Mazurkas, Op.50

Nos 5, 14, 15, 6

According to Szymanowski, “Chopin is the most profoundly philosophical and yet most artistic embodiment of what might be called the spirit of Poland.” He could not imagine “any Polish national artistic creativity in any field that would not be influenced by that great composer” and he admitted that his Twenty Mazurkas, Op.50, “do show traces of Chopin’s influence,” although what he was trying to with them was to “give the most condensed expression of the idea of modern Polish music.

Written between 1924 and 1926, a hundred years after Chopin wrote his first mazurkas, Sxymanowski’s make a fascinating comparison with Chopin’s. They have obviously much in common - not only the characteristic mazurka step, which regularly lifts the rhythmic emphasis off the first beat of the triple-time bar, but also the melodic shapes. Chopin and Szymanowski were, after all, drawing on the same folk sources, at least for inspiration if not for actual material, and the melodies are almost transferable between them. The difference is that, whereas Chopin was often (but by no means always) inclined to civilise them, Szymanowski preferred to preserve their Polish integrity. Indeed, in the accompaniments, Szymanowski intensified that quality, since they are derived directly from the peculiarly tough harmonies of the Gorale music of the Tatra mountains where he was staying when he wrote the mazurkas. Mazurka No.5, with left hand beginning at odds (in ninths or sevenths) with the right, is only the first example. Szymanowski also liked to preserve the improvisatory character of folk music, which is particularly clear in the construction of the Mazurkas Nos.14 and 15, in the many tempo changes and the constantly varying melodies. A straightforward ternary shape like that of No.6 is rare in Szymanowski’s mazurkas.