The Four Scherzos

No.1 in B minor Op.20 (1831–2)

No.2 in B flat minor Op.31 (1837)

No.3 in C sharp minor Op.39 (1839)

No.4 in E major Op.54 (1842)

Schumann’s famous comment on Chopin’s Scherzo in B minor, to the effect that if this is a joke he would like to know what serious music sounds like, was made in the conventional belief that the scherzo was an opportunity for a display of wit or at least good humour. Chopin in his early twenties, enlightened perhaps by Beethoven’s treatment of the form in the Fifth Symphony, saw far more potential in it, not least for drama. When the Scherzo in B minor first came onto the market in this country, the London publisher thought it expedient to ignore Chopin’s title and call it “The Infernal Banquet.” In customary ternary form, it ends in a mood as “bold and stormy” (in Schumann’s words) as it began. The intervention of the Polish Christmas song, “Sleep, Baby Jesus,” as the basis of a serenely lyrical middle section in the relative major, has no influence on the emotional outcome.

It would be ten years before Chopin could approach the scherzo in the playful mood traditional to it. The Scherzo No.2 in B flat minor, however, is nowhere near as demonic as its predecessor. It begins with fiendishly threatening gestures ominously reminiscent of the earlier work. But in this case the relative major makes an early impression as a melodious second subject and the lyrical middle section, instead of being hermetically sealed off from the rest of the work, integrates with it by absorbing a variant of the opening gesture into its contrapuntal texture – which means that major-key aspirations are more realistic than in the earlier work. So, although the demonic gesture is recalled once again after the recapitulation, D flat major most convincingly triumphs over B flat minor opposition in the final bars.

Although to begin with Scherzo No.3 in C sharp minor is recognisably related in temperament to No.1 in B minor, it later achieves a radiance not so very far from the happy mood of the Fourth in E major. After the passionate first section in C sharp minor, in anticipation of the conventional ternary form the ear easily accepts the D flat chorale (with its quiet cascades of quavers at the end of each line) as the contrasting major-key middle section. In fact, the opening section is only briefly recalled and the chorale makes a long and mostly radiant reappearance in E major before the final acceleration into the coda and the not obviously predictable C sharp minor ending.

Scherzo No.4 in the bright key of E major is good-humoured, capricious and unpredictable. Basically, with quick outer sections and a slow middle section in the relative minor, it is a conventional ternary construction. But there is a remarkable flexibility within that basic shape. It accomodates not only a wonderfully effective allusion to the middle section just before the precipitous coda but also an inspired combination of scherzo and sonata form.