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Huneker, James, 1860-1921

"Chopin : the Man and His Music"

The return of the
tempest is not long delayed. It bursts, wanes, and with the coda
comes sad yearning, then the savage drama passes tremblingly into
the night after fluid and wavering affirmations; a roar in F
sharp and finally a silence that marks the cessation of an
agitating nightmare. No "sabre dance" this, but a confession from
the dark depths of a self-tortured soul. Op. 44 was published
November, 1841, and is dedicated to Princesse de Beauvau. There
are few editorial differences. In the eighteenth bar from the
beginning, Kullak, in the second beat, fills out an octave. Not
so in Klindworth nor in the original. At the twentieth bar
Klindworth differs from the original as follows. The Chopin text
is the upper one:
[Musical score excerpts]
The A flat Polonaise, op. 53, was published December, 1843, and
is said by Karasowski to have been composed in 1840, after
Chopin's return from Majorca. It is dedicated to A. Leo. This is
the one Karasowski calls the story of Chopin's vision of the
antique dead in an isolated tower of Madame Sand's chateau at
Nohant.


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