The renowned musicologist and biographer,James Huneker,found in the following lines from ULALUME by Edgar Allan Poe ,what he considered to be a fitting literary counterpoint to the Polonaise-Fantasie's disquieting and cultivated strains:
'Then my heart it grew ashen and sober,
as the leaves that were crisped and sere-
As the leaves that were withering and sere.'
Much has been said about the curious nature of the title -Polonaise-Fantasie.It is almost as if Chopin,free of his physical self - free of form - carved a form to corrode another.In a letter to his family dated December 12, 1845 he wrote:
"I should like now to finish my Violoncello Sonata, Barcarolle, and something else that I don't know how to name."
That "something else" was the Polonaise-Fantasie, which together with the Barcarolle Op.60 and the Two Nocturnes Op 62 ,was dispersed to his publishers Breitkopff and Hartel from Paris on November 19 of the following year.
Considered by some to be his last important work,G.C.Jonson so rightly states that "throughout we seem to see the shadow of his approaching end".Indeed, the cadenzas following the introduction bring to mind those immortal words by Shakespeare:
"...and flights of Angels sing thee to thy rest"
or perhaps more poignantly:
"Life:a shadow and a dream."
Of it,Liszt wrote:"Such pictures as these are of little value to art.They only serve to torture the soul like all descriptions of extreme moments, of agonies, of death rattles."Of course,Liszt was speaking here of musical pictures.
Jean Kleczynski:"Musical pictures develop themselves most readily on the basis of feeling, and of plan well-worked out,lending itself particularly to musical treatment."
It was Kleczynski who wrote "the last proof that the legend itself is not sufficient to enable the musical work to carry us away is to be found in the last Polonaise,called by the author Polonaise-Fantasie.We cannot deny that the structure of this work is good: many a detail testifies to the masterly hand that sculptured this monument.The past and the future ought perfectly to reflect each other in this composition."
But something eludes us.The needs of the moment are not yet met.The physical decline is not quite over - the surrender but half-whispered,fragile,thin.
Developmentally,the Polonaise-Fantasie is more akin to a sonata than a polonaise.The characteristic rhythm, such as the division of the first beat with an accentuation of the second half in the leading subject is veiled - cloaked in a pall of patriotic hues, both courtly and grave.
Four motives comprise the thematic material, two of which are introduced and developed following the opening.Two other motives follow.After further repetition and immoderation, a coda completes the work:
'Then I journeyed-I journeyed down here-
That I brought a dread burden down here-
On this night of all nights in the year
Ah what demon has tempted me here?'
Here we have Chopin's anguished soul laid bare - a dream washed in ill-defined realities.Alan Walker,who refers to this work as one of Chopin's most original compositions believed that if Chopin had lived longer, the Polonaise-Fantasie would mark the beginning of what would be considered a new middle period in Chopin's development as a composer.Possibly,had Chopin lived as long as Liszt.I personally believe his life was lived out as it was meant to be-no more,no less -and the influence his sovereignty and spirit was to exert on those composers who followed to shape and fashion the sounds and styles of our own century through their respective concerns,was the blossoming of what ultimately could be considered a natural progression.
Chopin had, to be sure,the genius to discard the stylized traits of his day, and whether it be dispirited or dazzling,effete or quixotic,he managed to unveil an underlying rationale and give flight to the romantic imaginings within.
PHILLIP WILCHER
April 2002
(Article published by Music Teacher Magazine)
