chopin's last style

[pianistimo]

i might have posted this before, but i found an article by Jeffrey Kallberg (author of the book 'Chopin at the Boundaries') that was quite interesting awhile back.  And, while looking up his name again on the internet found a polish internet site about chopin.

www.chopin.pl/spis_tresci/index_en.html#2ycie

anyway, the article was from 'Journal of the American Musicological Society' and was entitled "Chopin's Last Style.'  Summer 1985 Vol 2  This fellow is a very good writer and great musician.  And, i found out, teaches or taught at the University of Pennsylvania.

what i gleaned from the article was that normally a polonaise follows the form polonaise-trio-polonaise - but in chopin's last style - the polonaise-fantasy takes a different turn.  "the pervasive instability of the work represents a quantum advance from the earlier polonaises and the f-minor fantasy, and contributes a remarkable fluid sense of forward direction to the piece."...."chopin discovered a fundamental tenet of the last style: the unexpected juxtaposition of stable and unstable material."

i like the way jeffrey writes - and think others might also.  you can learn a lot about music - as well as historical insight from either his book or his articles. 

[pianistimo]

here's an article by dr. kallberg on 'chopin's compositional process' that's on the internet:

www.chopin.pl/biografia/prtw_en.html

[Kassaa]

Thank you, it's very interesting .

[pianistimo]

you're welcome.  i used to despise chopin (my mom had a recording of horowitz playing chopin, and she played it over and over when i was younger).  now i have a sudden interest - and his music is becoming more understandable to me.

[Kassaa]

Especially his fantasie, last scherzo, sonatas, barcarolle and his polonaise-fantasie are must-listen works .