Scherzos
‘How will gravity array itself, if wit is already cloaked so darkly?’, asked Robert Schumann in his review of Chopin’s Scherzo in B minor, Op. 20. His astonishment is easily understood, since the name ‘scherzo’ (It.) literally means ‘joke’, whereas Chopin’s scherzos are almost never humorous or light-hearted. Quite the contrary: the four expansive one-movement works to which Chopin gave the title scherzo are marked with a drama and form which were unprecedented in the genre. They are given here in chronological order:
Scherzo in B minor, Op. 20, published in 1835 (date of composition difficult to establish precisely)
Scherzo in B flat minor, Op. 31, completed 1837 and published the same year
Scherzo in C sharp minor, Op. 39, composed 1839, published the following year
Scherzo in E major, Op. 54, composed 1842-1843, published 1843
The scherzo appeared on the threshold of the Baroque era (e.g. Monteverdi’s Scherzi musicali, 1607), initially as a vocal-instrumental genre of a cheerful character. Chopin, however, referred to the much later, classical, instrumental scherzo of tripartite, A B(trio) A, construction, in a rapid tempo and triple time, usually forming part of a larger work (sonata, symphony). In keeping with their name, most scherzos before Chopin were marked by brightness and levity; only with Beethoven did the scherzo sometimes gain a different expression: full of anxiety and unbridled energy, almost demonic.
Chopin turned to this second variety of scherzo, but imparted to it a new and unique shape. He rendered the genre autonomous, expanded it considerably and lent it a new, Romantic expression-startling, supremely dramatic, creating the impression of extraordinariness, the dimension of tragedy, a shiver of terror. ‘It should be a house of the dead’, Chopin is supposed to have said of the opening motif of the Scherzo in B flat minor.
Commentators emphasise not only the captivating beauty of the lyrical moments in Chopin’s scherzos, but above all the intensity and profundity of the emotions expressed, at times very violent, and also highly volatile. The principle of employing sudden contrasts, the intense suggestiveness of the musical gestures (especially at the beginning of a work) and the culmination of the narrative in virtually expressionistic codas would seem to be the most characteristic features of the Chopin scherzo.
The structure of these works also brings moments of innovation. In the overall architectonic plan it is a tripartite reprise form that dominates, yet this is treated by the composer individually, with allusions to the dualism of sonata form or to elements of the rondo. The dramatic B minor Scherzo, with its piercing chord at the beginning and turbulent texture, has an unusual contrast with a lyrical quotation from the Polish carol-lullaby ‘Lulajże Jezuniu’ in its middle section (a rare example of musical quotation in Chopin). The group of dramatic scherzos is completed by the highly popular B flat minor, compared by Schumann to the poetry of Byron, which is played out between the storminess of the outer sections and the ‘delightful oasis’ (Huneker) in the trio, and also the C sharp minor. A brighter tone is only marked in the last Scherzo, in E major.
In the Chopin oeuvre, scherzos also appear-in a more traditional role-in most of the sonatas and in the Trio in G minor, Op. 8, always as the second section of the cycle. Yet in these works it fulfils a different role to that of the autonomous scherzos, as part of a larger form.
Artur Bielecki
Scherzo in B flat minor Op. 31
The second explosion of romanticism came at the turn of 1836. This time, however, it was not so short-lived and did not give way to a return of the style brillant, as several years previously. This time, the farewell to virtuosity for virtuosity’s sake proved final. The new style, all Chopin’s own, which might be called a specifically Chopinian dynamic romanticism, not only revealed itself, but established itself. It manifested itself à la Janus, with two faces: the deep-felt lyricism of the Nocturnes, Op. 27 and the concentrated drama of the Scherzo in B flat minor.
The opening gesture of the new scherzo might be termed Beethovenian, though with the opening chords of Chopin’s first Scherzo in B minor in one’s ears, one might also say that it is already a Chopinian gesture. The second Scherzo, beginning in B flat minor, possesses, like the first, a reprise structure. It could also be seen as possessing the form of a scherzo with trio. In this instance, however, the initial structure forms merely the general framework; it is filled with music that unfolds in accordance with the laws of a peculiar drama, not form. It is unfurled with such force, with such an emotional charge, as if it were about to break through that framework and fall from the tracks along which it is travelling. And essentially that is what happens. The dynamism of this work prevented Chopin from closing the Scherzo in its own, opening key. The work’s finale is played out not in B flat minor, but in the relative key of D flat major.
It is in D flat major that the first of the two complements to the Scherzo’s opening theme proceeds. It appears like a bolt of lightning – and then vanishes (bars 49–57 (58)). The second complement to the opening theme, wandering through different keys, brings music that rumbles vigorously along, growing in power and strength with every bar (bars 65–79). In this Scherzo, too, the trio transports us into what seems like another world, not just into a new tonal sphere (F major; bars 265–276). The Arcadia into which the trio carries us takes three different characters in turn. The first barely marks its presence, with just a few bars of a bucolic sicilienne (bars 277–284). The second embodiment of Arcadia is of a waltz-like character, singing and swinging; Chopin has it sung by four different voices at once (bars (309) 310–317 (320)). The third incarnation of carefree Arcadia also pulls us into the whirl of a waltz, of a ritornel character (bars 334–344).
And then the ending arrives. The idyllic aura into which the trio had lifted us… bursts. Chopin transforms one of his Arcadian themes into a theme that is initially restless (agitato) and then thoroughly menacing, possessed by a raging passion, expressed fortissimo and con fuoco (bars 544–555). It is quite some time before the emotions subside. Then the music of the actual scherzo is goaded into returning. It swells to a climax and passes into the coda, which ends this display of power, strength and might.
The second of Chopin’s scherzos was hailed as a masterpiece. One might even say that it dethroned the first Scherzo, which had been ever-present on concert platforms. Critics and monographers fell over themselves to express their delight. Schumann heard Byronic touches. Niecks found the trio evocative of the Mona Lisa’s thoughtfulness, full of longing and wondering. Ferdynand Hoesick heard ‘demonic accents’ in this ‘fiery poem’. Zdzisław Jachimecki admired the ‘long ribbon of melody sung on a single breath’. Arthur Hedley pondered the work’s ecstatic lyricism, before concluding: ‘Excessive performance may have dimmed the brightness of this work, but should not blind us to its merits as thrilling and convincing music.’
Author: Mieczysław Tomaszewski
A series of programmes entitled ‘Fryderyk Chopin's Complete Works’
Polish Radio 2
