urmuring, but also without praising, for that is no music.
Thus the sonata concludes, as it began, enigmatically, like a
sphinx with a mocking smile.

J. W. Davison, in the preface to an edition of Chopin's mazurkas,
relates that Mendelssohn, on being questioned about the finale of one
of Chopin's sonatas (I think it must have been the one before us), said
briefly and bitterly, "Oh, I abhor it!" H. Barbedette remarks in his
"Chopin," a criticism without insight and originality, of this finale,
"C'est Lazare grattant de ses ongles la pierre de son tombeau et tombant
epuise de fatigue, de faim et de desespoir." And now let the reader
recall the words which Chopin wrote from Nohant to Fontana in the summer
of 1839:--

I am composing here a Sonata in B flat minor, in which will be
the funeral march which you have already. There is an Allegro,
then a Scherzo, in E flat minor, the March, and a short Finale
of about three pages. The left hand unisono with the right
hand are gossiping after the March [ogaduja po Marszu].

The meaning of which somewhat obscure interpretation seems to be, that
after the burial the good neighbours took to discussing the merits of
the departed, not without a spice of backbiting.

The Sonata in B minor, Op. 58, the second of Chopin's notable pianoforte
sonatas (the third if we take into account the unpalatable Op. 4),
made its appearance five years later, in June, 1845. Unity is as little
discernible in this sonata as in its predecessor. The four movements of
which the work consists are rather affiliated than cognate; nay, this
may be said even of many parts of the movements. The first movement
by far surpasses the other three in importance: indeed, the wealth of
beautiful and interesting matter which is here heaped up--for it is
rather an unsifted accumulation than an artistic presentation and
evolution--would have sufficed many a composer for several movements.
The ideas are very unequal and their course very jerky till we come to
the second subject (D major), which swells out into a broad stream
of impassioned melody. Farther on the matter becomes again jerky
and mosaic-like. While the close of the first part is very fine, the
beginning of the second is a comfortless waste. Things mend with the
re-entrance of the subsidiary part of the second subject (now in D
flat major), which, after being dwelt upon for some time and varied,
disappears, and is followed by a repetition of port