Absolute pitches in Chopin’s narrative style: with a focus on Ballade No. 4

Abstract

At the beginning of Chopin’s Ballade No. 4 and at two other points of the piece certain pitches are displayed as single tones or empty octaves in a characteristic manner. The dramaturgy of the piece can be understood in a new way, if we assume that these single tones are related to each other and have a meaning independent of harmonic context. Similar composing techniques can also be found in the other Ballades of Chopin and in his Sonata No. 2. All these pieces begin with single tones or empty octaves. It is argued in this paper that this composing technique is characteristic for Chopin’s style of telling a story without words. Other classical pieces also begin with a single unaccompanied tone, as examples by Beethoven, Mozart, and Brahms show. In these cases, however, the tone is in most cases an upbeat, and, if not, most probably the tonic of the piece. In the aforementioned works of Chopin, however, the beginning tones are neither upbeats nor the tonic of the piece. And they recur repeatedly throughout the piece at distinguished places in various harmonic contexts. In most of the examples examined, the beginning tone is supplemented by other tones that are displayed as single pitches at turning points of the piece. In Chopin’s Second Sonata, the distinguished function of the pitches D♭ and B♭ can be found in all four movements. In the Ballade No. 1, according to Karol Berger, an “obsessive focusing on a single pitch, C”, which is the beginning tone of the piece, can be observed. In the Ballade No. 2, the beginning C and the ending A of the first section are constitutive notes for all parts of the piece. In the Ballade No. 3, E♭, C, and A♭ are displayed as single tones at the turning points of the piece, and the sound of these tones characterizes the sound of the whole piece. In the Ballade No. 4, a structure of two descending fifths connected by an ascending half tone (G – C / D♭ – G♭) constitutes a dynamical field of tension between a lucid and a dark tonal environment. The slip from the lucid to the dark environment causes a dramatic conflict which is eventually resolved in the Coda. The tonal development of the Ballade No. 4 is demonstrated according to Leonhard Euler’s theory of tonal spaces. Although the specific method of beginning with a single note that goes on to characterize the story of an entire piece seems not to be used in many works other than the Ballades, investigating the function of certain pitches in the compositions of Chopin may be an interesting approach for future research.