Three Mazurkas, Op.59

No.1 in A minor

No.2 in A flat major

No.3 in F sharp minor

Three Mazurkas, Op.63

No.1 in B major

No.2 in F minor

No.3 in C sharp minor

Mazurka in A minor, Op.67, No.4

Mazurka in G minor Op.67, No.2

Mazurka in F minor, Op.68, No.4

The three Mazurkas, Op.59, written at Nohant in the summer of 1845 for an insistent publisher in Berlin, are among the most surprising works of their kind. The first of them begins innocently enough in A minor and, in that context, a middle section in A major is only to be expected - but not one that modulates so freely and with such a disorientating effect that it leads to a reprise of the opening a semitone too low in G sharp minor. The Mazurka in A flat major has its harmonic interest too but it is remarkable above all for the passion developed by the initially gentle main theme as, roundly harmonised in sixth and thirds, it doubles and redoubles in dynamic intensity, though only to trickle away at the end. The harmonies in the middle section of Op.59, No.3, float so lightly off the point that it takes an insistent left hand to anchor them in F sharp major and then to turn them towards F sharp minor for the return of the main theme - an event signalled by a rare indulgence in canonic counterpoint. The same insistent left hand leads to an artfully prolonged ending in the major rather than the expected F sharp minor.

The Mazurka in A minor, Op.67, No.4 was written only a year after Op.59 but has more in common with the last two in the series - in G minor, Op.67, No.2, and in F minor, Op.68, No.4 - than any of the earlier ones. Shorter than those of Op.59 and comparatively spare in texture, it is inspired by a resigned melancholy which seems more rather than less poignant when the harmonies change to the major in the middle section.

The last two of Chopin’s mazurkas, Op.67, No.2, and Op. 68, No.4, were written in the summer of 1849, after the composer’s return to Paris from an ill-advised concert tour in England and Scotland and only a few weeks before his death. Even more economical and no less poignant than the A minor Mazurka of 1846, the haunting G minor is based on little more than an unadorned melody in the right hand with a simple accompaniment in the left. The return to the first theme, after a comparatively richly harmonised middle section in the relative major, is made by means of a sadly expressive line with no harmonies at all. The Mazurka in F minor, Op.68, No.4, the very last piece of music Chopin wrote (when he no longer had the strength to play it) was originally published in a “realisation” by the composer’s great friend August Franchcomme who, it was discovered when the manuscript came to light, omitted an important section in F major. With or without that section, the great inspiration is the magical modulation which briefly lifts the tonality into a serene A major before it falls back into F minor.

The three Mazurkas Op.63 were the last set to be published in Chopin’s lifetime (the Op.67 and 68 sets, both made up of works from different periods, were published in Berlin in 1855). Written in 1846, shortly after the completion of the Polonaise-Fantaisie and the Barcarolle, they are not yet as weary as the two examples from 1849. The B major, its main theme running in cheerful thirds, is positively energetic. There is an expression of pain, however, in the appogiaturas associated with the main theme of the Mazurka in F minor and, though based on the relative major, the chromatic harmonies of the middle section do little to relieve the situation.3>Z.q&&$'$S$;(h$f*~&