CHOPIN AND HIS WORLD • ii • CHOPIN AND HIS WORLD EDITED BY JONATHAN D. BELLMAN AND HALINA GOLDBERG PRINCETON UNIVERSITY PRESS PRINCETON AND OXFORD • iii • Copyright © 2017 by Princeton University Press Published by Princeton University Press, 41 William Street, Princeton, New Jersey 08540 In the United Kingdom: Princeton University Press, 6 Oxford Street, Woodstock, Oxfordshire OX20 1TW press.princeton.edu All Rights Reserved For permissions/credits, see page x Library of Congress Control Number: 2017935498 Cloth ISBN: 978-0-691-17775-5 Paper ISBN: 978-0-691-17776-2 British Library Cataloging-in-Publication Data is available This publication has been produced by the Bard College Publications Office: Mary Smith, Director Irene Zedlacher, Project Director Karen Walker Spencer, Designer Text edited by Paul De Angelis and Erin Clermont Music typeset by Don Giller This publication has been underwritten in part by a grant from Roger and Helen Alcaly Printed on acid-free paper. ∞ Printed in the United States of America. 1 3 5 7 9 10 8 6 4 2 • iv • The editors would like to dedicate this book to the master pianists of the Golden Age: those who flourished and were trained in the years 1850–1925. From their teachers, they inherited the memories of Chopin’s world, the sounds he knew and recomposed. Their Chopin recordings, which stretch back to the dawn of the recording era, are a priceless legacy, and we are forever in their debt. Contents Acknowledgments ix Permissions x Introduction 1 HALINA GOLDBERG AND JONATHAN D. BELLMAN PART I. CONTEMPORARY CULTURAL CONTEXTS Chopin’s Oneiric Soundscapes and the Role of 15 Dreams in Romantic Culture HALINA GOLDBERG Józef Sikorski’s “Recollection of Chopin”: 45 The Earliest Essay on Chopin and His Music TRANSLATED BY JOHN COMBER INTRODUCED AND ANNOTATED BY HALINA GOLDBERG Chopin and the Gothic 85 ANATOLE LEIKIN Revisiting Chopin’s Tubercular Song, or, 103 An Opera in the Making DAVID KASUNIC Chopin and Jews 123 JEFFREY KALLBERG • vii • PART II. MUSICAL AND PIANISTIC CONTEXTS Middlebrow Becomes Transcendent: 147 The Popular Roots of Chopin’s Musical Language JONATHAN D. BELLMAN Karol Kurpin´ski on the Musical Expression of 171 Polish National Sentiment TRANSLATED BY JOHN COMBER INTRODUCED AND ANNOTATED BY HALINA GOLDBERG Dance and the Music of Chopin: 187 The Polonaise ERIC MCKEE The Barcarolle and the Barcarolle: 231 Topic and Genre in Chopin JAMES PARAKILAS Chopin and Improvisation 249 JOHN RINK Chopin Among the Pianists in Paris 271 SANDRA P. ROSENBLUM The Hand of Chopin: Documents and Commentary 297 JEAN-JACQUES EIGELDINGER TRANSLATED BY VIRGINIA E. WHEALTON AFTERWORD Chopin and the Consequences of Exile 315 LEON BOTSTEIN Index 357 Notes on Contributors 366 • viii • Acknowledgments The editors wish to thank above all the president of Bard College and artistic co-director of the Bard Summer Festival, Leon Botstein, for inviting them to be scholars-in-residence at the 2017 festival, Chopin and His World, and to edit this volume. His team—and our friends—Christopher Gibbs, artistic co-director, Byron Adams, program committee, and Irene Zedlacher, executive director, have been unfailingly warm and friendly throughout this process. A crown of laurels to Paul De Angelis, of Paul De Angelis Books, who edited the editors and kept things organized, sane, and on track from the very beginning. His sober guidance and eagle eye made this very complicated project somehow manageable, and we are much in his debt. The entire team assembled by the Bard College Publications Office —Mary Smith, director of publications; Erin Clermont, copy-editing; Don Giller, music typesetting; Karen Spencer, design; Scott Smiley, indexing— and at Princeton University Press have produced a handsome volume, and we are grateful to collaborate with them on this project. Above all we would like to thank our contributors, in alphabetical order: Leon Botstein, Jean-Jacques Eigeldinger, Jeffrey Kallberg, David Kasunic, Anatole Leikin, Eric McKee, James Parakilas, John Rink, and Sandra Rosenblum. The opportunity to work with international Chopin scholars on this project has been a gift indeed. • ix •