It is empty, tiresome and only
slightly superior to compositions of the same sort by De Beriot
and Osborne. Full of rapid elegancies and shallow passage work,
this duo is certainly a piece d'occasion--the occasion probably
being the need of ready money.
The seventeen Polish songs were composed between 1824 and 1844.
In the psychology of the Lied Chopin was not happy. Karasowski
writes that many of the songs were lost and some of them are
still sung in Poland, their origin being hazy. The Third of May
is cited as one of these. Chopin had a habit of playing songs for
his friends, but neglected putting some of them on paper. The
collected songs are under the opus head 74. The words are by his
friends, Stephen Witwicki, Adam Mickiewicz, Bogdan Zaleski and
Sigismond Krasinski. The first in the key of A, the familiar
Maiden's Wish, has been brilliantly paraphrased by Liszt. This
pretty mazurka is charmingly sung and played by Marcella Sembrich
in the singing lesson of "The Barber of Seville." There are
several mazurkas in the list. Most of these songs are mediocre.
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