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Thursday, May 12, 2005

Chopin: Mazurka in B flat

Hooray for Theory! It's sad, tomorrow will be the last class I ever have with you guys...I know most of you are cheering, but really, it's been a blast. No more of my random comments, no more of my witty retorts, I'm sure the place will be much quieter without me (I'm guessing those are songs of praise I hear in the background). Anyway, onto the mazurka. I'm rounding out the year with Chopin, because I'm just in love with those crazy Polish dances. As the chapter states, the form of this doesn't fit into a specific category. The piece has an air of a 5-part rondo, with its ABACA format, but there is one small hitch. For our two unrelated sections we do not have any new material, but rather developmental sections. Our sections are separated by two structural phenomena, a change in dynamic and a change in key. The first key change modulates us to the Dominant key of F and we move from a forte to piano. At the end of the developmental section we have a ritardando, which signals the return of our Expositional material. Our next shift once again has us moving from forte to piano, but this time the key change is to the chromatic mediant key of Gb Major. We once again have the ritardando that reintroduces our Exposition, and voila! A perfect semi-rondoesque mazurka. Chill for 3 hours than serve on a bed of fresh lettuce. Serves 8. I have no idea where i was going with this, I seriously have got to stop watching the food network...

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