Phonograph Monthly Review, Vol. 5, No. 12 (1931-09)

September 1931, Vol. V, No. 12 325 Israfel Across The Gulf By R. D* DARRELL The Chopin Mazurkas (concluded from the August issue) F IFTY-SIX mazurkas are commonly at- tributed to Chopin, but several of these are probably either the work of other com- posers or so slight as to scarcely warrant Chopin's signature. As a group they are paradoxically the most and the least char- acteristic of all Chopin's works. To elucidate: they are least characteristic in that they con- tain so few of the rubber stamped idioms and devices common to the pieces most closely as- sociated with his name. Their rhythms, as described last month, are infinitely more re- silient and invigorating than we find else- where in Chopin, and their melodies too are more cleanly cut, more angular and bitter- sweet than even those in ballades, scherzos, and other larger works, to say nothing of the frankly saccharine smaller works. On the other hand, they are characteristic in the stricter sense, exemplifying in pure form the most distinctive qualities of Chopin, not those which have made him the most popular of all keyboard writers, but those which will enable his fame to weather—at least in part—the revolutions in musical taste that are sweep- ing into discard the standards Chopin largely strove to write by and by which his composi- tions until lately have been judged. In talking about the mazurkas I am of course generalizing. Naturally they vary widely. But the redeeming feature of even the slightest of them is that while they may be colorless, they are never sickeningly over- ripe. The simplicity of their construction reveals less flagrantly Chopin's deficiencies— in counterpoint, balance of interest between the parts, etc. And in these brief pieces he allowed his ingenuity freest play, pushing harmonic and rhythmic experimentation far beyond the limits with which he usually bound himself. Elsewhere his harmonic in- novations are largely the result of elaboration of the ornamentation, dazzling passagework bound together by the damper pedal and forming the richly glowing atmospheric ef- fects later exploited so thoroughly by De- bussy. But inevitably, as both Chopin's and Debussy's cases prove, such tonal chiaros- curo, bewitching as it is on first acquaintance, soon loses its fascination, whereas the barer, more thoroughly radical experiments in the mazurkas—like some of those in Mozart's string quartets, or to cite a modern example, Vladimir de Packman (from a caricature by Dr. Ricardo M. Aleman) Bartok's settings of Hungarian and Rouman- ian folktunes—retain all their savour and zest through countless repetition. But to cite specific mazurkas. First those marked by their greater daring and larger construction, and to be ranked among Chopin's major works. Two in the Friedman set fall into this group: No. 17 in B flat minor and No. 26 in C sharp minor. The first caused the rapturous Huneker to fall into a super- ecstatic verbal tail spin: . . . “then follows a fascinating cadenced step, with lights and shades, sweet melancholy driving before it joy and being routed itself, until the annunci- ation of the first theme and the dying away of the dance, dancers and solid globe itself, as if earth had committed suicide for loss of the sun." A dangerous way to write about music, but anyone who pursues the kaleidos- copic rhythmic and melodic permutations and combinations of this enchanting dance can sympathize with attempt to clothe them in words. It cannot be done, and the futile ef- fort points the greater glory of the tonal gen- ius working purely and superbly in its own medium. The C sharp minor mazurka, Op. 41, No. 1, is of broader, sturdier construction, less ethereal and exotic, but perhaps even more powerfully invigorating. Several of the other major mazurkas have been recorded: No. 21 in C sharp minor, played by Horowitz for Victor; No. 38 in F sharp minor, by Long for Columbia and Nied- zielski for H. M. V. (also in an accoustical recording by de Pachmann for Victor); No. 35 in C minor, by Arthur Rubinstein for H. M. V.; No. 37 in A flat major, by Niedzielski. No. 21 is of particular harmonic interest. It