Course Syllabus
Chopin's Musical Narrative
Each of Chopin's Four Ballades invokes a narrative, but no explicit story is indicated by the composer or the music. In this introduction to her course on the Third Ballade, Michelle Cann refers to Polish poet Adam Mickiewicz's 'Undine' as one potential influence, and her personal source of inspiration for the piece.
Chopin's Third Ballade begins suggestively, as if welcoming you into its waters. For Michelle Cann, the piece might be inspired by the legend of Undine – albeit with a happy ending. Cann introduces you to the main theme area in A-flat, and shows how Chopin disturbs the peace with a slight harmonic shift and introduces a radiant C major sonority that will recur throughout the piece.
One of the most recognizable motives from Chopin's Third Ballade is the rocking 2-note slur gestures that provide the primary material for the second theme. Michelle Cann reveals what is so surprising and intriguing in Chopin's rocking motive, and breaks down the two episodes that emerge from it – first, a dark chordal variation in F minor that is kept unsettled by constant syncopations; and later, an excursion in right-hand arpeggios and runs that peaks and settles back in the home key of A-flat.
Chopin's Third Ballade is notable for being the only one of the four not to end with a self-enclosed coda where new, virtuosic material is introduced for the first time in the midst of a whirlwind ending. Instead, the piece ends in exalted restatement of earlier themes in a final climax that grows seamlessly out of the piece's development. Michelle Cann shows you how to resolve the technical demands of these final pages, from the swirling left-hand passagework to the dramatic right-hand broken octaves, while at the same time finding meaning in every note.
Click here to download the course workbook PDF and see the full syllabus →