The heart has lost--
not something, but everything. The tones, however, do not
always bear the impress of a quiet, melancholy resignation.
More passionate impulses awaken, and the still plaint becomes
a complaint against cruel fate. It seeks the conflict, and
tries through force of will to burst the fetters of pain, or
at least to alleviate it through absorption in a happy past.
But in vain! The heart has not lost something--it has lost
everything. The musical poem divides into three, or if one
views the little episode in B major as a special part, into
four parts (strophes), of which the last is an elaborated
repetition of the first with a brief closing part appended.
The whole piece is a song, or, better still, an aria, in which
two principal voices are to be brought out; the upper one is
in imitation of a human voice, while the lower one must bear
the character throughout of an obligato violoncello. It is
well known that Chopin was very fond of the violoncello and
that in his piano compositions he imitated the style of
passages peculiar to that instrument.
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