Chopin and his world

385 Pages·2018·28.5 MB·English

by  Bellman

CHOPIN AND HIS WORLD
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CHOPIN
AND HIS WORLD
EDITED BY
JONATHAN D. BELLMAN AND HALINA GOLDBERG
PRINCETON UNIVERSITY PRESS
PRINCETON AND OXFORD
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Copyright © 2017 by Princeton University Press
Published by Princeton University Press, 41 William Street,
Princeton, New Jersey 08540
In the United Kingdom: Princeton University Press,
6 Oxford Street, Woodstock, Oxfordshire OX20 1TW
press.princeton.edu
All Rights Reserved
For permissions/credits, see page x
Library of Congress Control Number: 2017935498
Cloth ISBN: 978-0-691-17775-5
Paper ISBN: 978-0-691-17776-2
British Library Cataloging-in-Publication Data is available
This publication has been produced by the Bard College Publications Office:
Mary Smith, Director
Irene Zedlacher, Project Director
Karen Walker Spencer, Designer
Text edited by Paul De Angelis and Erin Clermont
Music typeset by Don Giller
This publication has been underwritten in part by a grant from Roger and Helen Alcaly
Printed on acid-free paper. ∞
Printed in the United States of America.
1 3 5 7 9 10 8 6 4 2
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The editors would like to dedicate this book to the master pianists
of the Golden Age: those who flourished and were trained in the
years 1850–1925. From their teachers, they inherited the memories
of Chopin’s world, the sounds he knew and recomposed. Their
Chopin recordings, which stretch back to the dawn of the recording
era, are a priceless legacy, and we are forever in their debt.

Contents
Acknowledgments ix

Permissions x

Introduction 1
HALINA GOLDBERG AND JONATHAN D. BELLMAN
PART I. CONTEMPORARY CULTURAL CONTEXTS
Chopin’s Oneiric Soundscapes and the Role of 15
Dreams in Romantic Culture
HALINA GOLDBERG
Józef Sikorski’s “Recollection of Chopin”: 45
The Earliest Essay on Chopin and His Music
TRANSLATED BY JOHN COMBER
INTRODUCED AND ANNOTATED BY HALINA GOLDBERG
Chopin and the Gothic 85
ANATOLE LEIKIN
Revisiting Chopin’s Tubercular Song, or, 103
An Opera in the Making
DAVID KASUNIC
Chopin and Jews 123
JEFFREY KALLBERG
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PART II. MUSICAL AND PIANISTIC CONTEXTS
Middlebrow Becomes Transcendent: 147
The Popular Roots of Chopin’s Musical Language
JONATHAN D. BELLMAN
Karol Kurpin´ski on the Musical Expression of 171
Polish National Sentiment
TRANSLATED BY JOHN COMBER
INTRODUCED AND ANNOTATED BY HALINA GOLDBERG
Dance and the Music of Chopin: 187
The Polonaise
ERIC MCKEE
The Barcarolle and the Barcarolle: 231
Topic and Genre in Chopin
JAMES PARAKILAS
Chopin and Improvisation 249
JOHN RINK
Chopin Among the Pianists in Paris 271
SANDRA P. ROSENBLUM
The Hand of Chopin: Documents and Commentary 297
JEAN-JACQUES EIGELDINGER
TRANSLATED BY VIRGINIA E. WHEALTON
AFTERWORD
Chopin and the Consequences of Exile 315
LEON BOTSTEIN
Index 357
Notes on Contributors 366
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Acknowledgments
The editors wish to thank above all the president of Bard College and
artistic co-director of the Bard Summer Festival, Leon Botstein, for inviting
them to be scholars-in-residence at the 2017 festival, Chopin and His
World, and to edit this volume. His team—and our friends—Christopher
Gibbs, artistic co-director, Byron Adams, program committee, and Irene
Zedlacher, executive director, have been unfailingly warm and friendly
throughout this process. A crown of laurels to Paul De Angelis, of Paul De
Angelis Books, who edited the editors and kept things organized, sane, and
on track from the very beginning. His sober guidance and eagle eye made
this very complicated project somehow manageable, and we are much in
his debt. The entire team assembled by the Bard College Publications Office
—Mary Smith, director of publications; Erin Clermont, copy-editing; Don
Giller, music typesetting; Karen Spencer, design; Scott Smiley, indexing—
and at Princeton University Press have produced a handsome volume, and
we are grateful to collaborate with them on this project.
Above all we would like to thank our contributors, in alphabetical
order: Leon Botstein, Jean-Jacques Eigeldinger, Jeffrey Kallberg, David
Kasunic, Anatole Leikin, Eric McKee, James Parakilas, John Rink, and
Sandra Rosenblum. The opportunity to work with international Chopin
scholars on this project has been a gift indeed.
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