Description
Published in 1842, the Fourth is the last of Chopin's ballades and is often regarded as the summit of his work. The narrative impulse is shared with the First, but here the theme is not simply recapitulated: it is rewritten as a variation at each appearance, so that the whole piece proceeds as a single process of variation.
In F minor and 6/8, a calm introduction gives way to a sighing first subject that thereafter returns altered, gathering ornament and counterpoint each time. A central passage has the voices chasing one another in canon, and the density of that counterpoint shows the side of Chopin that never stopped studying Bach. A violent coda closes the work.
It is among the most difficult pieces in the solo piano repertoire. The technical obstacles are spread across the whole work, and it also demands the structural command to let a listener follow a theme through its transformations. Lining up the notes achieves nothing; reading it through with a decision about which voice is to be heard is essential. Reserving stamina for the coda is part of the design.
A genre Chopin pioneered — large-scale solo piano works with a narrative, epic quality.
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Sheet music provided by Mutopia Project
About the Composer
Frédéric Chopin (1810-1849)
Frederic Chopin was born in Poland and made his career in Paris, remaining unusual among great composers for writing almost exclusively for piano. He poured his longing for his homeland into mazurkas and polonaises, while his ballades and etudes combine poetic melody with harmonic innovation. This site includes the "Revolutionary" and other etudes, Ballades No. 1 and No. 4, nocturnes, and the Preludes, Op. 28.
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