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.Chopin s musicalsaga would have been, of course, by a virtuoso artist, not a composer ofbland, predictable musical product for those of modest gifts and discern-ment.Its approach, though, would have been familiar to any listener.37Incidentally, it is no great stretch to imagine that Mickiewicz s effusivemusical fantasy in Pan Tadeusz was based on something he had heard36.Bohdan Zaleski, from a diary entry of 2 February 1844, quoted in Eigeldinger,Chopin: Pianist and Teacher, 283 84.37.Indeed, the succession of patriotic tunes might have been a favorite and significantlyPolish way of affirming national identity.One case where it happened seeminglyspontaneously in real life is reported by Halina Goldberg, who quotes a review of an operaperformance from the 1827 28 season in Warsaw.Here, the orchestra for Elsner s Leszek theWhite, or the Witch of the Bald Mountain, with the composer himself on the podium, respondedto audience shouts for Polish music! with a krakowiak, then a mazur, then Kościuszko spolonaise, and finally the national anthem, Dąbrowski s mazurka. Legs moved as in dance,130 chopin s polish balladeChopin do.Both men had been resident in Paris and socializing in relatedPolish circles when the Concert of Concerts passage was written, and weknow both that Chopin was a master improviser and that at least onoccasion his improvisations worked very much the way Mickiewicz de-scribes.I am inclined to agree with Bożena Shallcross and Halina Goldbergthat Mickiewicz fashioned Jankiel, consciously or unconsciously, as his alterego, a Romantic master of improvisation who inspires listeners to enlighten-ment,38 but it is likewise my strong suspicion that the strictly musical part ofhis description of Jankiel s performance owes a great deal to Chopin.The close correspondence between Jankiel s improvisation and extantmusical forms enables us to reconceive the former in light of the latter.Chopin himself had already produced his op.13, the Grand Fantasy onPolish Airs; such pieces had both patriotic and entertainment value.Letus pause just a moment to imagine Jankiel s piece as a work somethinglike Schubert s Wanderer Fantasy, in the four sections Mickiewiczdescribes, perhaps labeled Trionfo Scherzo diabolico LamentoTrionfo, played attaca.Or perhaps it would seem more natural to see itas a programmatic work (dulcimer standing in for olden-days piano,much as Liszt would conceive the relationship between piano and Hun-garian cimbalom) with sections such as Rejoicing: The ConstitutionGuarantees a Free Poland. Betrayal by the Confederacy. Treacheryof the Russian Forces. Massacre at Praga (groans of the mothers andmoans of the children) Lament of the Dispersed Soldiers. Anthem ofHope: Poland Is Not Dead. And for a title, Jankiel s piece might haveborne the name The Destruction of Poland: Triumph to Treachery andGrief to Hope Reborn, for it narrates the crucial episodes in the history ofPoland, from 1791 through post-1795, for the approving listeners.Of course, Chopin did not give his pieces such titles.Briefly day-dreaming about them does point up, though, the close correspondencebetween Jankiel s improvisation, the entire genre of programmaticpiano pieces, and Chopin s improvisation for Bohdan Zaleski (whichfinished with variations on the same song).This idea of a virtuosoversion of an amateur programmatic piano piece a boundlessly poeticand inspiring nationalistic fantasy intended to stir the hearts of listen-ers, a veritable apotheosis of a middlebrow genre is one we must keepnear to hand.spurs rang, hearts were filled with emotion, and eyes glistened with tears.The exalted momentaffected everyone.Only after the love offering to the homeland was completed could theoverture of the opera be performed. Goldberg, Music in Chopin s Warsaw, 235 37.38.Bożena Shallcross, Wondrous Fire : Adam Mickiewicz s Pan Tadeusz and theRomantic Improvisation, East European Politics and Societies 9/3 (Fall 1995), 532.the polish pilgrims and the operatic imperative 131Sapienti PaucaAmong the Polish exiles in Paris, it was the Great Polish Opera that waswanted, not a piano fantasy, since opera was the primary narrativemusical form.Stories of grand and historic sweep could be told onstagein powerful, moving, and above all entertaining ways, with attractivemusic and astounding theatrical effects ensuring that the historical spec-tacle and, more important, a specific interpretation of it would attracta great number of people.That a popular opera could carry a significantpolitical punch was proven, as we have seen, by Auber s Muette de Portici(1828), a tragic love story set against the 1647 Neapolitan insurrectionagainst Spain.It was an opera Chopin saw several times.This highly influential work opens with the wedding of Alfonso, the sonof the Spanish viceroy in Naples, and the Spanish princess Elvira.Alfonso, itis soon discovered, has seduced and then abandoned the mute girl Fenella.Fenella s tragic helplessness (she can communicate only by gestures) and herrelation to the newly wedded couple (Alfonso s guilt, Elvira s initial protec-tion of the poor girl and subsequent discovery of what her new consort hasdone) form one major plot strain of the opera.It is intertwined with thestory of Fenella s brother, Masaniello, a fisherman who incites his fellows torebel against Spanish tyranny.(The apparently lovely but provocationalsecond-act barcarolle where he does this, with its innocent Amis, lamatine est belle opening and Pcheur, parle bas! refrain, might evenbe heard as a distant, contributory model for the opening of Chopin s op.38.) The Neapolitans take up the cause and are victorious as a result ofterrible violence in the marketplace.Masaniello, who sought liberty only, isfilled with revulsion; Fenella, who still has feelings for Alfonso, seeks toprotect her former seducer regardless, and Masaniello honors her wishes.Sothe tragedy inexorably proceeds; Masaniello, poisoned by his onetimefriend and coconspirator Pietro, dies saving Elvira, and Fenella, when shereceives this news, plunges from a terrace into (where else?) the eruptingMount Vesuvius.Curtain, obviously
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