Od liryki do ekstazy: Chopinowskie repryzy-apoteozy i ich analogie w twórczości Liszta

Abstract

The subject of the present study is a specific type of thematic metamorphosis, in which the initially lyrical theme transforms into its ecstatic or heroic, sublime alter ego and which usually appears as the final culmination of the work. Three questions were asked regarding Chopin: how did the evolution of the technique of thematic metamorphoses develop and what was its formal-expressive and aesthetic context like?; which technical and composing techniques can be regarded as characteristic of the technique of thematic metamorphoses?; and how does the relationship between Chopin’s conception of “reprise-apotheosis” and Liszt’s final “syntheses-apotheoses” develop? The object of observation are works of the mature stage of Chopin’s creative activity, representing narrative-dramatic genres: Ballad in G minor op. 23 (1833), Ballad in A flat major op. 47 (1841), Ballad in F minor op. 52 (1842-1843), Barcarolle in F sharp major op. 60 (1845--1846) and Polonaise-fantasia in A flat major op. 61 (1846). The first example of thematic metamorphosis in Chopin can be found in the Ballad in G minor. The place of thematic metamorphoses compared with the formal level of the work shows their more transformative than recapitulative function. In the Ballad in A flat major the tendency to strengthen the dramatic effect of thematic metamorphoses leads to an ecstatic reprise – the final apotheosis, the “last word” of the whole sequence of musical occurrences: the initial lyrical phrase undergoes a metamorphosis and returns in an ecstatic form in a short reprise, which is the ultimate culmination of the composition. The Ballad in F minor restores the serious, dramatic tone of the Ballad in G minor, as well as the conception of the metamorphosis of the second, lyrical theme; at the same time Chopin does not give up the tendency – developed in the Ballad A flat major – to place the metamorphosis of the lyrical into the ecstatic in the fi nal, reprise stage of the composition. In the works composed in the final stage of transformation of Chopin’s style the strategy demonstrated in the Ballad in A flat major was combined with the tendencies governing thematic metamorphoses in the Ballads in G minor and F minor. And thus, in the Barcarolle in F sharp major and in the Polonaise-fantasia in A flat major the principle of transformation of the lyrical into the ecstatic was combined with the tendency to return in the reprise of themes, originally expressed in different keys, to the primary key of the work. This is how the ending was composed, which can be called “reprise-apotheosis”. Lyrical themes, which return as transformed into ecstatic apotheoses in the reprise parts, show many features in common: they have triple meter, most of them being in trochaic rhythms; they are in major keys and are built in a similar way (they contain a motif consisting of an ascending pure fourth, after which follows a descending second). It is significant that all cases of thematic metamorphoses are present in those works by Chopin which suggest narrative-literary associations and can be interpreted as the musical metaphor of one of the most signifi cant archetypes in Polish Romanticism: transformations of the main characters in Adam Mickiewicz’s Konrad Wallenrod and Dziady [Forefathers’ Eve] and in Juliusz Sowacki’s Kordian. Chopin’s concept of the fi nal “grand apotheosis” anticipated Liszt’s sublime reprisesynthesis, which crowns the symphonic poem Les Preludes. Does, however, the clear chronological anticipation indicate Chopin’s infl uence? Or rather, the two masters may have developed the same type of musical narrative independently of each other? The Chopin-Liszt model of reprise-apotheosis became attractive to many composers in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, its impact, which infl uenced masters of the late Romantic piano concerto (Grieg, Tchaikovsky, Rachmaninov), also going beyond the boundaries of the genre. Skriabin broadened the principle of final apotheosis to include piano sonatas (IV Piano Sonata in F sharp major) and The Poem of Ecstasy, while Claude Debussy based the musical dramatics of The Island of Joy on the fascinating metamorphosis of the lyrical theme with an almost Chopinesque tone. Metamorphoses of the lyrical into the ecstatic can be found in many symphonic works of the fin de siecle (II Symphony by Karol Szymanowski, Variations on the Theme of Mozart by Max Reger), while the captivating finals of Rachmaninov’s concertos became an attractive model for George Gershwin (Piano Concerto in F major) and many composers of fim music.