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Author
Frédéric Chopin (1810-1849: Polish)
- considered the national composer of Poland
- educated at the Conservatory of Warsaw
- moved to Paris at age 21, where he spent most of the rest of his life
- died at age 39 of tuberculosis
- Wikipedia Article
About the Piece
(much of thedescription comes from elements that were brought out by Forney and Machlis, The Enjoyment of Music, and the accompanying DVD)
- Genre is polonaise (polish military dance)
- ternary dance form (A-B-A') with internal repeats:
A (a-a b-a b-a)-B(c-c'-c-c' d-c-c' d-c-c')-A (a-b-a) - completely in major keys
- "stuttery" rhythm that would be difficult to dance to
- lots of repetition
- lots of staccato
- wide spacing between chords in different hands
- 3/4 meter, though it is hard to pick out because of the jumpiness of the rhythm
- triplets pervasive throughout
Purpose
- military dance
- entertainment
- dance in general
Reflections
This piece doesn't do much for me. I generally like the solo piano pieces, but there is just too much repetition in this one. It really is meant to be background music to a dance, so listening to it as forground noise is a little boring. Also, it doesn't feel like a very "smooth" piece. The starting and stopping of the rhythm is interesting and unique at first, but then it just gets annoying.