This regarding the funeral marches of the three. Newman finds
Wagner's the more concrete imagination; the "inward picture" of
Beethoven, and Chopin "much vaguer and more diffused." Yet Chopin
is seldom so realistic; here are the bell-like basses, the morbid
coloring. Schumann found "it contained much that is repulsive,"
and Liszt raves rhapsodically over it; for Karasowski it was the
"pain and grief of an entire nation," while Ehlert thinks "it
owes its renown to the wonderful effect of two triads, which in
their combination possess a highly tragical element. The middle
movement is not at all characteristic. Why could it not at least
have worn second mourning? After so much black crepe drapery one
should not at least at once display white lingerie!" This is
cruel.
The D flat Trio is a logical relief after the booming and
glooming of the opening. That it is "a rapturous gaze into the
beatific regions of a beyond," as Niecks writes, I am not
prepared to say. We do know, however, that the march, when
isolated, has a much more profound effect than in its normal
sequence.
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