Chopin - Mazurka in C sharp minor, Op.50 No.3

Mazurka in C sharp minor, Op.50 No.3 includes:
Vivace (G major)
Allegretto (A♭ major)
Moderato (C♯ minor)
The third Mazurka showcases Chopin's increased interest in counterpoint. After his interest was aroused by a 1937 counterpoint book by Cherubini, the mazurkas of the succesive opuses started displaying polyphonic writing,

Chopin contrasted the delicacy and subtlety of the opening theme, expressed in the form of a canon, with the full, tempestuous sound of the mazur counter-theme. Two further motifs arise over the course of this work.

First we hear the echo of a dizzying oberek -- the relentless repetition of a single phrase, though always in a slightly different way. That is followed by a sostenuto, sung broadly to a kujawiak tune. The alternating pulsation of these four rhythms and tones of narration appears to be endless, yet everything here, from the very beginning, has been moving towards a final culminatio towards a contrapuntal, chromaticised stretto, rather odd in a mazurka, and its dramatic watershed, inflected with tragedy. The music then quietens and subsides, but does not die away.

Frederic Francois Chopin (22 February or 1 March 1810 -- 17 October 1849) was a Polish composer, virtuoso pianist, and music teacher of French--Polish parentage. He was one of the great masters of Romantic music and has been called "the poet of the piano".

Chopin was born in Zelazowa Wola, a village in the Duchy of Warsaw. A renowned child-prodigy pianist and composer, he grew up in Warsaw and completed his musical education there. Following the Russian suppression of the Polish November 1830 Uprising, he settled in Paris as part of the Polish Great Emigration. He supported himself as a composer and piano teacher, giving few public performances.

From 1837 to 1847 he carried on a relationship with the French woman writer George Sand. For most of his life, Chopin suffered from poor health; he died in Paris in 1849 at the age of 39. The vast majority of Chopin's works are exclusively for solo piano, the most notable exceptions being his two piano concertos.

His compositions are technically demanding but emphasize nuance and expressive depth. Chopin invented the musical form known as the instrumental ballade and made major innovations to the piano sonata, mazurka, waltz, nocturne, polonaise, etude, impromptu, scherzo, and prelude.

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