Chopin and the Ghost of Beethoven

WAYNE C. PETTY

Of all the composers of his generation, Chopin often relegating to one small chapter the influ-
is the one usually regardedas least influenced ence of Austro-German traditions on Chopin's
by Beethoven. The notion that Chopinremained music. In addition, there is the related ten-
aloof from Beethoven, although it surely arose dency to regardinfluence as manifested princi-
from genuine differences between the two com- pally by continuities of styles and materials, a
posers, still owes much of its endurance to tendency that has led critics to estimate the
critical practice. Perhaps unwittingly, critics influence on Chopin of a charming Field, or
have tended to mythologize these two compos- shallow Moscheles over that of such a tower-
ers in opposing ways: Beethoven, the heroic ing figure as Beethoven.' Of these critical hab-
figure larger than life; Chopin, more the anti- its, the last is certainly the most pernicious.
hero, a creature too fine for this cruel world. We are fortunate, therefore, to see new models
The "life and works" genre of criticism rein- of influence emerging; in particular I have in
forces a similar separation as it narrates the mind Kevin Korsyn'sinnovative work that en-
historical record on Beethoven into three peri- gages Harold Bloom's theories of poetry and
ods but that on Chopin into styles and genres, Mikhail Bahktin's theories of dialogism in lan-

19th-Century Music XXII/3 (Spring 1999). ? by The Re- 'See, for example, GeraldAbraham'sbook Chopin's Musi-
gents of the University of California. cal Style (London,1939), which discusses the influence of
Bach, Bellini, Elsner, Field, Hummel, Kalkbrenner,
I am grateful to Kevin Korsyn, Andrew Mead, and Janet Moscheles, Mozart, Polish folk music, Rossini, Schubert,
Schmalfeldt for their helpful comments during the prepa- Spohr, and Weber, but dismisses Beethoven as an influ-
ration of this article. ence on Chopin (p. ix).

281
 19TH
CENTURY
guage.2In addition, we are confronted with Jef- a supremely gifted young pianist-composer as
MUSIC frey Kallberg'sand Jim Samson's new work on Chopin could have moved in these circles with-
Chopin reception, which has begun to expose out encountering a good deal more Beethoven
many of the ideological structures that have than those few works that are documented.
informed the myth-building around Chopin.3 Consider, for instance, the following anecdote
The time is right, then, to reassess Beethoven's by Charles Hall6: "One day, long after I had
influence on Chopin. emergedfrom my retirement and achieved some
Any judgment of Beethoven's influence on notoriety as a pianist, I played at [Chopin's]
Chopin will be complicated by the inconclu- request, in his own room, the Sonata in Eb,op.
sive nature of the available evidence. Two com- 31, no. 3, and after the finale he said that it was
monly held views must be confronted at the the first time he had liked it, that it had always
outset: that, so far as we can prove, Chopin appearedto him very vulgar. I felt flattered, but
knew only a handful of Beethoven's works; and was much struck by the oddity of the remark."6
that those few works he did know did not suit What tends to attract our attention in this an-
his taste. The first claim will always be a prob- ecdote is Chopin's description of a Beethoven
lem for scholars, because we can never be cer- sonata as "vulgar."Equally striking, though, is
tain of all the Beethoven music that Chopin the casualness of the remark, that "it had al-
encountered in his rich musical life.4 Here is it ways appearedto him" that way. It is apparent
useful to recall that Chopin, aroundage twenty, that Chopin had known the Sonata for a long
made two trips to Vienna: a brief one for three time. Yet this should hardly come as a surprise:
weeks in 1829, then another in late 1830 that Chopin lived his entire adult life in the com-
turned into an eight-month stay immediately pany of pianists, always in cities with a vibrant
preceding his move to Paris. During these peri- concert life and well-stocked music stores that
ods Chopin immersed himself in the musical carriedthe latest music. He could visit Maurice
life of the Austrian capital and associated with Schlesinger's in Paris, for example, and pur-
many persons who had been close to chase a vocal score of Beethoven's Fidelio for
Beethoven.5 It is difficult to imagine that such his pupil Carl Filtsch; he could send his former
teacher Elsner another recent Schlesinger pub-
lication, F6tis's Etudes de Beethoven, complete
2KevinKorsyn, "Towardsa New Poetics of Musical Influ- with dedication.7These events remind us that
ence," Music Analysis 10/1-2 (1991), 3-72, and "Direc- Beethoven must have been a routine part of
tional Tonality and Intertextuality:Brahms'sQuintet op.
88 and Chopin's Balladeop. 38," in The Second Practice of Chopin's world, and they suggest that the docu-
Nineteenth-Century Tonality, ed. William Kindermanand mentary recordconcerning Chopin's awareness
Harald Krebs (Lincoln, Neb., 1996), pp. 45-83. Both ar- of Beethoven's music must be irretrievably in-
ticles deal with Chopin in original and provocativeways.
3JeffreyKallberg,"The Harmony of the Tea Table: Gender complete.
and Ideology in the Piano Nocturne," and "Small Fairy The second problem, that Chopin allegedly
Voices: Sex, History, and Meaning in Chopin," in Chopin found much of Beethoven's music distasteful,
at the Boundaries:Sex, History, and Musical Genre(Cam-
bridge, Mass., 1996), pp. 30-61 and 62-86. Jim Samson,
is suggested not only by Hall6's anecdote about
"ChopinReception:Theory, History, Analysis," in Chopin op. 31, no. 3, but also by other reports, includ-
Studies 2, ed. JohnRink and JimSamson(Cambridge,1994),
ing one from the painter Delacroix, who re-
pp. 1-17. corded Chopin drawing a negative contrast be-
4Chopin'sstudents testified to his teaching and playing of
Beethoven's concertos and several piano sonatas, includ-
ing op. 14, no. 2; op. 26; op. 27, no. 2; op. 31, no. 2; and op.
57. See Jean-Jacques Eigeldinger, Chopin: Pianist and
Teacher, trans. Naomi Shohet et al., ed. Roy Howat (Cam-
bridge, 1986), pp. 62, 116, 137, 138, 277-78.
SThese persons included Carl Czerny, Count Moritz 6C.E. Halle andMarieHalle, Life and Lettersof Sir Charles
Lichnowski, the Malfattis, Ignaz von Seyfried, the pub- Halle Being an Autobiography (1819-1860) with Corre-
lishers Tobias Haslinger and Anton Diabelli, and, appar- spondence and Diaries (London, 1896), p. 35, cited in
ently, Anton Schindler.Chopin's visits to Vienna are docu- Eigeldinger,Chopin, p. 138.
mented by Frederick Niecks in Frederick Chopin as a 7Eigeldinger,Chopin, p. 142. The Book of the First Inter-
Man and Musician (3rd edn. London, 1902), I, 93-107 and national Musicological CongressDevoted to the Worksof
176-95; see also Jim Samson, Chopin (Oxford, 1996), pp. FrederickChopin, ed. Zofia Lissa (Warsaw,1963), plate 13
70-78, and Eigeldinger,Chopin, p. 292. at p. 416.

282
tween Beethoven and Mozart.8 But these re- of Harold Bloom, for artists to guard against WAYNEC.
PETTY
ports need to be carefully assessed. It is doubt- influence. In short, the claim that Chopin is
Chopin and
ful, for one thing, that Chopin would have given known to have expressed cool reservations Beethoven
Carl Filtsch the Fidelio score if he had regarded about much of Beethoven's music would prove
Beethoven as a corrupting influence. Nor is a little one way or another about the role of
guarded attitude toward an important precur- Beethoven in his creative life.
sor necessarily a sign of a lack of influence. The need to resist influence might also ac-
Rather, Chopin seems to have been careful to count for Chopin's refusal to publish the one
maintain some critical distance from Beethoven, work that he did model directly on Beethoven:
which is hardly the same thing as freedom from the Fantaisie-Impromptu,op. 66, composed in
influence. Consider Wilhelm von Lenz's ac- 1834 but published posthumously, against the
count of Chopin playing the variation move- composer'swishes. In an article written in 1947
ment from Beethoven's op. 26, a work that that remains the most important case study of
Chopin gave more than one of his students to Beethoven's effect on Chopin, Ernst Oster
play: sought to demonstrate that Chopin modeled
the Fantaisie-Impromptu on Beethoven's C#-
Chopinhad been called on to play Beethoven'sso- Minor Piano Sonata, op. 27, no. 2 (the "Moon-
nata(thevariationmovement).HowthendidChopin light"). Oster concluded that Chopin had not
play Beethoven'sop. 26? He playedit beautifully, published the Fantaisie-Impromptubecause the
but not as beautifullyas his own compositions;not composer did not regard it as a sufficiently
seizing it, not in relief, not like a storywhose sus- original piece: "To him it was not an authen-
pense is heightenedfromone variationto the next. tic, not an independently wrought composi-
His mezza voce was whispered, but he was unri-
valledin the cantilena,with an infiniteperfectionin tion."'0 Those persuadedby Oster's arguments
the continuity of structure:ideally beautiful,but might easily read the story of the Fantaisie-
feminine! Beethoven is a man, and never ceases to Impromptuas revealing not only Chopin's deep
be so! . . . As we drove back together, I was quite understanding of Beethoven's music, but also
honest when he asked my opinion. "I indicate," his keen sensitivity to what distinguishes a
(j'indique) he replied, without a trace of touchiness, work that is strongly original from one that is
"it's up to the listener to complete (parachever)the not.
picture."9 Here I shall argue that Chopin's most seri-
ous engagement with Beethoven's music ap-
This report appears to suggest something of pearsnot in the Fantaisie-Impromptu,but rather
the same guarded attitude toward Beethoven. in the Bb-MinorSonata, op. 35, completed in
Here it seems that Chopin, when called on to 1839. During Chopin's earlier Paris years,
assume a Beethovenian pose, took satisfaction Beethoven had been a presence largely through
in playing those variations but did not fully his absence. After Chopin settled in the French
immerse himself in them-a distancing in capital in 1831, the new works that he wrote
which Lenz heard a feminizing impulse. were almost entirely in genres that kept a safe
Chopin's reply, "j'indique . . ," suggested the distance from the Viennese master. Mazurka,
matter was not up for discussion. This inter- polonaise, nocturne, prelude, 6tude, ballade, the
pretation of the anecdote would be consistent independent scherzo-not only were these
with our awareness of the ambivalent stance genres closely tied to Chopin's identity as Pol-
that great artists often adopt toward their pre- ish patriot and virtuoso pianist, they were also
cursors, a need, so richly elaboratedin the work genres in which Beethoven had provided no

8Diaryentry, 7 April 1849, in Journalde Eugene Delacroix

(Paris, 1932), I, 283-85.
9Lenz, Die Grossen Pianoforte-Virtuosenunserer Zeit aus
pers6nlicher Bekanntschaft: Liszt-Chopin-Tausig-- '0Ernst Oster, "The Fantaisie-Impromptu:A Tribute to
Henselt (Berlin, 1872), p. 39; cited in Eigeldinger,Chopin, Beethoven," in Aspects of Schenkerian Theory, ed. David
pp. 277-78. Beach (New Haven, 1983),pp. 189-207, 205.

283
 19TH significant examples." The piano sonata, how- then had later changedhis mind. Haslingerkept
CENTURY
MUSIC ever, was a genre in which Beethoven's ex- the manuscript, however, and by 1839-new
amples could not be ignored. If Chopin was to works by Chopin were now much in demand-
write in this genre, he would need come to he decided to have it engraved for publication.
terms with Beethoven, whose achievements Chopin no longer wanted the old work pub-
would have to be acknowledged and absorbed-- lished, but the matter was out of his hands: it
but also resisted. When Chopin did write his had been engraved and was already beginning
first piano sonata for publication, the Bb-mi- to circulate. In August 1839 Chopin wrote to
nor, he would show that he had indeed come to Julian Fontana, "My father has written to say
terms with Beethoven. In this work Chopin that my old sonata has been published by
stages a separation ritual from Beethoven, Haslinger and that the German critics praise
finding his own voice in response to Beetho- it"; in the same letter Chopin mentioned that
ven's, and thereby inscribing himself into the he had been composing the Bb-Minor Sonata
history of one of music's most prestigious and described each of its four movements.13
genres. Chopin's implicit critique of Beethoven Haslinger's actions could only have increased
is so merciless that even Schumann could not any pressure the composer was already feeling
face it; yet it is also deeply humane and ulti- to publish a piano sonata. With an early work
mately ironizes even itself, making this work a beginning to circulate, Chopin would be judged
fertile ground for considering what it meant to against tradition, including Beethoven, on the
Chopin to be an artist living in a world haunted basis of a student composition. Keenly aware
by the ghost of Beethoven. of the importance of critical reception for a
composer's reputation and career, he could ill
II affordto have that piece become his only essay
The main outlines of the Bt-MinorSonata's in the genre. And it probablywould not go too
composition history are well known. Chopin far to speculate that Chopin may have taken
wrote the Funeral March first, in 1837, later satisfaction in blocking the sales of a work that
addingthe remaining movements; he completed Haslingerhad originallyobtainedwithout cost.14
the work in 1839, and the usual three editions Whatevermight have spurredChopin to com-
(French, German, and English) were published pose the Bb-Minor Sonata, Beethoven would
the following year.12To my knowledge no one become the central presence in this new work.
has firmly established why Chopin added the Many experienced musicians seem to have felt
three movements to make a sonata. But one a Beethovenian presence in this sonata, but no
reason may have been the dissemination of his one has really explored it in sufficient depth.
early C-Minor Sonata in Vienna around this Studies of Chopin's sonata have tended to men-
time. The Viennese publisher Tobias Haslinger tion Beethoven only indirectly, usually by mea-
had received this work on a visit from the young suring Chopin's work according to the stan-
Chopin in 1829, had agreed to publish it, and dards of Austro-German traditions of sonata
composition (with Beethoven as the standard-
bearer), or by comparing the slow movement
"Beethoven's Polonaise, op. 89, is really a rondo alla
Polacca and would not in any case have discouragedChopin
from composing his own polonaises. Chopin did publish
works in Beethovenian genres during this period, includ- '3Letterto Fontana,8 August 1839, in Selected Correspon-
ing the two concertos, but these works had been written dence of Fryderyk Chopin, trans. and ed. Arthur Hedley
before Chopin left Warsaw. (London,1962), pp. 180-82. On Haslinger'soriginal receipt
120n the composition and publication dates of Chopin's of the C-Minor Sonata, see Samson, Chopin, p. 25.
op. 35, see Krystyna Kobylafiska, Frederic Chopin: Haslingerwould eventually send Chopin the proofs to the
Thematisch-bibliographisches Werkverzeichnis(Munich, C-Minor Sonata,but Chopin refused to authorize the pub-
1979), p. 85. See also the source commentary to the Na- lication. Exactly when Chopin received these proofs can-
tional Edition of the Works of FryderykChopin:Sonatas, not be determined from the composer's other letters, but
ed. Jan Ekier and Pawel Kamiriski(Cracow, 1995). Accord- by August 1839 he had to know that the work had been
ing to Ekier and Kamifiski, the changes that Chopin en- engraved.
tered in subsequent impressions of the original French 14Chopin's often contentious dealings with his publishers
edition included a change in the title of the third move- are richly documented in Kallberg,"Chopin in the Mar-
ment from Marchefunebre to simply Marche. ketplace" in Chopin at the Boundaries, pp. 161-214.

284
with that of Beethoven's "FuneralMarch" So- Alan Walker,and most recently Anatole Leikin WAYNEC.
PETTY
nata, op. 26, a work that Chopin played and have argued on behalf of this unity, chiefly by
Chopin and
taught, or by asserting an overgeneralizedsense demonstratingthematic connections among the Beethoven
that the first movement relies on certain movements.19These studies have had the salu-
Beethovenian procedures.15Instead, analysts tary effect of encouraging a close reading of
have been largely concerned with the Sonata's Chopin's Sonata, and they have disclosed many
"unity," an issue first raised in Robert such thematic relations, some of them promis-
Schumann's famous 1841 review of the piece.16 ing. But for all their diligence these authors
"Schumann's reaction," as Charles Rosen have done little to answer Schumann's impli-
puts it, "sets the pattern for most later criti- cation that the Chopin sonata does not cohere.
cism of Chopin: an acknowledgment of imagi- Ratherthan refuting Schumann, they ironically
native power along with an assertion of techni- support his view by showing that the move-
cal limitations."17 Schumann found Chopin's ments share certain outward features-that
title "Sonata"capricious and slightly presump- Chopin's four unruly children all have his blue-
tuous, for Chopin "simply gathered up four of gray eyes, or that they inherited the composer's
his most unruly children, using this title per- legendary souplesse.
haps to smuggle them into places where they Jim Samson has recently suggested a way
could not otherwise have penetrated."'8 In past this approach, one that might help us re-
today's climate a critic might take Schumann's cover some of the wider context in which the
review as an invitation to explore what in the Sonata op. 35 was written and received. Al-
Chopin sonata might have troubled Schumann, though Samson largely accepts the transmove-
what might have led him to choose a metaphor mental thematic connections (at the same de-
of concealment, or what might have resisted claring himself a skeptic), he advocates a "ge-
the work's perception as a coherent aesthetic neric approach"to this sonata. He argues, for
object. One might even ask whether this re- instance, that Chopin embeds nocturnes, or
view reflects Schumann's own anxiety toward nocturne-like sections within each of the
Chopin's mastering the intimidating task of sonata's first three movements. In neither the
composing in the sonata tradition. But analysts scherzo nor the FuneralMarch, however, "does
have tended to read Schumann in light of their the central song feel like an outgrowth of the
own concerns with unity, turning this small flanking sections. It remains remote from them,
part of his review into a charge to be either strengthening our impression of a series of con-
confirmed or refuted. Studies by Rudolph R6ti, trasted,relatively self-containedmusical worlds
juxtaposed rather than smoothly joined.""20A
genre-based approach to the sonata is promis-
"For a summary of the literature on Chopin's BM-Minor ing, I think, because it opens a path toward a
Sonata, see Samson, The Music of Chopin (London,1985), dynamic field of musical discourse, including
pp. 129-33. On Chopin's engagements with Beethoven's Beethoven's. As Jeffrey Kallberg has argued,
op. 26, see Eigeldinger, Chopin, pp. 59, 61, and 277-78.
Comparisons of the thematic development in the first genre situates a work in social contexts by es-
movement of the Chopin sonata to Beethoven's practice tablishing a kind of contract between compos-
have occasionally been traced; see, for example, Janusz
Dobrowolski, "Do Zagadnienia Wplywu Klasyk6w na
Chopina" (The Question of the Influence of the Classical
Composers on Chopin) in F. F. Chopin, ed. Zofia Lissa
(Warsaw,1960), pp. 124-32.
'16Robert Schumann, "Neue Sonaten fiurdas Pianoforte,"
in Gesammelte Schriften fiber Musik und Musiker (3rd
edn. Leipzig, 1875), II, 205-07.
'7CharlesRosen, The Romantic Generation (Cambridge, '9RudolphReti, The Thematic Processin Music (New York,
Mass., 1995), p. 284. 1951), pp. 298-310; Alan Walker, "Chopin and Musical
8"1Daf?er es 'Sonate' nannte, m6chte man eher eine Ca- Structure," in Frideric Chopin: Profiles of the Man and
price heifen, wenn nicht einen Uebermuth, daf?er gerade the Musician, ed. Alan Walker(London,1966),pp. 239-49;
vier seiner tollsten Kinder zusammenkoppelte, sie unter Anatole Leikin, "The Sonatas," in The Cambridge Com-
diesem Namen vielleicht an Orte einzuschwirzen, wohin panion to Chopin, ed. Jim Samson (Cambridge,1992), pp.
sie sonst nicht gedrungen wiren" (Schumann, "Neue 160-75.
Sonaten," p. 205). 20Samson,Chopin, p. 211.

285
 19TH ers and listeners.2' And genres, as Kevin Korsyn the march as a kind of death ritual, went on to
CENTURY has reminded us, refer outside themselves to situate his own voice in the trio as a commen-
MUSIC
the world of prior discourse; by readinggeneric tary and remembrance. And finally, in section
codes in an intertextual space, analysts may VI, I shall consider some of the implications of
view works as relational events, as responses these compositional ideas for recovering poten-
to the otherness of priorworks.22Samson's idea tial meanings embodied by the sonata as a
that the Funeral March harbors a nocturne whole-such as what it might have meant for
would be an interesting possibility, for the noc- Chopin to be an artist engaged with the world.
turne, besides being one of the genres most I do not say "engagedwith his world," for my
closely identified with Chopin, was for some project is not intended, nor should it be taken,
listeners also feminized, suggesting its possible as primarily an effort to reclaim past meanings
use to create distance from an authoritative by tracing the Chopin sonata to any particular
discourse.23The gendered nocturne-if that is source or groupof sources, even if the presence
how Chopin himself heard it-could become of quotation and allusion will necessarily draw
one means for the composer to communicate us to specific works and genres. Instead, by
identity and otherness that are necessary ele- stressing equally the antithetical side of influ-
ments of any situation involving influence. ence, I hope to suggest how Beethoven is both a
These approaches need not deny that the four presence and an absence in the Chopin sonata,
movements of the sonata form some kind of how Chopin could join a wider human enter-
unified whole. But they can also give us a way prise that includes the achievements of others,
to expand the horizon of signification to em- yet also remain an individual-in short, what
brace a broaderrange of potential meanings in allows the work to speak, as if with a living
the work. For now, these ideas on genre must voice, to us as artists engaged with our worlds.
remain somewhat abstract,however;only a sus- It is with this aim in mind that we now move
tained reading of the Chopin sonata can tell us to a closer reading of the piece itself.
how genre, in combination with other musical
factors, might help the work simultaneously III
absorb and resist Beethoven's influence. If drawingthematic parallels between move-
In what follows I shall first be concerned, in ments does nothing by itself to prove the
section III,with one transmovemental connec- "unity" of a work, that does not mean that all
tion that I find especially convincing, partly such resemblances need be rejectedout of hand.
because it also contains allusions to Beethoven. One such connection in the Chopin sonata is
In section IV, I shall consider some of the com- enormously suggestive: that between the open-
positional problems this connection raises for ing of the first movement and the beginning of
the Sonata op. 35, especially for the Funeral the FuneralMarch. Several authors have noted
March, and investigate how the composer ad- a similarity between these two openings; many
dresses them. This reading will allow us to have also recognized that Chopin wrote the
explore,in section V, how Chopin,having staged remaining movements around the Funeral
March;but they satisfy themselves prematurely
when they find unity only in uniformity. In
21Kallberg,"The Rhetoric of Genre:Chopin's Nocturne in reexamining the openings of these two move-
G Minor," in Chopin at the Boundaries, p. 5; Kallberg ments, we find more than just thematic resem-
draws on the work of Philippe Lejeune, Le Pacte blance:a tonal progressionconnects these open-
Autobiographique (Paris, 1975); and Heather Dubrow,
Genre, The Critical Idiom, vol. 42 (London,1982),pp. 31- ings, of which the resemblances are more a
37. sign than an actual cause.24
22Korsyntouches on the intertextual implications of genre
in his review of Wordless Rhetoric, by Mark Evan Bonds,
Music Theory Spectrum 16 (1994), 132. On readingworks
as responses to the otherness of prior works, see his "To- 240n the need for identifying a progressionfrom one move-
wards a New Poetics of Musical Influence," esp. pp. 12- ment to the next rather than mere resemblances among
15. movements, see my "Cyclic Integrationin Haydn's EbPi-
2-30nthe gendering of the nocturne, see Kallberg, "The ano Sonata Hob. XVI:38,"Theory and Practice 19 (1994),
Harmony of the Tea Table." 31-33.

286
 interruptedcadence WAYNEC.
PETTY
C I DV Chopin and
Grave Doppiomovimento Beethoven
D6,

D6

AiIiagitato

basic idea of agitato theme

Example 1: Chopin, Sonata op. 35, movt. I, opening.

Chopin's Grave opens the sonata with a move the doppio movimento picks up the first me-
toward closure that the composer boldly inter- lodic note of this failed closing gesture, D6,
rupts (ex. 1).25 The Grave begins off the tonic, then the agitato theme takes up the D6 in the
on a leading-tone diminished seventh to the higher octave. This new theme reminds us al-
dominant, which passes through an apparent most obsessively of the failed cadence by re-
C#-minor six-three to a cadential dominant that peatedly composing out the space between tonic
accompanies the falling top voice Db-C (3-2), (1) and mediant (3), always with the emphasis
preparing a cadence on B6; at the doppio on the mediant. Chopin thus builds into the
movimento the dominant harmony resolves to basic idea of his agitato theme all the energies
the tonic, but a rest in the top voice suppresses and implications of the failed cadence out of
closure on B6 (1) in the melody, yielding an which that basic idea directly grows-hence its
interrupted cadence.26 The accompaniment of anxious character.27
The potency of this opening gesture makes
us listen for that missing cadence, but nowhere
21Themusical examples in this article follow the National in the first movement do we ever hear it. Only
Edition (see n. 12 above), itself based on the fifth impres-
sion of the original French edition. Notes in parentheses much later, at the beginning of the Funeral
appear in some sources but not in others; fingerings in March, does Chopin supply the specific tonic
parentheses originate with the composer. chord suppressed when the doppio movimento
26Iregardthe C#-minor6 as "apparent"because the chord
with that spelling functions as the dissonant linear chord interrupted melodic closure. The missing chord
E-G#-Dk.This readingrests on the assumption that a sen-
sitive listener will construe the opening interval as a di-
minished seventh, contradicted only momentarily, if at
all, by the apparent six-three. (The Grave might call for a 27Itake the term "basic idea" from the work of William E.
somewhat different interpretation if it is repeated follow- Caplin, who uses it something in the manner of
ing the exposition.) The term "interruptedcadence" refers Schoenberg'sGrundgestalt,as "an initiating function con-
in this instance to the resolution of a cadential dominant sisting of a two-measure idea that usually contains several
without melodic closure in the top voice. This dominant melodic or rhythmic motives constituting the primaryma-
differs from that which typically closes a slow introduc- terial of a theme." See Caplin, Classical Form:A Theory
tion; the latter would be what Schenker termed a dividing of FormalFunctions for the Instrumental Music of Haydn,
dominant, not a cadential dominant. Mozart, and Beethoven (New York, 1998),pp. 37 and 264.

287
 19TH
MARCHE Bb
CENTURY
MUSIC Lento 1 (3)

basic idea of the March(compareto Grave)

Example 2: Funeral March, opening.

MARCHE
Grave Lento

cadence

Example 3: Grave and FuneralMarch, openings conjoined.

appears, in register, at the beginning of the cadence-across movements to convey a sense

march (ex. 2). To strengthen a feeling of clo- that the Funeral March begins at the end. Ex-
sure, Chopin repeats the tonic pitch several ample 3 makes this connection directly au-
times at the beginning of the march, support- dible. Note that the first measure of the march
ing it with heavy chords underneath. When the even uses a generic convention (1 repeated in
march theme does finally present its own basic the rhythm • ; J) that funeral marches typi-
idea, in mm. 3-4, this new idea recalls the cally reserve for phrase endings, following a
falling line from the Grave, again in the same cadence, not beginnings.28One can sense at the
register, reminding us of the interrupted ca- beginning of the Funeral March, then, that
dence. In the Funeral March, though, the em- somehow the events in the tonal life of the
phasis lies on the tonic (1),not the mediant. In piece have come to an end: the tonic triad has
a gesture that the march will reenact many reached its final resting place. Just as the Fu-
times, the tonic pitch drags the melody down, neral March evokes an image of death, so this
like a weighty sigh, as though the melody can image finds its counterpart in a specifically
barely muster the strength to rise above the musical gesture: the perfect authentic cadence,
tonic's oppressive gravity. Thus the Grave pre- signaling by convention "the end has arrived."
sents a thwarted closing impulse realized only This connection must be defended further
by the first chord of the march; the thematic on musical grounds, but first we must explore
reference confirms the relationship, making it another crucial feature common to both the
audible.
This transmovemental progressionsuggests,
among other things, that the beginning of the 28Forrelevant examples, see the first tonic cadence in the
Funeral March is no "beginning"at all, at least FuneralMarchto Beethoven'sThird Symphony, op. 55, m.
not in a conventional sense; rather,the Funeral 8; the FuneralMarch from his Piano Sonata, op. 26, m. 8
March opens by projecting an overwhelming (without the dotted rhythm); and Chopin's own early C-
Minor FuneralMarch, op. 72, no. 2, m. 10. Chopin's own
sense of ending. Chopin uses the most potent piece shows that the composer was familiar with this con-
musical sign of closure-the perfect authentic vention.

288
 Maestoso WAYNEC.
PETTY
r•. W Chopin and
..M... Beethoven
sf s~f
tf
cr- p

?;-- ? k
, ,
f

Example 4: Beethoven, op. 111, movt. I, opening.

Grave and the Funeral March. Both allude to This symbolic enactment of a death scene
Beethoven. Chopin begins the sonata with a involving Beethoven may have been what
conspicuous reference to the opening of Schumann found so disturbing in Chopin's so-
Beethoven's Piano Sonata in C Minor, op. 111 nata.30oWe should be interested in what
(ex. 4).29 Beethoven had also begun with an Schumann had to say-and just as important,
unaccompanied diminished-seventh leap in oc- what he might have been expected to say but
taves, resolving it as a leading-tone diminished did not-for Schumann, besides being himself
seventh to the dominant. But while Beethoven's a master composer who was confronting many
opening develops into a long introduction, of the same issues as Chopin, was also a critic
Chopin's Grave plunges into the doppio who listened for allusions to other composers
movimento by way of the interrupted cadence. in new works and discussed them along with
Chopin could thus invoke Beethoven as an ori- questions of influence and originality in his
gin, taking Beethoven as his starting point, yet reviews. One would surely expect him to re-
curtail the discourse of his predecessor by in- mark on Beethoven's presence in this new
terrupting it, thereby allowing himself sym- Chopin sonata. But when confrontedwith these
bolically to invent a new future for Beethoven. bold allusions to Beethoven, Schumann averts
That gesture inscribes Beethoven implicitly into his gaze. He states flatly, "Chopin no longer
all that follows-especially the FuneralMarch, writes anything one can find in other compos-
which will later pick up where the Grave left ers; he is true to himself, and with good rea-
off. We may now read the Funeral March as a son." Just as odd, when Schumann does men-
second allusion to Beethoven (probablyto his tion Beethoven, it is only in relation to the title
op. 26) rather than simply an evocation of a scherzo ("a scherzo in name only, like many of
generic type of funeral music with which both Beethoven's"). As if to deflect attention from
he and Beethoven were in dialogue (though it is Beethoven even further, Schumann devotes a
that too). Conjoining these two Beethoven al- good deal of space to Bellini's influence in his
lusions into a cadence now gains a potent sym- discussion of the first movement, though here
bolic force. Chopin, having interrupted again Beethoven was the more obvious choice.
Beethoven and rewritten him, brings him back Schumann's oddly squeamish manner of treat-
at a moment of tonal closure, as if to signal ing these allusions, barely mentioning
that Beethoven's discourse has reached an end- Beethoven at all, and then only in contexts
point. Chopin thus enacts a kind of death scene, where Beethoven's influence seems least in evi-
the first allusion in the Grave imagining dence, suggests that Schumann might have
Beethoven as a living force to be contended heard something very troubling here that he
with, the second, in the FuneralMarch,putting could not bring himself to utter; at the very
him to rest. least he was not preparedto discuss it openly.
It is possible, of course, that Schumann missed
these allusions, but other phrases in his review
29Thisallusion to Beethoven's op. 111 has not gone unno-
ticed. At least one person has mentioned it in print; see
James Huneker's preface to the Schirmer edn. of Chopin 30HereI will drawfreely from the Schumannreview, "Neue
Sonatas, ed. Carl Mikuli (New York, 1895). Sonaten,"without citing passages individually.

289
 19TH
CENTURY
suggest that he had indeed heard them. The sions that they all border on quotation; more-
MUSIC one passage from the Chopin work that he over, they appear at analogous points in each
quotes in musical score is the opening of the piece, with very similar effects. The meanings
first movement, with its pointed reference to of these references may not be the same for
Beethoven; later he finds in this movement a each of these works, but taken as a group, this
"defiant originality." And his description of series of allusions makes Chopin's familiarity
the Funeral March as "repulsive" would cer- with op. 111 a virtual certainty. These claims
tainly be consistent with his perceiving death do need to be weighed, of course, against Lenz's
here, not as an abstract principle easily treated view that Chopin was unaware of Beethoven's
with relative dispassion, but rather in relation last works;32but in the case of Beethoven and
specifically to Beethoven, where a death scene Chopin, internal evidence must play a central
might well arouse feelings of disgust. But what- role because the record of "hard"documentary
ever Schumann may have thought, we need evidence is so obviously incomplete. These
not adopt his view that the Funeral March is three allusions to op. 111 and the preoccupa-
"repulsive."We could readthe death scene more tion with Beethoven's last sonata that they ex-
symbolically, as a ritual that Chopin enacts to hibit cannot easily be discounted.
make the ultimate separation between himself
and Beethoven. This scene, though it might IV
seem violent or disgusting, allowed Chopin to The transmovemental progression from the
affirm his own identity against Beethoven's. Grave to the FuneralMarch may be suggestive,
This connection to Beethoven's op. 111, vi- but it needs further musical support. Here two
tal though it is, must remain partly conjec- related questions must be addressed. First, if
tural; no documentary evidence of which I am the opening chord of the Funeral March com-
aware proves that Chopin knew Beethoven's pletes the interrupted cadence from the first
last piano sonata. But this conjecture is sup- movement, how does Chopin manage to defer
ported by strong circumstantial evidence. closure throughout all the intervening music?
Chopin's main publisher in Paris, Maurice And second, if the opening chord of the Funeral
Schlesinger, also published original French edi- March does signal a cadence, how does Chopin
tions of Beethoven's last two piano sonatas: op. design the rest of the Funeral March to sustain
110 (1822) and op. 111 (1823). Chopin could the idea that the music has, in some sense,
have had ready access to op. 111 through his alreadyreached an endpoint? The artistic prob-
dealings with Schlesinger. Strong internal evi- lem for Chopin, I think, was to forge this long-
dence in Chopin's music also supports this range connection while still respecting the in-
claim. As Korsyn has shown, two other of tegrity of each movement-that is, without re-
Chopin's most serious and ambitious works sorting to facile recalls of earlier music.
also allude to op. 111. The coda to the "Revolu- To see how Chopin defers completing the
tionary" ttude, op. 10, no. 12, presents a refer- interrupted cadence from the Grave to the be-
ence to the coda of the first movement of op. ginning of the Funeral March, a descriptive ac-
111; and Chopin's Polonaise-Fantaisie, op. 61, count of the formal and tonal plans of the first
positions in its central section a long triple trill movement and scherzo will suffice. In the first
on the dominant of the flat mediant, just as movement, Chopin designs the first group as a
Beethoven had done in the central episode of large antecedent, to which the consequent be-
the Arietta in op. 111.31So close are these allu- comes the modulating transition, assuring that
there will be no tonic cadence in the exposi-
tion. He then leads the development section to
a recapitulation of only the second group, now
31Korsyn,"Compositional Techniques in the Late Works
of Beethoven," lectures in Yale College, February 1980. in the tonic major. The second group will pro-
Korsyn's lectures on op. 111 ranged widely, from histori-
cal precedents in Bach, Mozart, and earlier Beethoven, to
the sonata itself, to its influences on Beethoven's own
"Diabelli" Variations and on Chopin. This material, much 32Lenz, Die Grossen Pianoforte-Virtuosen, p. 40; cited in
of it highly original, remains unpublished. Eigeldinger,Chopin, p. 138.

290
vide a perfect authentic cadence in the tonic, of resembles the procedureBeethoven had used in WAYNEC.
PETTY
course, but that cadence should not be under- the scherzos to the Seventh and Ninth Sym-
Chopin and
stood as revisiting the one interrupted in the phonies, where a reference to the trio appears Beethoven
Grave, for it will lie in the tonic major, not just before the end of the movement. Chopin
minor. When the cadence closing the second inverts Beethoven's procedure, however, by re-
group does arrive, in mm. 208-09, Chopin also fusing to close the movement in the original
sets it in a higher register than that of the key (Ebminor); here the reference to the trio
initial interrupted cadence (although the bass simply ends the movement in the "wrong"key
line, arpeggio, and suspension in m. 208 still (Gbmajor).That dreamy ending also lends the
remind us of the Grave),with a stretto suggest- movement an open quality, which helps to con-
ing an inability of this cadence to provide satis- nect it with the FuneralMarch.34
factory closure. The closing group in the reca- Chopin may have succeeded in postponing
pitulation will then try to inflect the music closure to the beginning of the Funeral March,
back to the minor mode, as if to revisit the but his task now is to sustain that idea through-
interrupted cadence, but to no avail; as the out the march itself.35We need to examine this
final cadence draws near, the music stalls for a aspect of the Funeral March in some depth,
moment, at m. 229, then surges upward, again because if Chopin is to continue the sense that
in stretto, to its final cadence, which brings the first chord of the march is both a beginning
hardly any repose. Plagal progressions at the and an ending, he must reflect and confirm
end deny the movement its last opportunity for that sense of closure in the character of the
strong tonic-dominant progressions,leaving the movement.
movement open. The clearest means that Chopin uses to con-
Chopin then designs the second movement, vey a sense that "the end has arrived"is through
the scherzo, so that it will also avoid full clo- the genre of the funeral march itself. Images of
sure. Its two-key plan (starting in Eb minor, death and mourning pervade the march from
ending on Gb major) largely avoids the strong the start, the opening chord, pitched low and
directional tendencies toward the second key missing its third, conveying emptiness and loss.
that characterize Chopin's independent two- A somber ostinato then starts up an oscillation
key works. Although events early in the scherzo of minor thirds in the bass, while the tenor line
do give the movement enough of a tendency alternatesthe dominant with its half step above,
toward Gb major/minor that this ending does all in a grim, plodding rhythm. These features,
not sound arbitrary, these do not prepare the rife with symbolism of death, project a gloomy
eventual close in a manner quite like that of atmosphere that settles thick over the march
Chopin's other two-key pieces. There is no "syn-
thesis" here, no feeling of a carefully prepared
motion toward the second key. Instead, as the two-key works, however, as befits its role in a largerwork;
scherzo is about to close in Ebminor (after m. here it may be significant that Chopin refers to the scherzo
as being in Ebminor (letter, 8 August 1839; see n. 13
253), it makes a last-minute escape to Gbminor above).
(mm. 260-65), which is then soon inflected to 34More could be said about the scherzo, including further
transmovemental thematic relationships and Beethoven
major.33The ensuing recall of the trio then allusions that circulate in it. For instance, Chopin embeds
into the scherzo a few telling references to the overall
tonality, Bbminor, at strategic moments in the scherzo's
33Chopinthus avoids the kind of "unity in the powerful design, even providinga cadence in that key in its opening
synthesis" that William Kinderman finds in the second section (m. 59, revisited at m. 247), and the opening of the
Ballade, op. 38; see his "Directional Tonality in Chopin" scherzo's trio section, mm. 85-106, composes out the Bk-
in Chopin Studies, ed. Jim Samson (Cambridge,1988), p. Db-Bbidea from the other movements. Allusions to the
75. Samson (The Music of Chopin, p. 131) does hear a first movement of Beethoven's "Lebewohl" Sonata, op.
synthesis at the end of the scherzo, because the piece had 81a, mm. 17-25, can be heard circulating, with consider-
earlier preparedthe closing key of Gbminor/major.Harald able symbolic force, in mm. 37-64 of the scherzo. Since
Krebsuses similar observations to read the scherzo in Gb these passages are consistent with the rest of my argu-
with a nontonic beginning; see his Third Relation and ment, I will not explore them here.
Dominant in Late 18th- and Early 19th-Century Music 35I will use the term "march" to refer to the outer sec-
(Ph.D. diss., Yale University, 1980), I, 144-46 and II, 65- tions, trio to refer to the inner section in Db major. Trio is
66. I find the scherzo quite different from Chopin's other my term, not Chopin's.

291
 19TH and never lifts. When the tune finally enters in perfect cadences. Each time a cadence comes
CENTURY
MUSIC the third measure, it begins a series of waves formally due (mm. 10, 22, and parallel pas-
that seem only to add layer on layer of grief, sages), Chopin has already brought back the
like a welling up of tears. Yet for all its grim- basic idea from mm. 3-4. That substitution of
ness there is also something oddly soothing the basic idea for a standard cadence has two
about this march. Its use of pure minor lends it important effects. It confirms that the piece
the archaic, ecclesiastical sound that evokes has already secured tonal closure at the begin-
the solemnity of an ancient ritual. Liszt, for ning, as though a formal closing gesture is no
instance, maintained that "this chant, so fune- longer necessary; and the return of the basic
real and doleful, is possessed of such sweetness idea at the section endings confirms that the
that it seems to be not of this world."'36 march's opening gesture was in fact an ending,
Other compositional techniques besides the since that is just what it becomes. This compo-
use of genre allow Chopin to sustain the idea sitional design helps the march to continue,
that an endpoint has been reached. Earlier, in with grim determination, the closure with
ex. 2, we observed that the march begins in a which it began.
tonal position that signals the tonic triad at Thematic content enhances this effect.
rest. I also suggested that the basic idea in mm. Chopin presents a few crucial motives at the
3-4 composes out the space between tonic and beginning, then adheresto them over the course
mediant (1 and 3), always emphasizingthe tonic, of the march. Example 5 names these motives
at once indicating that the first movement's in the two-measure introduction and presenta-
failed cadence has finally been realized and sus- tion phrase. Thus the monotone repeated-note
taining the feeling that "the end has arrived." idea is the march motive; the motion from Bb
Chopin will now prolong this impression of to Dbthen passing back to Bbin the basic idea is
closure in a number of ways throughout the motive a; and the same thing a third higher is
march. Clearly the ostinato plays an important motive b. To these we should add the half-step
role-the first part of the march clings to the neighboring motion to the dominant, F-GL-F,
tonic harmony-but so do the march's formal motive c. Motive a, the basic idea, grows out of
and cadence plans. Chopin designs the march the introduction in a couple of ways. The tone
(the "A" section of the overall A B A) as a small repetition that begins and ends motive a devel-
binary form, each part of which is melodically ops from the march motive; and the motion
and harmonically closed. Reinforced by sheer between tonic and mediant in motive a grows
repetition, these closed sections will support from the bass ostinato pattern, which repeats
the march'sinitial projectionof an ending.From (and doubles) these same two notes, Bband Db.
the standpoint of formal function, the first part The basic idea and the ostinato thus grow from
most closely resembles a sentence, with pre- the same kind of impulse-the ostinato bleak
sentation phrase in mm. 3-6 and continuation and barren, the basic idea no less bleak but
phrase in mm. 7-10, the latter repeated an oc- thematically more developed.
tave higher in mm. 11-14; the second part (mm. Chopin's manner of composing out the tonic
15-22, repeated in mm. 23-30) forms a large triad using these motivic ideas lends the march
continuation of the first, with mm. 15-18 and that special quality, describedby CarlSchachter,
19-22 organizedby the formal functions of con- in which the tonic triadbecomes "analogous to
tinuation and cadential,respectively.37Chopin's a place or milieu within which actions-me-
way of handling the passages of cadential func- lodic, contrapuntal, and harmonic-occur."38
tion is most unusual, however: there are no For the rest of the march, we can hear Chopin
continuing his initial ideas by weaving them
36FranzLiszt, Frederic Chopin, trans. EdwardN. Waters
ever more deeply into the tonal fabric of the
(London, 1963), p. 38. composition. This point can be illustrated effi-
37Terms relating to musical form are based on Caplin,
Classical Form; see esp. chap. 7 on the small binary, pp.
87-93. One need not subscribe to Caplin's approach to
follow my discussion of the formal sections and the un- 38CarlSchachter, "The Triad as Place and Action," Music
conventional cadence plan of the march. TheorySpectrum 17 (1995), 149.

292
 Introduction Presentation: basic idea repetition of basic idea
motive a motive b WAYNEC.
D C F E D PETTY
march motive
Chopin and
Beethoven
c
motive
motive
(passing tone)
F cF
(passingtone)

r
rG Fr
r r ritr r
(rsr
B6 D6 B6
bass ostinato (prepares motive a)

Example 5: FuneralMarch, motives.

a. motivic enlargements
a enlarged

a enlarged a enlarged
(March) end end
a b a ofb ofa a

--
'•"•
---s-
b enlarged sum. b enlarged sum.

b. m. 1 3 5 7 9 11 13 14 15 17 19 21
23 25 27 29
(Pt)
1 2 3 2 1
ft
--- ---- - - fourth
(coupling)--
S>--- fifth

+f fifth-arp.
7 3 65 3 65 65 865

B6 minor: I III V ----I

form: a b

presentation continuation continuation continuation cadential

.

Example 6: March, analysis.

ciently by using some Schenkerian voice-lead- the impression that mm. 3-10 make a series of
ing analyses. Example 6a shows that when the swells on a tonic pitch that, on a deeper level,
theme returns to its beginning point in mm. 9- remains fixed, an impression reinforced by the
10, Chopin's continuation phrase completes an unchanging tonic harmony underneath. Mean-
enlargement of motive a begun in the presenta- while, the peak notes in mm. 7-13 only add
tion phrase, within which the continuation en- new layers of tonic, reinforced through
larges motive b.39These enlargements create arpeggiationsand octave couplings, themselves
emphasized by Chopin's dynamics (ex. 6b, mm.
7 and 11). Although they create melodic activ-
39Theenlargement of motive a lacks the descending pass- ity and expand the register upward, these oc-
ing tone cl found in the basic idea, so it reproducesonly tave couplings sustain the effect of a tonic pitch
the stable tones of motive a: i, , and 1. These notes have
been sustained, partly in inner voices, throughout the that remains fixed.
theme. The second part of the march proper, mm.

293
 19TH 15-22, seems to promise relief from the gloomy the air of the salon at the graveside, Samson's
CENTURY
MUSIC atmosphere of the first part when the harmony reading of generic reference is not altogether
finally changes to IIIat m. 15; but the continu- inapt, for it records the intimate and personal
ation of the march rhythm tells us immedi- voice that now comes onto the scene. Samson's
ately that this new section will continue work- reading also captures something of the way in
ing with thematic ideas like those presented which the masculine, military overtones of the
earlier. As ex. 6a shows, the top voice enlarges march now yield to the feminine, perhaps even
both motives a and b in mm. 14-21. The top to a specific feminizing of the overtly mascu-
voice begins motive a by rising bbl-db2in mm. line trio in Beethoven's Funeral March from
14-15 leading into the second part of the march; op. 26, with its heroic fanfares and drum rolls.
the falling third from dbl back to bbcompletes But fixing the reference to any specific source,
motive a in m. 20. This allows the march as a generic or otherwise, is not the crucial activity,
whole to enlarge motive a, because Bbhad al- for it will not be productive of the kinds of
ready been prolonged in the top voice through- meanings that are at issue here. The key points
out the first part of the march. Within this are that Beethoven's presence was implicated
enlargement of a, mm. 15-19 enlarge motive b, in all that had preceded this trio, and that the
except that now the falling third from F to Db trio itself stations a distinctly Chopinesque
shatters into the falling step f2-eb2 in m. 16, voice antithetically to what came before. This
answered sequentially by the step db2-c2from allows us to hear in the quality of otherness
motive a. The closing progression in mm. 19- peculiar to this trio something of the distance
20 picks up the pieces of these shattered mo- that Chopin seems generallyto have maintained
tives, forming the falling thirds from a and b toward Beethoven.41
anew, even as it buries them in inner voices Yet if all we hear is that distance, we miss a
and nearly engulfs them by drum rolls in the great deal. Chopin actually negotiates a deli-
left hand. Meanwhile the bass also works with cate balance between distance and integration,
thirds related to motives a and b, accommodat- allowing the trio to maintain a paradoxicalre-
ing them to its special role as harmonic sup- lation to the march.Throughits nocturnal char-
port. Here we find an arpeggiation from I acter, this trio still partakes of the dark atmo-
through III to V then back through III to I. sphere that surrounds it, as though this par-
Foregroundarpeggios in mm. 17-18 and 20-21 ticular nocturne still sees the world through a
summarize these progressions, suggesting that veil of tears. Its melody is unusually spare for a
these harmonic ideas, conventional though they nocturne, making it seem as much like a song
are, have been invested with thematic signifi- or prayer;and somehow its luminous key of Db
cance. The effect is a hypnotic saturation of the major casts but a faint glow over the darkness
march with motives drawn from its opening. that surroundsit. Even the programmaticqual-
This specific way of composing out the tonic ity of the piece-the march approachinga burial
triad sustains our initial impression that the scene, the trio giving words of commentary
piece begins "at the end," for it all develops and remembrance, then the march departing
from the initial march motive. the burial scene-suggests a tendency toward
integration, as though the trio cannot forget
V
These features of the march allow the trio to
enter as if from a distance. As Samson observes,
the trio seems sealed off from the march, "jux-
taposed rather than smoothly joined,"40 as if 41Schumann also seems to have heard Chopin's authentic
voice in the trio. In his criticism of the Sonata, he wrote
Chopin had inserted a nocturne within a fu- that, in place of the FuneralMarch, "an adagio,perhapsin
neral march. Odd as it might seem to breathe D6,would have made a far more beautiful effect" (an seiner
Stelle ein Adagio, etwa in Des, wiirde ungleich sch6ner
gewirkt haben ["Neue Sonaten," p. 142]). Since the trio
essentially provides just that, an Adagio in D6, Schumann
seems to record an impression that the trio represents
40Seen. 20 above. Chopin's own voice stationed within the march.

294
 a. Bassline b. from: WAYNEC.
PETTY
March Trio March Jj Chopinand
- 01 - a7 I Beethoven
11b

Bb Db Bb Bb Db Bb
bass ostinato

Example 7: FuneralMarch, key areas.

reference to March, motive a

43

- 5)
•
it115

effect of
Bbminor: I II V
Dbmajor: III3 V3

Example 8: Trio, mm. 43-46.

what has come before.42This very quality of march and the trio needs to be explored further
the trio is what Lenz heard in Chopin's own if we are to understand how Chopin positions
performance of the Funeral March: himself in relation to Beethoven.
Perhaps the best evidence for integration of
Nothing is easier than to reduce this trio to the trit- the trio and the march lies in the key of Db
est platitude, nothing more difficult than to raise its major in which Chopin writes the trio, and in
melodic spell to the level of sorrow that hangs over the relation of this key to that of the outer
the whole poem which this "FuneralMarch"is. And sections. We have already seen the key of Db
this is what it is about: never in Chopin's interpreta-
tion did his subdued expression in the trio section major try to emerge within the march, only to
be absorbed by the tonic key, B6 minor. Now
strike me as contradicting the character of the
that earlier implication comes to fruition as D6
march-despite the many critics' remarksto that ef-
fect. This trio is a touchstone for recognizingwhether major becomes the tonal center of an entire
the performeris a poet or merely a pianist; whether section, the trio. Even more tellingly, the ton-
he can tell a story or merely play the piano.43 ics of the three sections-Bb, Db, and BK-bear
the most intimate relation to one of the princi-
For Lenz, then, the trio, however much it might pal motives of the march. These tonics enlarge
seem closed off from its surroundings, partici- the motive from the bass ostinato, so that a
pates crucially in the overall mood. Its consol- single process of motivic enlargement spans
ing, intimate voice never forgets-rather, it ac- the bass line of the entire work (ex. 7). Chopin
knowledges-the grief-stricken world of the could therefore bind the three closed sections
march. This paradoxical relation between the into a larger whole that, in its entirety, par-
takes of the spirit of the march. And just as the
march had prepared the key area of the trio, so
420ne performance tradition, recorded by Rachmaninov, the trio refers back to the key area of the march.
literalizes just such a program by playing the first state-
ment of the march with a steady crescendo, the restate- The trio's middle section ends with a progres-
ment with a decrescendo, to suggest the approach and sion drawn squarely, if only locally, from Bb
departureof a funeral cortege. minor, the key of the march (mm. 43-46, shown
43Lenz, "Ubersichtliche Beurtheilung der Pianoforte-
Kompositionen von Chopin" (Berlin, 1872), p. 289; cited
in ex. 8). Probably to strengthen this connec-
in Eigeldinger,Chopin, p. 86. tion, Chopin wrote a passage in mm. 44-45

295
 19TH that recalls the march's dotted rhythm and its a. Basicideaof the trio.
CENTURY
MUSIC sighing appoggiaturaon B6(frommotive a).Here falling third: F E6 D6
again one senses that the trio belongs to the 31 (4 4)
world established by the march. Chopin's dy- A-I -I1,
. . . • I
namic indications, including the long crescendo, __ Nn
may be taken as an invitation to make the pp

most of this relationship.

The trio's basic idea, originally heard in D6
major (m. 31), heads this BI-minor passage (m. s s)
43). This appearanceof the trio's basic idea in
the key of the march implies that there may be
other subtle relationships between these two b. Motive b, from the march.
sections that a close analysis might reveal. Con- 5 falling third: F E6 D6
sider the basic idea at the beginning of the trio
(ex. 9a). It begins by decoratingF in the melody, motive c
with an upper neighbor GC.The melody then
'Nn
falls in eighth notes down to the leading tone
C, a falling line in which the initial Db-major
q; 6.
J
T
harmony supports two tones of the new tonic
,
_

triad, F and Db, spanned by a passing Ek.Some

of these elements seem to recall motives from Example 9: FuneralMarch,
the march (ex. 9b). The upper-neighbormotion mm. 31-32 and 5-6.
F-G1-F had appearedrepeatedly in the ostinato
pattern of the march (motive c), and the mo-
tion through a third from F to D6 had appeared idea in mm. 33-34 introduces the upper neigh-
in the presentation phrase (within motive b). bor gb2(enlargingmotive c), then the continua-
And yet it would be premature to claim an- tion phrase reestablishes f2 and brings it down
other thematic discovery here. Such a relation- through eb2to db2at the cadence in m. 38, en-
ship might be accidental, especially when com- largingthe falling third progressionof motive b.
mon patterns-upper neighborsand simple pass- The similarity of this enlargement to those in
ing motions-are concerned. Nevertheless, the the march helps to confirm the thematic rela-
relationships claimed in ex. 9 do seem plau- tionships proposedearlierin ex. 9. Whatis more,
sible, in part because the march and trio dis- just as the march had twice enlarged its basic
play so many other interrelationships, and in idea (motive a)-once in its opening section,
part because these motivic ideas have become then againover the course of the entire march-
so ingrainedfrom their repetitions in the march. the trio does the same thing with its basic idea.
Beyond this, I find something special about After enlarging the opening measure once in
Chopin's 4-4 fingering in m. 31, suggesting as the first part, the trio as a whole expands it
it does a special lingering on the upper neigh- again. The upper voice of the middle section
bor Gb. Still, questions remain: does Chopin rises through a third to gb2, reached in m. 46,
work out these motives in similar ways? And against a bass that falls stepwise through a fifth
especially, does he compose them into the voice from V to I, the first step of this falling bass
leading and harmonic fabricof the trio as deeply progressioncomposed out as a rising seventh.44
as he had done in the march? The resolution of gb2to f2 in the top voice at m.
A voice-leading reduction of the trio (ex. 10)
reveals that Chopin does indeed treat the first
44Thisfalling fifth marks another relationshipbetween the
measure of the trio's basic idea to an enlarge- trio and the march, which also composed out the falling
ment, similar to those noted earlier in the march. fifth from V to I, at mm. 18-21, a falling fifth that shares
two chords with the one in the trio (the F-majortriad and
Starting on f2, an enlargement of the trio's first the Db-majortriad). March and trio thus share an inter-
measure spans the entire first part of this sec- mingling of these two key areas, D6 major and Bbminor,
tion, mm. 31-38. The repetition of the basic but with opposite tonal priorities.

296
 a. motivic enlargements WAYNEC.
enlargement PETTY
enlargement Chopin and
Beethoven
-b Nn
(Trio) Nn

Nn from c
:b. m. 31 33 35 37 39 41 43 44 45 46 47 49 51 53

third-progression down third-progression up third down

(Nn)
(Nn) (Nn)

basic idea (Nn) - -: pp

cresc.
fifth-progression
--
-b -------•

seventh)
4 7 7 6 77 ?6 6 6 6 5 6 36

3-3 -
D major: (I II V I) (effect of Bbm: I II V) (DV: I II V I)
(5- -7)
D major: I V I
form: a1 b a2

presentation continuation presentation continuation pres. cont.

Example 10: Trio, analysis.

March Trio March

m. 1 5 9 14 15 18 21 31 35 38 39 46-- 47 51 54 55 68 69 72 75
3 23 26 29 57 77 80 83

a3
(a(b)-

b(end)

PP f

fifth

5 -- 7
I II V I (=I V I)
I II I
form:fifth
form: a b a1 b a2 a b

Example 11: Funeral March, analysis.

47 completes an enlargement of the first three trio could thus become a kind of commentary
notes of the trio's basic idea, f2-g6b2-f2; then the on the march-distant, to be sure, yet still part
restatement of the first section completes the of the same world.
enlargement of the trio's first measure. These This analysis of the trio allows us to situate
enlargements help to confirm the relationship it in the entire movement (ex. 11). The enlarge-
between the middle and outer sections. The ments in the trio join with those in the march

297
 19TH to enlarge all of motive b, framed by enlarge- their separateidentities. The deceased becomes
CENTURY ments of motive a in the outer sections, enact-
MUSIC something like an object, a mere relic in an
ing at the background level the progression of ancient ritual; the survivor remains a living
the march's first part (mm. 3-10). The initial subject. The funeral rite itself also has a power-
motives that Chopin used at the outset to es- ful symbolizing function. As Slavoj Zifek ar-
tablish the quality of a funeral march thus pen- gues, in the funeral rite the subject reenacts the
etrate ever more deeply into the composition, process of death in symbolic form, repeating
through a series of successive enlargements. this natural, inevitable process as the subject's
Motivic development and voice leading merge own free act of symbolization; the subject "pre-
to such a degree that there is barely any dis- tends that this process resulted from his own
tinction between the two. That initial march free decision."45When Chopin symbolically re-
motive, suggesting a beginning after "the end peats Beethoven, then, he can similarly pre-
has arrived,"gives rise to those grievingswells-- tend that the music of Beethoven became his
first small, then longer and deeper, finally sub- own free act, not that of another person, allow-
suming even the trio. ing himself to guard against Beethoven's influ-
ence. Yet this separation is only half the pic-
VI ture. The deceased person never quite becomes
This paradoxicalrelation between the march a mere thing; the deceased retains a human
and trio-the two seem to dwell in separate form, and traces of its subjectivity remain in
worlds yet share the same world-can help us memory. Rituals of grief and mourning do still
better understand Chopin's relationship to commemorate-they forge a link to the past-
Beethoven. On the one hand, Chopin can in- and by eliciting compassion they draw the sur-
voke Beethoven through a conscious reference vivors more deeply into human experience,
at the beginning of the sonata, then interrupt hence more into the sources of artistic cre-
him in order to invent a new future for him, a ation. And by arousing the awareness of one's
future that Chopin ultimately stages as a death own mortality, these rituals also lend a greater
ritual when he invokes Beethovenagainthrough urgency to the creative process, for they re-
the FuneralMarch. Chopin can also set himself mind us that our time is limited. Thus the
apartfrom Beethoven by situating his own voice death ritual could both separate Chopin from
antithetically to Beethoven's in the trio, signal- Beethoven and at the same time draw him to-
ing his refusalto create on someone else's terms. ward the past, one including Beethoven.
On the other hand, Chopin refuses to dance on Such a reading might help us come to terms
Beethoven's grave. The trio, for all its seeming with Chopin's enigmatic finale. In the first three
aloofness, does still remember the march and movements, Chopin has said that he is pre-
draw sustenance from it. This bondingbetween pared to live in this world and accept at least
the sections might be read in many different some of its terms, yet he insists on maintain-
ways, to be sure, but I find it a deeply humaniz- ing a separate identity. The finale then adopts
ing gesture from Chopin. By integrating the an ironic perspective on these human values.
march and trio Chopin recognizes that he shares Its disembodied,ghostly charactersuggests that
this world with Beethoven;he can still acknowl- something unknowable lies beyond this life. If
edge their common humanity, and, in a sense, Chopin's first three movements spoke of hu-
their common aims as artists. Chopin cannot manity and its struggles with individuality and
become Beethoven and still retain his identity; collectiveness, the finale stations these worldly
he must draw the line. But Chopin can still struggles as minor events in some other story,
acknowledge their bonds even as he draws the the meaning of which we cannot ultimately
ultimate boundary between them. know. Its brevity does not even allow us to
A death ritual like the one Chopin symboli- contemplate it.
cally enacts in this sonata makes a fitting alle-
gory for the ambivalent relations between art-
ists and their precursors. Death marks the ulti- 45SlavojZiiek, The Sublime Object of Ideology (London,
mate separation between two people; it affirms 1989), p. 219.

298
a. Openingchordfromthe Grave(cf.ex. 1). WAYNEC.
PETTY
FINALE
Presto Chopin and
Beethoven

sotto voce e legato

b. Motivesfromthe FuneralMarch(cf.ex. 5).

b a b a
69

Example 12: Finale, beginning and ending.

In one sense the finale recapitulates the pre- these ghostly remains, we are left only with
ceding movements by making fleeting refer- the unknowable future, whatever might remain
ences to them. It begins on the same harmony beyond our physical and mental lives. Chopin
that began the sonata, a leading-tone dimin- thus rejects two ways of following on images of
ished-seventh chord to the dominant (ex. 12a), death in music: the solution adopted by
now strippedof its drive toward closure.46Later, Beethoven in the Eroica Symphony, in which
near the end of the movement (mm. 69-70), the FuneralMarchunleashes a burst of positive
allusions to motives from the Funeral March creative energy;and the solution in which death
appear(ex. 12b).These referencesto other move- leads to resurrectionor transfiguration.Chopin
ments appear at or near the finale's temporal does neither of these. Instead, his solution-a
boundaries, so that the final movement can profoundlyoriginal one-is to give a final ironic
vaguely recapitulate the preceding music. Yet perspective to the sonata as a whole, what
these ideas also evaporate in the finale; all that Schumann so aptly termed "a sphinx with a
is left of them is the barest trace. When all the mocking smile."47In the end, both Chopin and
preceding human struggles disintegrate into Beethoven become "others" in relation '
to the unknowable.
I--3
46The similarity between the opening chords of the first
movement and finale is also mentioned by Walker("Chopin
and Musical Structure,"p. 248) and Rosen (RomanticGen- 47"Einer Sphinx gleich mit sp6ttischem Licheln"
eration, p. 294). (Schumann"Neue Sonaten,"p. 207).

299