

In the mature Chopin, ornamentation is not something added to the melodic line but an indispensable part of it one cannot distinguish between melodic substance and decoration. Vocal portamento, for instance, is transmuted into chromatic scale. His delicate ornamentation-more plastic than that in most earlier piano music-is a stylization of vocal coloratura, not a copy of it. Abraham, A Hundred Years of Music).Ĭhopin’s pseudosinging melodies were strongly influenced by the Italian opera arias of his day, but instead of imitating opera melody he stylized it. Hummel and John Field-were more ingenious in exploiting the pianoforte’s sonority, but it remained for Chopin to invent “melodies that would be actually ineffective if sung or played on an instrument capable of sustaining tone but which, picked out in percussive points of sound each beginning to die as soon as born, are enchanting and give an illusion of singing that is often lovelier than singing itself” (G. The composers of the generation after Mozart -above all J.

Early composers for the pianoforte, notably Johann Christian Bach and Mozart, had written cantabile passages and movements for the instrument, but they concealed its inability to sustain tone by the old harpsichord and clavichord device of ornamenting a note instead of sustaining it. What are the compositions, works of Frédéric Chopin? Information on Frédéric Chopin’s musical style, works and compositions.įrédéric Chopin Musical Style Chopin’s piano compositions created something approaching a revolution in writing for that instrument, although like most revolutions it was heralded by signs and portents.
