Chopin, Mazurca op 7 No 1

In Chopin's complete oeuvre, the mazurkas have a privileged place. Throughout his life, the Polish musician wrote a total of 57 mazurkas, the first of them at the age of fourteen. But he only published 47. The other ten, considered by their author not worthy of publication, were made known by his friend and colleague Julian Fontana in 1858, seven years after the composer's death. An impressive number, no doubt. Although most of them do not exceed four minutes in length, together they constitute the most refined Chopin wrote, the most personal and perhaps the most original.

Although with origins in Polish folklore, the reminiscences of popular themes that can be glimpsed in Chopin's mazurkas are scarce. He has invented the themes himself, entirely, preserving the rhythmic patterns and accents that, characteristically, go on the weak beats of the bar, ternary, without exception. Sometimes the themes are very simple, but the genius of Frédérick always manages to give them a personal twist. Polish music, yes, but stylized, seems to have been the goal of the master.

The Opus 7
Five mazurkas make up opus 7, all of them lively and cheerful (because there are also serene and restful ones, in the total of his work), with the No. 1 in B flat standing out for its simple brilliance. They were probably composed in 1831, perhaps in Stuttgart or perhaps even earlier, in Warsaw. The only certainty is that they were published in Leipzig, in 1832, not long after the master had settled in Paris, a restless city not yet recovered from the uprisings of July of the previous year. There he would spend the next eighteen years of his life.

Mazurka No 5, opus 7 No 1 in B flat major
Just over two minutes long, this little gem opens with a wide-ranging melody that, beginning on the "dominant," gives the impression of coming from somewhere else, of being the continuation of a piece that had already begun. The melody is repeated, with a persistent accent on the second beat of each measure. Then a new section provides the necessary contrast (0:31). This scheme, main melody and contrast (new each time) is repeated three times, until its closing, abrupt and unadorned, as the maestro thought it should be.

The rendition is by Polish pianist Krzysztof Ksiazek, while participating in the International Chopin Competition in Warsaw, in 2015.