Chopin, Mazurka in B Minor, Op. 33, No. 4

The mazurka is a Polish folk dance derived from two older dance forms, the Kujawiak and Oberek. In the Kujawiak, dancers walked to a slow tempo making graceful turns. In contrast, the Oberek is much faster, it’s name meaning “to spin.” This Chopin Mazurka clearly owes more to the Kujawiak.

But Chopin’s Mazurkas were not intended for dancing. Rather, they fall into the category of “character piece” along with his nocturnes, ballades, and preludes. These were are suited for intimate gatherings in the Paris salons. As with his waltzes, no one was expected to dance. Chopin used the dance form as a starting point, but built more complex musical structures than one would expect of dance music.

The mazurka also made a nationalist statement in a time of political turmoil in Poland. The 20-year-old Chopin left Poland in 1830, just days ahead of the November Uprising. The Russians crushed the rebellion, and Chopin would never return. It was the defining event of his life. The polish music historian Zdzisław Jachimeck said these events turned Chopin “into an inspired national bard who intuited the past, present and future of his native Poland.”

But in addition to being a dance and a tribute to Chopin’s homeland, the mazurkas are small masterpieces. Hector Berlioz wrote: “Chopin has written two wonderful mazurkas which are worth more than 40 novels, and are more eloquent than the entire century’s literature.”

Occasionally I like to outline the form of the piece featured, so here is a basic chart of sections and keys, with timings of this performance indicated. You may find it helpful. I also feel compelled to put an asterisk by the keys in the B section because they don’t conform to our usual idea of major keys. They consistently “borrow” one scale degree (the 6th) from the minor tonality, and that makes them mostly major but kind of minor, and I suspect you will hear that blend of tonalities. (The video and timings have been updated.)