
est in thematic
development
and
his
fixation
on melody. But, to an extent greaterthan hith-
erto
suspected,
he
may
have
been a
e
post-Beethovenian
sort
of Mozartian.
KAROL
BERGER
Chopin's
Ballade,
op.
23
42Dahlhaus,
Nineteenth-Century
Music,
pp.
8-15.
71