Chopin's inspirations: Polish folk music and nationalism

[mjames]

I've been diggin a bit about a topic that's bothered me for a few years: Chopin's apparent study and adaptation of Polish folk music inspiring his mazurkas, polonaise and his output in general, and his supposed nationalism. The former I casually investigated by reading summaries of Bartok's essay which refuted the wide held belief that Chopin had any knowledge of authentic Polish folk music, and Milewski's "In Search of Folk Sources in Chopin". Both surmise that Chopin neither quoted nor was he influenced by Polish folk music, and Milewski went even further by examining the origins of the claim and analysed how it started as a literary device in one of Liszt's biographies and grew into a full blown myth over the course of a century. Milewski even claims that the so called "Polish folk elements" in Chopin's music are common elements found in various forms of non-Polish European dances in classical music/art music, that's ironically almost completely alien to authentic Polish folk music. Alongside Bartok, ultimately stating Chopin's influences lied in the larger European (Bach, Beethoven etc) and the Polish classical/art music scene in urban Warsaw.

So I decided to look into the development of Polish classical music in the second half ot the 18th century:

Published about 20 years or so before Chopin wrote his first Polonaise. Then there's also the fact that his classmates and contemporaries all wrote in the same style of brillante with "folk" elements Chopin wrote in (Krogulski, Syzmanowska for example). Place him among his finer contemporaries like Schumann Chopin stands out with his style imbued with folk elements, place him among his compatriots he becomes far far less of the folk music pioneer consensus would like us to believe.


Another question is his nationalism, and this one is even more dubious than his folk music inspirations. Very little evidence from primary sources (letters for example) he was actually nationalistic as a person, and even less that he intended his works to portray said nationalism.

So what do you guys think? At this point I'm fairly convinced that a large portion of Chopin's reputation as a nationalist composer are largely fabricated myths (unintentional) by various invested third parties, such as for example, the revival of Polish nationalism and identity during the late 19th century. In other cases, we have third parties (like Liszt, Samson) using the Polish folk and Chopin's supposed nationalism to further exotify Chopin's music and legacy.

[thalbergmad]

Good work. Like most composers of his era, i anticipate he was influenced by Paganini, Parish-Alvars, Field and especially in his case Dobrynzski.
Nationalism doesnt come into the equation.

[ahinton]

Good work. Like most composers of his era, i anticipate he was influenced by Paganini, Parish-Alvars, Field and especially in his case Dobrynzski.
Nationalism doesnt come into the equation.

Good work indeed - and salutary, too, as a restorer of balance in such matters.

I don't doubt that he was influenced by those composers, as well as by Field, Bellini and others. I would say that nationalism of a kind does come into it, at least to the extent of his development - elevation, indeed - of the mazurka and polonaise as springboards for concert works (not that I'm suggesting that this was of his sole invention - far from it - but that he took both to previously undreamed-of heights, even towards the end of his short life writing a piece in which he might be seen as having effectively commented on the concert history of the polonaise - I refer here to the Polonaise-Fantaisie, Op. 61), but that not only could this be subject to the risk of exaggeration given all the other influences at work but also he composed most of his music in France (and a little in Catalunya) rather than in his native land.

Speaking of influence, Chopin's slightly younger contemporaries Liszt and Alkan undoubtedly responded to his influence (Liszt perhaps rather more than Alkan) in those heady days in Paris but there seems to be little evidence of much influence in the opposite direction in either case, Chopin's independence of creative mind being what it was.

Best,

Alistair