Comments on: Chopin’s for Dummies

By: Elizabeth Davidson

Elizabeth Davidson — Fri, 02 Apr 2010 02:15:00 +0000

Thank you for your wonderful thoughts through this blog. And thank you for the incredible playing of Bach, Ives, Chopin and Schumann last night, in Seattle. I’ve never cared for Schumann very much before, but while you were knocking my socks off with the Ives I smiled to myself and figured you’d probably make me like the Schumann waltzes. Your playing woke me up to them. I’ve never been ashamed that I liked Chopin. Since my teens I’ve listened to him and just assumed that someone else was unlucky if they didn’t hear what I heard. Glad you agree. And I cut my teeth on Bach and Stravinsky.

By: Maria Choban

Maria Choban — Fri, 26 Feb 2010 17:02:46 +0000

LOVE the way you write. I’ve missed reading you. Classical Music blogs have so depressed me I quit reading for awhile.

Thanks for brightening my day.

(I think Chopin is Blake smart and Turkish Diplomat savvy…..and passive aggressive as hell)

By: Teach yourself piano

Teach yourself piano — Sat, 13 Feb 2010 18:02:17 +0000

Chopin’s music was certainly not dumb or boring. His music might be boring to those that desire a showy and bold exposition of thought or feeling. But (to use your very accurate description of the man’s character) “Chopin’s vast refinement of thought and elegance and culture” requires a similar personality in the listener for his music to be appreciated and understood. Or, at least a listener with great powers of empathy and understanding. Those who label his music as boring haven’t the “refined and elegant” brand of thought required to understand him, IMHO.

You’ve done a great job of displaying the intimate message and even the pathos inherent in his Polonaise-Fantasie. I have always liked what the biographer Huneker said of Chopin’s music – “Chopin’s arrows are tipped in fire, but they do not travel very far.”

Cheers!

By: Peter Takács

Peter Takács — Wed, 03 Feb 2010 18:29:21 +0000

Dear Jeremy:

I look forward to your concert tonight in Finney Chapel with Joshua Bell.

I love reading your musings that combine a reverence for our beloved music with hilarious jabs at the comparative paltriness of modern pop culture. I also relish your use of audio and video examples to bring your points home.

I have always loved the Polonaise-fantaisie, its ambiguity and anguished search for identity–I feel this is a paean to the fate of the expatriate who is forever pining for the homeland, while knowing that there can be no return. At the risk of ruining the piece forever, I imagine the words “ma patrie!” (and, later, “oh, ma patrie!”) set to the heart-wrenching F#-G# melody in the B major section.

One small correction: in the passage introducing the solemn B major chorale, surely you mean E# and not F# as the salient pitch in the suspenseful chord awaiting resolution.

Thanks again for the stimulating essays.

Warmly,

Peter Takács (Bibbins 331)

By: contrapuntal

contrapuntal — Mon, 25 Jan 2010 20:13:21 +0000

Education does wonders for such people.

Ballade No. 4 in F minor, Op. 52. Enough said.

By: jupiterjenkins.com » Blog Archive » wreath of gab and links

jupiterjenkins.com » Blog Archive » wreath of gab and links — Fri, 25 Dec 2009 13:24:35 +0000

[...] he had an entry on Chopin:[link to blog]. It was his musings that got me thinking about why I like Chopin again and playing and [...]

By: milka

milka — Sun, 20 Dec 2009 15:42:18 +0000

If we only had all that or even a little in
the
world of violin music .!!!!!

By: Patrick

Patrick — Mon, 14 Dec 2009 21:42:40 +0000

The richness of expression, ‘classical’ in the sense that it is so rich that one never tires of repeated hearings over many years. As a player, I notice the supreme ‘craft’, the voicings that are exactly suited to their moments, that amplify the meaning of the moment and the context. Craft in the avoidance of literal repetition. My visual equivalent is a perfectly tailored suit of clothes.
Since my passion for Classical (of all centuries) is a fairly solitary pursuit, I would tend to not be terribly swayed by dismissals of music I find compelling.
Thanks for your insights, Jeremy, some day I’ll hear you live, I look forward to it.

By: John

John — Mon, 14 Dec 2009 07:09:11 +0000

Nicely put. I have friends with the same attitude (they can’t help it, having studied music at universities in the 80s), but haven’t been able to find the words to to properly stand up for Chopin and how his music moves me.

. . . except that my brain, etched with 3rd Ballade practice from college days, starts playing lilting Ab octaves to my mind’s ear after that last chord’s been held a while. Oliver Sacks, make it stop.

By: Nate BH

Nate BH — Fri, 11 Dec 2009 15:44:05 +0000

Jeremy, you’re a smart guy and Chopin was a smart guy. His music is very sensual, and it’s possible that that sensuality represents quite an essential, paradoxically smart value on Chopin’s part. It’s important for smart people to have non-intellectual experiences, because too much thinking can be seriously maladaptive, (Imagine the stereotypical high school “nerd” character who can answer any math question but can barely function in social situations). For me, that’s why I like being a musician as opposed to, say, a writer. Classical music is ridiculously thoughtful, but there’s an athletic aspect to it, and sometimes the senses are allowed to usurp the thinking mind, as in the “effervescent waltz” part of the Brahms sonata you wrote about some posts back. From his extreme sensuality to his avoidance of extra-pianistic composition, I’ve come to think of Chopin as maybe political, or at least passive-aggressive, but certainly opposed to the forces of domineering intellectualism.

The polonaise-fantasie is a really good example of (bringin’ in Susan McClary) a slightly more feminist-y approach. To me, it is largely about overcoming perfectionism, what with the slightly-dissatisfied-but-stoic ending, and the monumental final restatement of the b-major theme in a-flat, which I think of (why do I have a feeling you will resent this characterization?) as skipping… with abandon. But no, I don’t think that Chopin’s sensuality makes him any less of a guiding light than Schubert in all his structure.

Thanks for giving me a space to vent my nerdy music thoughts. I am glad that you sound well, and are playing this piece.

Nate