Chapter 28

MAZURKA IN

F-SHARP MINOR, OP.

6, NO. 1.

As Franz Liszt says in his life of Chopin, “The Mazurka is not
only a dance, it is a national poem, and like all poems of con-
quered nations, is shaped so as to let the blazing flames of patri-
otic feeling shimmer out through the transparent veil of popular
melody.” The chief peculiarity of the Mazurka (which is always
in triple rhythm, with a latitude in speed from Presto to Mesto)
is the scheme of accentuation—the normal accent on the first
beat being systematically transferred to the second and third
beats. We also find in the Mazurka frequent indications for the
use of the so-called “tempo rubato,” a proper conception of which
is so essential in the performance of Chopin’s music. Tempo
rubato—so often abused!—literally meaning borrowed time, is
simply free rhythm emancipated from rigid, scholastic bonds.
As Huneker well says, “Chopin must be played in curves” with
emotional freedom; just as the heart, when excited, increases the
speed of its pulsations, and in moments of calm and depression
slows down. The jerky, really unrhythmical playing of certain
performers reminds us of a person suffering frompalpitationof
the heart. Liszt’s description of the rubato is most suggestive:
“A wind plays in the leaves, life unfolds and develops beneath
them, but the tree remains the same.” In Chopin, accordingly,