Essay topic:
Choose at least two works of the composer Frederic Chopin to discuss the significance of piano works in the Romantic period. Discuss at least two works in detail.

In the early 19th century, also commonly known as the Romantic era, was a period of evolution in music, with many significant composers born of the era worth mentioning. I would like to discuss one of the most significant composers of that era, Fryderyk Chopin.
Fryderyk Chopin was like any other artist, philosopher, thinker and musicians during his time: He composed his music from his heart, which made him sound unique and different from the others. He was born in the Romantic era and was strongly influenced by the romantic music of the time. Chopin’s music is intense with feeling, relying heavily on Rubato, the sense of free time which makes it very different from the previous era. His music was also written based on the advanced harmonic knowledge, giving beautiful colour and resonances to the music. Chopin had excellent piano-playing technique, which led to most of his compositions being written for piano. He was adventureous enough to exploit new improvements in the piano mechanismsuch as the increase of a piano’s range to a full seven octaves.
The significance of piano works in the Romantic era can be easily found in all of ChopingnificanceTwo of his great works of this calibre, which I will use for the following discussions, are “ are r the foEb Major, Op.9, No.2” and “Prelude in E minor, Op.28, No.4”. . These works are worthy of discussion because I am of the opinion that they contain many musical features typical of the Romantic era, particularly the use of the advanced harmonic language and the wealth of new styles. Worth mentioning, is that the Nocturne was actually invented in the Romantic era,
Before going into details of each work, there are similarities between the two works to be highlighted. Both these piano short pieces were very popular in the social centres at that time. Due to the change of the social life in the society, people would rather be entertained with instrumental short pieces in the salons, instead of lengthy performances at concert halls. The piano became the favourite instrument of the romantic age due to its new-improved mechanisms, particularly in the better sustaining ability of the damper pedal. Both of these works require a fairly constant use of damper pedal, not only to connect the big gap between notes, but also to improve the level of expression and resonance effect. Musically, they both revel in rich, colourful and sensuous sound with the exploitation of new tone colours because of the improved mechanism of the new piano. Besides that, the addition of complex harmony, new chords and the prominent use of chromatic harmony, which will be explained more in detail later, have created a whole new level of composition. Change of mood in both pieces of music is underlined by ritardando as shown at Bar 10, 12, 18, 20 plus the end of Bar 33 in the etude successfully creates an expressive breathing effect. As any of the Chopinreateus hrboth of these piano works require playing with the rubato, a new technique of slight holding back tempo to intensify the music, even if it was not stated or given as a musical instruction.
Similarities aside, there certainly are quite a few differences between the two works.
First I would like to discuss the “irst I would Eb Major, Op.9, No.2”. Etude, as its name implies, are about dreams and visions of the night. It is a combination of restfulness and restlessness. Etudes are often written with a strong sense of right-hand cantabile playing while the left-hand often accompanies using with broken chords. A cantabile in essence is a right-hand playing expression akin to singing. However, in this particular nocturne, Chopin wrote the accompaniment with the wide spaced chords on the left-hand, which is connected by damper pedal (see music example 1).

The left-hand harmonic accompaniment is increased in its complexity with added passing notes. It certainly provides an interesting underlying harmonic and rhythmic structure. This was considered as a very creative way of music writing, as the piano was previously unable to achieve that effect with the old and less sustained mechanism prior the Romantic era. The left-hand harmonic advances has now embellished the melody with diminished seventh chords, chromatic chords, and secondary dominant chords (see music example 2).

The change of music form in Romantic era also has provided a wider platform for composers to express themselves freely without strict rules that were imposed by the masters. Music form has became less formal as its shown in this nocturne by Chopin. The music was written as A AAusi Asic was writtena C with cadenza. The theme A section varied at each repetition with the embellishment of decorative notes and trills. Music entered to the subdominant key at the B-section at the 2nd last quavers at Bar 8 til Bar 12, and repeated again at Bar 17 til 20, before Allst state ended with a series of flowing decreasing chromatic notes at Bar 16(see musical example 3).

A nice change of minor tonality then occurred at Bar 25, followed by some chromaticsm movements at Bar 31 (see musical example 4).

At this point, Chopin has successfully and dramatically changed the feel of the music, leading the music to suddenly become more passionate by playing high-register octaves at the end of Bar 30 until the beginning of Bar 32(see musical example 5).

The use of damper pedal eventually enhances the music to become the loudest part of the piece near the end, marked fortissimo, thus creating a big contrast near the end of the music. A beautiful chromatic accented passing note served as an appoggiatura is played, before the melody is resolved by a consonant at the pause on the dominant seventh chord (see musical example 6a). This composition technique of delaying the resolution to a consonance note occurs very frequently in romantic music.

Just before finishing, the experiment of the improved damper pedal function was utilized the cadenza showing off a particular solo section (see musical example 6b), at the second half of Bar 32 over a dominant seventh chord. Music tension is created dramatically as the crescendo moves up to the long trill on the right-hand, while letting the dominant seventh chord ring by the use of the damper pedal. This bar is indicated by senza tempo, which means the absent of tempo, thus giving a freedom of rhythmic for a show off solo section. (see musical example 6c). After the long trill cadenza, the excitement subsides and leads the nocturne to end calmly with a bar of broken chord on the tonic.
A second piece to be discussed in detail is the “he cond piece to be discussNo.4”. . Chopinns 24 preludes in all major and minor keys, written as a technical exercise for his students, were often compared to Johann Sebastian Bach s preludes because of their similarity of being written in all keys. However, Chopinos wrote these preludes with a different intent. Preludes in the Romantic era can be performed individually, or in smaller sets, as opposed to the preludes in Baroque era, which were written for an introduction of a Suite or similar kind. Prelude in the Romantic era was also more complex and dense with the complex harmonic passages. In comparison to the etude, the prelude is much simpler and shorter. Left-hand accompaniment had no big leaps like those typically found in “hosturnes in Eb MajororeClose position chords were used throughout the Prelude, with a series of complex harmonic fill-ins like chromatic chords, diminished seventh chords and secondary dominant chords (see musical example 7). Great chromaticsm movement was used here to maintain the close position frequency of the left-hand chord.

Right-hand melody was straight forward, except some fill-in passages with non-harmonic notes like the upper neighbour note, the anticipation note, and accented passing notes. This achieved the effect of delaying the resolution of dissonance to a consonant, which gives a very colourful melodic and harmonic underlying structure to the music (see musical example 8). Regardless whether this prelude is written to be technically easier than the etude, this prelude requires a high level of expression with a heavy use of rubato, which from the musical perspective, is still an advanced piano piece to play.

Chopin was a great performer and master of his time, the Romantic period. He expressed his love through his composition with a touch of his signature rubato way of playing. There is none of his works was played in a straight time as this would be against the spirit of romanticism. While there were some similarities in each of his works, there were also many fine points of difference, as expounded in the two works, “While there wEb Major, Op.9, No.2”o.2or, Op.9, No.2.2me similarities in discussed.

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BIBIOGRAPHY

BOOKS 1. STAINES Joe and others, The Rough Guide to Classical Music, 4th edition, The Penguin Group, London, July 2005.

2. BACHUS Nancy, The Romantic Spirit, Alfred Publishing Co., Inc., USA.

3. Complete Preludes, Nocturnes and Waltzes, Edited by Rafael Joseffy, G. Schirmer, Inc., New York, 2006

4. PERCIVAL Allen, History of Music, The English Universities Press Ltd., London, 1970.

5. SMITH Tim, The NPR Curious Listener’s Guide to Classical Music,The Berkley Publishing Group, New York, 2002.

6. HUGH M. Miller, History of Music,4th edition, Barnes & Noble Books, USA, 1973.

7. HANNING Barbara Russano, Concise History of Western Music, 3rd edition, W.W. Norton & Company, Inc., New York, 2002.

8. KAMIEN Roger, Music An Appreciation, 9th edition, McGraw-Hill Higher Education, 2008.

ELECTRONIC RESOURCE 1. The Fryderyk Chopin Institute(2003-2010), Chopin Bibiography, retrieved April 17th, 2010 from http://en.chopin.nifc.pl/chopin/life/calendar/year/1810