Scherzo no.1 h-moll Op.20 - Chopin, Frederic - PTNA Piano Music Encyclopedia

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Chopin, Frederic : Scherzo no.1 h-moll Op.20

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Work Overview

Music ID : 466

Publication Year：1835
First Publisher：Breitkopf und Härtel
Dedicated to：T. Albrecht
Instrumentation：Piano Solo　
Genre：scherzo
Total Playing Time：10 min 00 sec
Copyright：Public Domain

scherzo

Piano Solo

piano solo

h moll

Commentary (3)

Author : Oshima, Kazumi

Last Updated: March 3, 2022

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Note: This article is automatically translated from the original Japanese text. The author of the original work did not supervise this translation.

Frédéric Chopin (1810-1849) composed four standalone works titled Scherzo during his lifetime: Scherzo No. 1 in B minor, Op. 20; Scherzo No. 2 in B-flat minor, Op. 31; Scherzo No. 3 in C-sharp minor, Op. 39; and Scherzo No. 4 in E major, Op. 54.

Scherzo, derived from the Italian word meaning “joke” or “humor,” began to be used in music history from the 1780s onwards as a middle movement in multi-movement forms such as symphonies and chamber music.

The musical characteristics of the scherzo often follow those of the minuet, which was frequently inserted as a middle movement, including a 3/4 time signature and a lively tempo. They are often written in A-B-A ternary form or compound ternary form, with the middle section, or trio, featuring a melody that contrasts with the preceding and following musical ideas. Following this tradition, Chopin also incorporated scherzos into works such as his Piano Sonata No. 2, Op. 35; Piano Sonata No. 3, Op. 58; and Piano Trio, Op. 8.

In addition to these, Chopin attempted to complete the scherzo as a standalone work, opening new ground in the history of piano music. It can be said that the scherzo, conceived by Chopin as an independent piano work, became one of the musical genres perfected as an art form.

While the four scherzos are fundamentally structured around a fast tempo, a 3/4 time signature, and ternary form, their forms are more complex, with some approaching sonata form. Emotional and expressive qualities, along with the demand for high technical skill, are also among their primary characteristics.

Chopin did not explicitly state the specific meaning or philosophy behind these scherzos. However, a connection to the literary and artistic trends of the 19th century can be glimpsed in their titles and the clear “light and shadow” structure of the compositions.

At the end of the 18th century, dissatisfaction with the traditional absolutist regimes intensified in Europe, leading to an awakening of “freedom.” Innovative activities flourished in the realm of expression, and in literature, works began to be written that freely and explicitly expressed emotions such as love, ideals, disappointment, and disillusionment. Attempts to define humor and the scherzo also took place within this context.

Regarding the meaning of humor, literary figures across Europe expressed various views. For example, the German writer Jean Paul (1763-1825) states:

“For humor, there are no individual follies or individual fools, but only folly and a foolish world. (...) If man looks down upon this world from an unearthly world, this world appears petty and vainly bustling. If, as humor does, one measures the infinite world by the small scale of this world and connects it with the small world, laughter arises, and in this laughter there is also a certain pain and a certain greatness.”

The human being who laughs and cries between two opposing emotions or two dimensions is one of the main themes of the scherzo in the Romantic era. It is even a strong irony directed at humans who, despite the world of beauty revealed by God, cannot escape a reality steeped in desire.

These words will serve as a significant hint for understanding Chopin’s scherzos. The four scherzos demonstrate that Chopin understood the concept of the scherzo, as contemplated by literary figures, more deeply than anyone else.

Scherzo No. 1 in B minor, Op. 20

Scherzo No. 1 in B minor is believed to have been commenced in the early 1830s during Chopin’s stay in Vienna and completed between 1834 and 1835. At the time this work was composed, Chopin had left a turbulent Warsaw, where the momentum for independence was rising, and settled in Vienna, exploring his future as a musician. His compositional style, which seems to express a fluctuating state of mind caught between two opposing emotions such as anxiety, impatience, love, and nostalgia, suggests a connection to the scherzo in Romantic literature mentioned earlier.

Chopin’s concerns at the time were focused on two points: the musical and artistic trends in the musical capital of Vienna, and the political situation in Warsaw. Several works from his Etudes, Op. 10, were composed during the same period.

The piece is marked Presto con fuoco and is in 3/4 time. The intense, turbulent B minor theme presented at the outset is filled with tension, as if reflecting Chopin’s feelings at the time, contemplating Poland in a state of war. The two chords of the introduction abruptly emit a sound reminiscent of a “violent cry” (Leichtentritt), and the wild theme is then presented. Leichtentritt describes this theme as “impetuously surging upwards, reaching at times a state of true rage.” This wildly moving, fervent theme is repeated, interspersed with sections of differing character (measures 44-64).

In the middle section, marked Molto più lento, Chopin quotes the melody of the Polish Christmas carol (kolęda) “Lulajże Jezuniu” (Sleep, Little Jesus). The slow, sacred sound in B major creates a vivid contrast with the first theme. The regularly resounding low B and high F-sharp notes provide a calm stability that contrasts with the first theme section.

“Lulajże Jezuniu” is a famous Polish Christmas carol, frequently sung even today during the Advent season in December. Christmas, full of joy and celebrated with family, is thought to have been a special memory for Chopin.

It is also noteworthy that the quotation of the sacred song clarifies the scherzo’s humorous worldview, which contrasts heaven and earth. Humans struggling and agonizing between an original world full of faith and love and a lost reality—a theme often satirized as comical in Romantic literature—find a resonance in Chopin’s compositional style.

As the beautiful sacred song gradually fragments and recedes, the music transitions to the recapitulation. The dramatic first theme is intensely recalled, and in the coda, dramatic dissonances are repeated nine times at a powerful fff. The piece concludes with a stormy chromatic ascent in unison.

Chopin dedicated this work to his friend Tomasz Albrecht.

References

(Note: All quotations in the main text are based on these references.)

Oshima, Kazumichi (commentary). Chopin Scherzos: New Edition with Commentary. Tokyo: Ongaku no Tomo Sha, 2015.
Huneker, James. Chopin: The Man and His Music. New York: Dover Publications, 1966.
Leichtentritt, Hugo. Frédéric Chopin. Berlin: Harmonie, 1905.
Tomaszewski, Mieczysław. Chopin: Człowiek, Dzieło, Rezonans. Kraków: Polskie Wydawnictwo Muzyczne, 2005.
Willeby, Charles. Frederic François Chopin. London: Sampson Low, Marston & Company, 1892.
The 18th Chopin Piano Competition/Compositions. https://chopin2020.pl/en/compositions

Writer: Oshima, Kazumi

Author : Asayama, Natsuko

Last Updated: July 1, 2008

[Open]

Note: This article is automatically translated from the original Japanese text. The author of the original work did not supervise this translation.

There are several ways to observe the styles Chopin employed in his piano works, but one possible classification is into lyrical and narrative categories. Representative examples of the former are the Nocturnes and Mazurkas, while typical examples of the latter are the Ballades and Scherzos.

In lyrical compositions, each phrase and melodic figure is often presented in a list-like manner, with very loose connections between them. In contrast, narrative compositions allow one to perceive a clear dramatic progression, akin to a 'kishōtenketsu' (introduction, development, turn, conclusion) within a single piece. This distinct dramatic quality arises, firstly, because the harmonic progressions are clear, and particularly the dominant-tonic pattern (the progression from 'turn' to 'conclusion') is well-maintained. Furthermore, individual motives may develop through techniques such as variation, inversion, repetition, and expansion. Even without the elaborate workmanship found in Viennese Classical sonatas, multiple themes are intricately combined to construct the piece.

In other words, works with a narrative structure, such as the Ballades, Scherzos, Barcarolle, and Bolero, generate a dynamic and dramatic musical time that propels inevitably from beginning to end. These elements constitute key points for appreciation. (As an aside, in lyrical works, the listener's ear is allowed to wander within a musical space where the music subtly transforms yet remains, with no clear sense of return or progression.)

Now, where do the differences lie between the Ballades and Scherzos, of which four pieces each remain?

It is evident from the music itself that these genres are closely related within Chopin's oeuvre. Furthermore, it seems almost impossible to clearly distinguish between the two genres based on their form. This is partly because these are genres unique to Chopin; even examining the traditions of genres from which they might have originated reveals no clear connection between them. However, even if they cannot be distinguished by their external musical form, their musical content—their 'narrative' content, so to speak—differs somewhat.

The term 'Scherzo' means 'joke' in Italian, and traditionally referred to short, light, and bright pieces in a simple form. When Beethoven incorporated it into the third movement of his sonatas as a substitute for the minuet, it was also given an extremely fast and humorous character. Chopin's Scherzos, at first glance, seem to completely contradict this tradition, being dark, serious, and large in scale. However, when compared to the Ballades, it becomes clear how much humor the Scherzos actually contain. In all four Scherzos, more than one extremely fast and leggiero motive appears, interjecting at various points. Furthermore, intense dynamic contrasts are specified in each section.

Such techniques are largely absent in the Ballades. Each motive and each note is bound by its preceding and succeeding context, allowing no deviation. Somber themes appear one after another, accumulating to form a torrent, ultimately leading to a catastrophic conclusion. This stands in contrast to the Scherzos, which alleviate this kind of stress with lighthearted melodic figures and even comical contrasts.

It is worth noting that all four Ballades are written in compound duple meter, while the Scherzos are in triple meter, which could be considered their only external distinguishing feature. However, since most of the Scherzos form a phrase every two measures throughout, they still contain the strong driving force of duple meter.

All Scherzos adopt an A-B-A form, following the Scherzo as a substitute for the minuet movement used by Haydn and Beethoven. However, the appearance of two contrasting themes in the A section, and the nearly complete repetition of the first half in the latter half of the A section, indicate an inclination towards sonata form. Furthermore, a brilliant coda, including a stretto, further increases the scale and elevates the dignity of the piece.

Viewed in this light, Chopin's Scherzos can be considered as inheriting and elaborating upon the formal stature of the third movement of the piano sonata perfected by Beethoven. On the other hand, in his own Piano Sonatas No. 2 and No. 3, he departed from the Viennese Classical tradition by placing the Scherzo as the second movement. Particularly in No. 2, Op. 35, a large-scale Scherzo with multiple themes is employed. Chopin likely did not write the Scherzos as character pieces and name them as such. Rather, they served as a groundwork for his own sonatas.

Scherzo No. 1

Scherzo No. 1 is one of the works written very early in his Vienna period.

In 1829, Chopin spent a summer in Vienna with fellow students, performing his own works to great acclaim. After returning home, he began to dream of achieving true success in the imperial city of Vienna, rather than in Warsaw where his individualistic works received a somewhat lukewarm response. He commenced preparations for two Piano Concertos and other large-scale works. Due to the political situation in Germany, his departure was postponed several times, and he finally crossed the border in November 1830. However, a few weeks later, an armed uprising occurred in Warsaw. His close friend Titus, who had accompanied him, returned to join the fight, but Chopin, persuaded by his parents and Titus, continued on to Vienna to fulfill his mission as an artist.

However, the loneliness of spending Christmas alone in Vienna, a stronghold of Catholicism, combined with the political instability in his homeland, drove Chopin to a profound sense of nostalgia. The Polish Christmas carol 'Lulajże Jezuniu' (Sleep, Little Jesus), which appears in the middle section of this Scherzo, is a direct manifestation of this.

The octave-leap figure that carries the melody here is, in fact, foreshadowed in the high register of the right hand at the end of the second theme of the A section. Nevertheless, the connection between the A and B sections is not as clear as a 'development section' in sonata form. Rather, everything—key, tempo, atmosphere—is contrasting, and they mutually enhance each other.

Regarding this work, Schumann, an enthusiastic supporter of Chopin, expressed his perplexity regarding the title, stating, 'How is "Seriousness" to be clothed if "Jest" goes about in a black veil?'

Writer: Asayama, Natsuko