Rachmaninoff's Early Piano Works and the Traces of Chopin's Influence
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Rachmaninoff’s Early Piano works and the Traces of Chopin’s Influence: The Morceaux de Fantaisie, Op.3 & The Moments Musicaux, Op.16 A document submitted to the Graduate School of the University of Cincinnati in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Musical Arts in the Division of Keyboard Studies of the College-Conservatory of Music by Sanghie Lee P.D., Indiana University, 2011 B.M., M.M., Yonsei University, Korea, 2007 Committee Chair: Jonathan Kregor, Ph.D. Abstract This document examines two of Sergei Rachmaninoff’s early piano works, Morceaux de Fantaisie, Op.3 (1892) and Moments Musicaux, Opus 16 (1896), as they relate to the piano works of Frédéric Chopin. The five short pieces that comprise Morceaux de Fantaisie and the six Moments Musicaux are reminiscent of many of Chopin’s piano works; even as the sets broadly build on his character genres such as the nocturne, barcarolle, etude, prelude, waltz, and berceuse, they also frequently are modeled on or reference specific Chopin pieces. This document identifies how Rachmaninoff’s sets specifically and generally show the influence of Chopin’s style and works, while exploring how Rachmaninoff used Chopin’s models to create and present his unique compositional identity. Through this investigation, performers can better understand Chopin’s influence on Rachmaninoff’s piano works, and therefore improve their interpretations of his music. ii Copyright © 2018 by Sanghie Lee All rights reserved iii Acknowledgements I cannot express my heartfelt gratitude enough to my dear teacher James Tocco, who gave me devoted guidance and inspirational teaching for years. This document would also not exist without the advice and warm support of my advisor, Dr. Jonathan Kregor, and my reader, Dr. Catharine Carroll Lees. I am deeply indebted to other faculty members in College-Conservatory of Music for their encouragement and valuable teaching over the years. I would like to convey my deepest and most sincere appreciation to my family for their endless love and support. My utmost gratitude is for God. “And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose.” Romans 8.28 iv Table of Contents Abstract ........................................................................................................................................... ii Acknowledgements ........................................................................................................................ iv Table of Contents .............................................................................................................................v Chapter 1. Introduction ....................................................................................................................1 Statement of purpose ....................................................................................................................1 Chopin’s influence .......................................................................................................................3 Chapter 2. Morceaux de fantaisie, Op.3 ..........................................................................................7 Op.3, no.1 (“Elegie”) and Chopin’s nocturne style ......................................................................7 Op.3, no.2 (“Prelude”) and Chopin’s etude procedure ..............................................................15 Op.3, no.3 (“Melodie”) ..............................................................................................................19 Op.3, no.4 (“Polichinelle”) .........................................................................................................24 Op.3, no.5 (“Serenade”) and the Chopin waltz ..........................................................................31 Chapter 3. Moments Musicaux, Op.16 (1896) ...............................................................................41 Op. 16, no.1 (Andantino) and Chopin’s nocturnes and barcarolle .............................................41 Op.16, no.2 (Allegretto) and Chopin Prelude Op.28, no.14 ......................................................49 Op.16, no.3 (Andante cantabile) and Chopin Prelude Op.28, no.6 ............................................53 Op.16, no.4 (Presto) and Chopin Etude Op.10, no.12 ................................................................60 Op.16, no.5 (Adagio sostenuto) and Chopin Berceuse Op.57 ...................................................64 Op.16, no.6 (Maestoso) and Chopin Etude Op.25, no.12 ..........................................................69 Chapter 4. Conclusion ....................................................................................................................75 Bibliography ..................................................................................................................................78 v Chapter 1. Introduction Statement of purpose Every musician is inspired through their own life experiences coupled with their individual musical background and education, thus providing the foundation for developing their musicianship. Additionally, role models play a vital and essential role in shaping the unique paths of a musician’s journey. As a pianist, I strongly value the piano works of Sergei Rachmaninoff (1873-1943), which require great technical command of the instrument while simultaneously providing the opportunity for romantic musical expression. To thoroughly understand and effectively interpret his music, it is important to explore in depth the influences in his music. In fact, Rachmaninoff himself attested to the importance of research for the purpose of discovering the various influences upon which he based his compositional inspiration, stating that: Music, I have always felt, should be the expression of a composer’s complex personality. A composer’s music should express the country of his birth, his love affairs, his religion, the books that have influenced him, the pictures he loves. It should be the sum of a composer’s experiences.1 Sergei Rachmaninoff subscribed to the Russian musical tradition that was centered on European classical musical styles. Considering this tradition along with the piano performance world in which Rachmaninoff was a renowned figure, Frédéric Chopin (1810-1849) held a position of extraordinary influence. Apart from Tchaikovsky and the inevitable classics, Chopin, and perhaps Liszt, could be counted as the only other pillars of musical culture in Moscow. [...] From amongst the living composers could, perhaps, be added Anton Rubinstein, whose over prolific muse was too near at hand to be judged in true 1 Patrick Piggott, Rachmaninov, The Great Composers (London: Faber and Faber, 1978), 56. 1 proportion. Accordingly, we can find traces of Chopin’s, Liszt’s, and Rubinstein’s influence in young Rachmaninoff’s earliest works.2 A virtuoso pianist, Rachmaninoff performed Chopin’s works constantly, both during his education as well as in his professional performing career.3 Chopin’s influence on Rachmaninoff is also evident in his taking up the mantle of late-Romantic aesthetics, demonstrated by his early interest in the use of late Romantic genres, such as “character” pieces, and his prioritizing the purpose of his music conveying emotional depth. Nevertheless, Rachmaninoff’s works are different from Chopin’s music, reflecting the developments over time in musical style, the models of the growing repertoire, advances in pianistic technique, and of course Rachmaninoff’s personal compositional methods. The purpose of this document is to explore examples of Chopin’s influence on Rachmaninoff’s works, assessing how Rachmaninoff reinterpreted those musical ideas in his compositions; this is done through analysis of the sets of piano pieces Morceaux de fantasie, Op.3 (1892) and Moments Musicaux, Op.16 (1896). This analysis will then provide the basis for exploring how Rachmaninoff built on and transformed the Chopin models to present his unique compositional style. This chapter provides a general sketch of Chopin’s influence on Rachmaninoff. The connections between Morceaux de fantaisie and various Chopin works will be presented and discussed in Chapter 2; the same will be done for Moments musicaux in Chapter 3. Some aspects 2 Oskar von Riesemann, Rachmaninoff's Recollections: told to Oskar von Riesemann (New York: The Macmillan Company, 1934), 213. 3 Piggott, Rachmaninov, 13; Barrie Martyn, Rachmaninoff: Composer, Pianist, Conductor (Aldershot, England: Scholar Press, 1990), 373. 2 that will be highlighted will include compositional elements such as key, structure, texture, time signature, mood, tempo, and dynamic range. Finally, Chapter 4 will present conclusions drawn from the preceding analyses. Through doing so, the close influence of Chopin on Rachmaninoff, and the ways in which Rachmaninoff used that precedent to develop his own compositional style, will be made clear for performers and audiences of Rachmaninoff’s works. Chopin’s influence Rachmaninoff had a close family connection to the Romantic composers whose works for piano were major developments in the repertoire. First, his grandfather was a student of the English composer and pianist John Field, whose works were critical in the development of the character pieces for piano that dominate the solo piano repertoire of the Romantic era,4 and especially influential in the development of one of Chopin’s signature genres, the nocturne. His father was also