Chopin's Mazurka In G Minor Analysis

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Fryderyk Chopin composed around fifty-nine mazurkas with only forty-one being published during his lifetime; the remaining compositions remained in manuscript form until being published by his close friend, Julian Fontana, after Chopin’s death. Chopin’s mazurkas are based on the traditional Polish folk dance, the mazur, which are the second part of the three-fold dance routine of the original folk mazurka, also called the “round dance” when all three parts are performed together. The mazur’s brisk tempo provides a moderate transition between the slow kujawiak, the first part of the “round dance”, and the quickest of the three, the oberek or obertas. The mazur’s tend to have a lively and temperamental character with a tendency for irregular accents throughout the piece. In the last two years of Chopin’s life, he composed his last two mazurkas, F minor and G minor. These two pieces show a representation of the sadness and regret seen …show more content…
posth. 67, No. 2 begins with a double period (mm. 1-16) that briefly modulates in and out of the relative key of B-flat major. The first two measures use a v-i progression in g minor that is the mimicked with a modulated V-I in B-flat in measure three and four to finish the phrase with an IAC to solidify the beginning of the common double period structure. The motif then repeats itself over the v-i progression in g minor again, but changes from the original statement by staying in g minor and using a iv-i progression to provide a plagal cadence feeling by the repetition of the iv chord in mm.6-8. The first phrase of the consequent is parallel to the first phrase of the antecedent, but the difference is that it is over a v6 chord in measure nine, which created a HC to resolve the second phrase of the antecedent. The fourth phrase (mm. 13-16) mimics the beginning motif again but uses a descending melody and a PAC (g minor) in measure sixteen to complete the harmonic thought and overall, the double

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