This theme sounds
persistently, in the middle voices, in the bass, and at the close
in full harmonies, unisons, giving it a startling effect. Octaves
take it up in profile until it vanishes. Here is the very
apotheosis of rhythm. No. 2, in E minor, is not very resolute of
heart. It was composed, so Niecks avers, at Palma, when Chopin's
health fully accounts for the depressed character of the piece,
for it is sad to the point of tears. Of op. 41 he wrote to
Fontana from Nohant in 1839, "You know I have four new Mazurkas,
one from Palma, in E minor; three from here, in B major, A flat
major and C sharp minor. They seem to me pretty, as the youngest
children usually do when the parents grow old." No. 3 is a
vigorous, sonorous dance. No. 4, over which the editors deviate
on the serious matter of text, in A flat, is for the concert
room, and is allied to several of his gracious Valses. Playful
and decorative, but not profound in feeling.
Opus 50, the first in G major, is healthy and vivacious. Good
humor predominates. Kullak notes that in some editions it closes
pianissimo, which seems a little out of drawing.
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