A STUDY OF CHOPIN’S PIANO SONATA NO. 3 IN B MINOR, OP. 58, WITH SUGGESTIONS FOR PERFORMANCE D.M.A. Document Presented in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree Doctor of Musical Arts in the Graduate School of The Ohio State University By Janida Dhuvabhark, B.A., M.M. tee The Ohio State University 1992 Document Committee: Approved by Rosemary Platt, D.M.A., Adviser Rtepovenre, P batt Jerry Lowder, D.M.E., Co-Adviser Adviser Donald Gren, D.M.A. Genny E. Dowden Co-Adviser School of MusicTo My ParentsACKNOWLEDGMENTS. | express appreciation to Dr. Jerry E. Lowder for his helpful advice, patience, and encouragement throughout the prepara- tion of this document. His time and valuable recommendations are greatly appreciated. | also wish to express my gratitude to Dr. Rosemary Platt, for her guidance and support during my study in the United States. | am grateful to my present piano teacher, Dr. Donald Gren, for his helpful contributions to my piano playing. Deep gratitude is also expressed to my former piano teacher, André Laplante, for his outstanding teaching and inspiration. To Dr. Lora Gingerich is extended my thanks for her music theory classes during my first year at the Ohio State University. Finally, | would like to thank my grandparents, my parents, my sister, and my brother for their love, understanding, and encouragement. Without them, | would not have come this far.VITA July 13, 1962... .. Born- Bangkok, Thailand 1984... .. B.A. in Music Education, Chulalongkorn University, Bangkok, Thailand 1988... . M.M. in Piano Performance The Ohio State University, Columbus, OhioFIELDS OF STUDY Major Field: Music Studies in Piano Performance Studies in Piano Literature Studies in Piano Pedagogy Studies in Music Theory Dr. Rosemary Platt, Prof. André Laplante, Dr. Donald Gren Dr. Donald Gren Dr. Jerry Lowder Dr. Lora GingerichCollege of the Arts School of Music GRADUATE STUDENT RECITAL SERIES _ SUNDAY, FEBRUARY 26, 1989 8:00 P.M. WEIGEL MALL AUDSTORL UHL SANTOA DHUVABHARK, PIANO This recital is presented in partial fulfillment for the degree Doctor of Musical Arts for Hs. Dhuvabhark. PROGRAM Sonata in B-flat, Longo 99 D, Scartacet Sonaca In D, Longo 463 Sonata in G, Longo 103 Sonata in D, Longo 14 Sonata In F, Opus 10, No. 2 LAY, Beethoven, Allegro Allegretto Presto “abege" Variation, Opus 1 R. Schumann INTERMISSION Fantasle-Impromptu in C-sharp minor, Opus 66 F. Chopin Three Preludes c. Debussy La Cathédrate engloutie, Book I La fitle aur cheveuz de Lin, Book I Feux d'artifice, Book IT viCollege of the Arts School of Music GRADUATE STUDENT RECITAL ‘Thursday, March 8, 1990 400P.M. ‘Weigel Hall Auditorium JANIDA DHUVABHARK, Piano MING SHAN KONG, Piano ‘This recital is presented in partial fulfillment for the degree Doclor of Musical Arts for Ms. Dhwoabhark. PROGRAM Concerto in A major, K.488 W.A, Mozart Allegro Andante Presto INTERMISSION Sonata No. 3 in B minor, Op. 58 F. Chopin Allegro maestoso Scherzer Molto vivace Largo Finale: Presto, non tanto; Agitata viia Shy College of the Arts School of Music jak | GRADUATE STUDENT RECITAL SERIES — ‘Thursday, May 23, 1991 4:00 p.m, Weigel Hall Auditorium JANIDA DHUVABHARK, piano Guest Artists Wei-Ming Hwang, violin John Eitzen, cello ‘This recital is in partial fulfilment for the degree Doctor of Musical Arts for Ms. Diuvabhark PROGRAM. Sonata No.5 in F, Op.24 ("Spring")... 6.66. ..25 5 «++ Ludwig van Beethoven Allegro (1770-1827) Adagio molto espressivo Scherto-Allegro molio Ronda-Allegto ma ton troppo Sonata it) D, OP.94 o.oo eee cece eee eect eee eeee ee eeee ees ss Setge Prokofielf Moderato (1891-1953) Presto Andante Allegro con brio Dorianne Passenger, flute Intermission Trio No.1 in Eb, Op.t, No.l... sees eene Ludwig van Beethoven Allegra { 1770-1827) Adagio Scherzo-Allegro assai Finale-Presio viii£1 College of the Arts School of Music GRADUATE STUDENT RECITAL SERIES UNIVERSITY Wednesday, May 20, 1992 3:00 p.m. Weigel Hall Auditorium Janida Dhuvabhark, piano This recital is in partial fulfillment of the degree Doctor of Musical Arts for Ms. Dhuvabhark Program Sonata No.59 in Es, Hob.XVI/A9..... « Pranz Joseph Haydn Allegro (1732-1809) Adagio cantabile Finale. Tempo di Minuet Sonata int F minor, oP.2, MOL ..s6600eeeerseseeeeserseeee Ludwig van Beethoven Allegro (1770-1827) Adagio Menuetto, Allegretio Prestissimo Intermi Frédéric Chopin (1810-1849) Nocturne No.1 in Bb minor, op.9, no... 5 Alexander Scriabin 2, 2,9, 6 (1872-1915) Etude, op.2, no... Preludes, op.11, No.5, Suite, op.14 ... oar +++ Béla Bartok Allegretto (1881-1945) Scherzo Allegro molto. SostenutoTABLE OF CONTENTS ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS..... VITA... FIELDS OF STUDY. vi RECITAL PROGRAMS. ~ xii LIST OF TABLES..... LIST OF EXAMPLES..... CHAPTER I. INTRODUCTION... PURPOSE... BACKGROUN THE COMPOSER... CHOPIN’S COMPOSITIONAL STYLES..... 11. RELATED LITERATURE.. tl. ANALYSIS... 35 First Movement: Allegro maestoso... Second Movement: Scherzo and Trio... Third Movement: Largo.Finale: Presto, non Tanto... IV. CONCLUSION. BIBLIOGRAPHY. BOOKS... PERIODICALS AND JOURNALS... UNPUBLISHED WORKS.. MUSIC SCORES... DISCOGRAPHY... xi 59 . 72 75 75LIST OF TABLES TABLE PAGE 1. Form of First Movement. sosesseeeseeeeeee ST 2. Form of Second Movement... 3. Form of Third Movement... 4. Form of Fourth Movement...LIST OF EXAMPLES EXAMPLE PAGE 1, Mvt 1, mm. 1-4... 31 2. Mvt 4, mm. 9-12.. 31 3. Mvt. 1, mm.41-46, 2nd theme, Motive A, B.. 4, Mvt.1, mm, 41-44, 2nd theme, Motive C... 33 5. Mvt 4,mm. 9-12. 33 6. Mt. 1,m, 29. 38 7, Mut. 1, mm, 23-24 39 8. Mvt 1,mm. 43-44 4 9. Mt 1,mm. 10. Mvt. 1,mm. 11. Mvt 1, mm, 66-71 12. Mvt 1, mm. 72-75 Bridge passage... 44 13. Mvt. 1, mm. 76-84. 45 14. Mvt 1, mm. 84-89... 45 15. Mtl, mm. 35-37..... 46 16, Mvt.1, mm. 146-147... xiii20. 21. 22. 23. 24, 25. 26, 27. 28. 29. 30. 31. 32. 33. 34. 35. 36. Mvt. 1, mm. 47 Mvt. 1, mm. 48 Mvt. 2, mm. 1-5. Scherzo section... 50 Mvt. 2, mm. 61-70. Trio section... 51 Mvt. 2, mm. 48- 60. 51 Mvt. 2, mm. 61-80. Mut. 3, mm. 15-16... Mut. 3, mm. 1-4, Introduction. 56 Mvt. 3, mm. 5-8. Section A .. 56 Mvt. 3, mm. 29-32. Section B. 56 Mvt 3, mm. 99-102... 57 Mvt. 4, mm. 1-8. Introductio Mvt. 4, mm. Mvt. 4, mm, 28-35... Mvt 4, mm. 52-58... . 9-13. First theme..... 61 Mvt. 4, mm. 76-80... Mvt. 4, mm. 96-99, Transition... 65 Mvt. 4, mm. 100-104. 65 Mut. 4, mm. 119-122. 66 Mut. 4, mm. 143-146. 6637. 38. 39. 40. 41. 42. Mvt. 4, mm. 167-170.. Mut. 4, mm. 183-191. Mvt. 4, mm. 207-210. Mvt. 4, mm. 226-229... Mut. 4, mm. 254-255. Coda .... Mvt. 4, mm. 279-286. xv 66 67 67 68 68CHAPTER | INTRODUCTION As a teacher, Chopin (1810-1849) was strict, unusual, encouraging, and at times inspiring. As an inventor of musical shapes and technical design, he seems limitless. He realized that the pianoforte was capable of beautiful sounds. As he says at the beginning of his treatise: Music is the expression of thoughts through sounds, the revelation of emotions by means of these sounds. The undefined human voice is an undefined sound; undefined speech is music. The word was born of the sound; the sound had existed before the word. The word, in a sense, is a variation on the sound. Sounds are used to create music, just as words are used to create language. Among composers of the Romantic period, Chopin has always been one of my favorites. After playing Chopin’s sonata no. 3 for my recital in Winter, 1990, | was inspired to research the piece. Chopin’s mastery of miniature forms is generally acknowledged by music scholars. In the nineteenth century, the popularity of his smaller works such as preludes, nocturnes, etudes, and mazurkas almost overshadowed that of the larger works.Hadow criticizes Chopin’s abilities to write in large forms: His limitations are plain and unmistakable, For the larger types of the art, for the broad architectonic laws of structure on which they are based, he exhibited an almost total disregard. His works in “Sonata form,” and in the forms cognate to the sonata, are, with no exception, the failures of a genius that has altogether overstepped its bounds.? It has been in the past few decades that Chopin’s compo- sitions in large form have begun to be appreciated. Walker discusses some features of Chopin's form which were formerly considered weaknesses: One of Chopin's chief contributions to the history of sonata form, and one which has been widely misunderstood, is the intense compression of his recapitulations...Another notable feature of Chopin’s large scale structures, and one which is likewise misunderstood, is that they often reserve their most extreme, tension-raising contrast until the end.....3 Today the popularity of performing Chopin’s large works seems to be increasing. The sonata in B minor is tong and difficult. It takes a tremendous degree of hard work in order to perform not only3 with virtuosity but also to project aspects of musical style such as colorful harmonic progressions, touching melodies, or striking pianistic effects often used by Chopin. Purpose of the Study The purpose of this document is to provide a general study of the B minor sonata, including a structural analysis and elements of the music as well as a discussion of performance problems. Because there is limited information on this work, | will provide my own analysis and discussion of the sonata. It is hoped that this study will provide recommendations and insights for other pianists and pedagogues. Background In Chopin’s solo piano compositions the traditional sonata form does not occupy a prominent position. Finck defends Chopin’s use of sonata form: The psychology cf the sonata form is false. Men and women do not feel happy for ten minutes as in the opening allegro of a sonata, then melancholy for another ten minutes, as in the following adagio, then frisky, as in the scherzo, and finally, fiery and impetuous for tenminutes as in the finale. The movements of our minds are seldom so systematic as this. Sad and happy thoughts and moods chase one another incessantly and irregularly, as they do in the compositions of Chopin, which, therefore, are much truer echoes of our modern romantic feelings than the stiff and formal classical sonatas. And thus it is, that Chopin’s habitual neglect of the sonata form, instead of being a defect, reveals his rare artistic subtlety and grandeur.* He wrote three piano sonatas which span almost his entire career. The first, Sonata in C minor, Op. 4, was written in 1828 when he was 18, under the supervision of his teacher, Josef Elsner. It is dedicated to Elsner and is rarely played. Chopin admitted that it was an immature early work and was furious when it was published in 1839 by a Viennese publisher. it was written in the same period as the Fantasy on a Polish Air, Op. 13 (1828), the Variations on “La ci darem la mano,” Op. 2 (1828), and Krakowiak, Op.14 (1828).5 The second sonata in B flat minor, Op.35, was written in 1839 when Chopin was 29. It contains the “Marche funebre” (third move- ment) that is one of the most familiar of all musical selections throughout the world. Chopin wrote to a friend at the time “| am5 writing a sonata in B-flat minor, in which you will find the funeral march that you already know.”® |t was a clear indication that the famous movement had been written sometime before the rest of the work, The sonata was published in 1840 by Breitkopf & Hartel, and it is the most distinctive of the three sonatas. Robert Schumann, music critic as well as composer, considered the title of sonata inappropriate: “The idea of calling it a sonata is a caprice, if not a jest, for he has simply bound together four of his most reckless children; thus under his name smuggling them into a place into which they could not else have penetrated.”” Other works of this mature period (1831-1840) include the Ballades in G minor, Op. 23 (1836) and F, Op. 38 (1838), the Fantasie-Impromptu, Op. 66 (1834), the Etudes, Op. 25 and Trois Nouvelles Etudes (1835-40), the Preludes, Op. 28 (1838-39) and Scherzos in B minor, Op. 20, B-flat minor, Op. 31 (1837) and C-sharp minor, Op. 39 (1838-39).8 The third sonata in B minor, Op. 58, was composed during the summer of 1844 at Nohant five years before his death. It was the only work he produced during the same year of his father’s death and was one of the compositions of his last and greatest period (1841- 1849), including the F minor Fantasie, Op. 49, the A-flat Ballade, Op. 47, and the F minor Ballade, Op. 52, the Polonaises, Op. 44 and Op. 536 and the Polonaise Fantasie, Op. 61, Nocturnes Op. 48, Op. 55, Op. 62, and the Mazurkas, Op. 50, no. 3, and Op. 56, no. 3. Chopin dedicated the B minor sonata to one of his pupils and friends, the Countess E. de Perthuis, who was the wife of an aide-de camp to King Louise-Philippe, the man to whom he had dedicated the Mazurkas, Op. 24.9 Although it was published in June,1845, by Breitkopf & Hartel and somewhat earlier by J. Meissonier (Paris) and Wessel (London) the year after it was written,'© it was not played often in public probably owing to its immense technical difficulties. In his own public performances, Chopin limited himself to Mazurkas, Preludes, the Barcarolle, and similar pieces due to his failing strength, as well as to his intimate manner of playing. Chopin’s physique and temperament were not designed for a virtuoso career. As he told Liszt, “| am not fitted to give concerts. The crowd intimidates me; | feel asphyxiated by its breath, paralyzed by its curious looks, dumb before the strange faces....”11 Musicologists and critics who compared the B minor sonata, with classical examples of the sonata form took very small views of its unusual structure.'@ Karasowski wrote that “the composer seems to have found it difficult to keep the profusion of thought within due proportions.”'3The sonata contains four movements which are arranged in the same manner as op. 35: Allegro, Scherzo, Largo, and Presto. Unlike others, the movements show few breaks with traditional arrange- ment of Fast- Slow- Fast. Both the B-flat minor sonata and B minor sonata were revolutionary in their application of classical concepts of structure, motivic development, and counterpoint to the unique Romantic idiom. There is structural unity in the work, a unity which Walker calls “ all the more remarkable at this stage in musical history. The revolution effected by Beethoven and the early Romantics had pushed back the frontiers of musical language so far that major problems of structural integration arose.”'4 The first movement, Allegro maestoso, contains thematic and harmonic invention. The form is unconventional in that the recapitulation omits the first subject completely. The opening theme, according to d’Indy’s analysis in his Cours de Composition Musicale “... has the stamp of true nobility.”"S Huneker suggests that the ending is not that of a sonata but a love lyric.'® In the second movement, Scherzo and Trio (marked Scherzo molto vivace), as in the B-flat minor sonata, Chopin placed thescherzo in the second movement rather than the third, creating greater contrast and structural tension. Perahia believes that the rhythm is the main unifying idea between the scherzo and trio sections.'7 The third movement, marked Largo, is in ABA form. It relates to nocturnes in style and is somewhat Italian in character. It contains one of Chopin's most beautiful melodies, and “the central section has all the caressing grace of the author’s best works.”'& The Finale, marked Presto, non tanto, is a rondo-like movement and is difficult to play. Many commentators say that this is one of the most effective works among large-scale masterpieces. Weinstock writes: “ Nothing else in the corpus of Chopin’s work, the F minor Fantasie alone excepted, is so uninterruptediy, waxingly and unmistakably great music as the finale.”19The Composer According to Heine, “Chopin is the great inspired tone-poet who properly should be named only with Mozart, Beethoven and Rossini.” 2° Chopin the composer has been discussed, admired, adored, and exploited in many ways. Liszt was among the first biographers who wrote about the position Chopin deserved to take among the world’s great composers. Liszt states that: "If it were our intention to discuss the development of piano music in the language of the schools, we should dissect his magnificent pages, which afford so rich a field for scientific observation.”*7 Anton Rubinstein, one of the greatest pianists at that time, wrote The pianoforte Bard, the pianoforte rhapsodist, the pianoforte mind, the pianoforte soul is Chopin. Whether the spirit of this instrument breathed upon him, or he wrote upon it- how he wrote for it, | do not know, but only an entire going over of one into the other could call such composition into life. Tragic, romantic, lyric, heroic, dramatic, fantastic, soulful, sweet, dreamy, brilliant, grand, simple, all possible expressions are found in his compositions, and are sung by him upon this instrument in perfect beauty. 22