The Cambridge Companion to Chopin provides the enquiring music-lover with helpful insights into a musical style which recognises no contradiction between the accessible and the sophisticated, the popular and the significant. Twelve essays by leading Chopin scholars make up three parts. Part 1 discusses the sources of Chopin’s style in the music of his predecessors and the social history of the period. Part 2 profiles the mature music, and Part 3 considers the afterlife of the music - its reception, its criticism and its compositional influence in the works of subsequent composers.
• A comprehensive guide to Chopin and his music • Chopin is played and admired by amateur and professional alike • The book is not only about Chopin’s own music, but also the background to his unique style and the influence he had on the music of others
Contents
Chronology; Myth and reality: a biographical introduction; Part I. The Growth of a Style: 1. Piano music and the public concert, 1800–1850 Janet Ritterman; 2. The nocturne: development of a new style David Rowland; 3. The twenty-seven etudes and their antecedents Simon Finlow; 4. Tonal architecture in the early music John Rink; Part II. Profiles of the Music: 5. Extended forms: the ballades, scherzos and fantasies Jim Samson; 6. Small 'forms': in defence of the prelude Jeffrey Kallberg; 7. Beyond the dance Adrian Thomas; 8. The sonatas Anatole Leikin; Part III. Reception: 9. Chopin in performance James Methuen-Campbell; 10. Chopin reception in nineteenth-century Poland Zofia Chechlinska; 11. Victorian attitudes to Chopin Derek Carew; 12. Chopin's influence on the fin de siècle and beyond Roy Howat; Appendix: a historical survey of Chopin on disc James Methuen-Campbell; Notes; List of Chopin's works; Bibliographical note; Index.
Reviews
‘… strongly recommended to students, teachers, and researchers. Non-specialists will find useful and reliable introductions to various facets of Chopin’s life and music while specialists will encounter provocative viewpoints in a number of contributions.’ Notes
‘… highly recommended to anybody seeking an easily digestible yet informative overview of Chopin the man, his music, and his public.’ Susan Bradshaw, The Musical Times
Printer friendly version
Email a colleague