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Huneker, James, 1860-1921

"Chopin : the Man and His Music"

The prolonged trill on E flat, summoning us to the
ballroom, the suggestive intermingling of rhythms, duple and
triple, the coquetry, hesitation, passionate avowal and the
superb coda, with its echoes of evening--have not these episodes
a charm beyond compare? Only Schumann in certain pages of his
"Carneval" seizes the secret of young life and love, but his is
not so finished, so glowing a tableau.
Regarding certain phrasing of this valse Moriz Rosenthal wrote to
the London "Musical Standard":
In Music there is Liberty and Fraternity, but seldom Equality,
and in music Social Democracy has no voice. Notes have a right
to the Aftertone (Nachton), and this right depends upon their
role in the key. The Vorhalt (accented passing note) will
always have an accent. On this point Riemann must without
question be considered right. Likewise the feeling player will
mark those notes that introduce the transition to another key.
We will consider now our example and set down my accents:
[Musical score excerpt]
In the first bar we have the tonic chord of its major key as
bass, and are thus not forced to any accent.


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