Three Mazurkas, Op.50

No.1 in G major

No.2 in A flat major

No.3 in C sharp minor

The Mazurka in C sharp minor, Op.50, No.3, ranks alongside the Mazurka in C minor, Op.56, No.3, as one of the two longest and most developed works of their kind. In fact, although they include obvious mazurka elements and even whole mazurka episodes, they are more fantasies or rhapsodies than dances. The problem for Chopin - and there is evidence that he did have trouble putting the earlier set together - must have been in accommodating these inspired anomalies in their respective groups.

The solution he came up with for Op.50 was to precede the C sharp minor fantasy with mazurkas average in length, clear in their ternary structure, not too complex in texture and at the same time usefully contrasted in style. The cheerful G major Mazurka is relatively close to the folk model, as the Lydian fourths so exotically confirm at one point. It is true that the right hand adds a counterpoint to the left-hand melody in the middle section and that the final section is expanded by the intrusion of material that has to be reconciled to the tonic key before the end. But, in a set including the C sharp minor Mazurka, that is no more than a timely preparation. After being coaxed into apparently reluctant activity in the introduction, the A flat major piece is a charmingly sophisticated example of the salon mazurka with a surprisingly plain sister in D flat major in the middle section.

The most striking peculiary of Op.50, No.3 - unusual in the mazurkas but increasingly in evidence in Chopin’s music in other genres at this time - is its contrapuntal interest. This is immediately clear from the canonic treatment of the plaintive little theme introduced by the right hand alone in the opening bars. Chopin makes several attempts to sustain a mazurka - which he does most successfully in a smoothly flowing oberek in B major - but the plaintive theme and its attendant voices return from time to time to impede its progress. It plays a particularly persistent part in the closing section which is much expanded and much confused by the harmonic implications of its uncompromising contrapuntal development.