be
a morbid secretion, so the spiritual ferment called Zal gave to
Chopin's music its morbid beauty. It is in the B minor Scherzo but not
in the A flat Ballade. The F minor Ballade overflows with it, and so
does the F sharp minor Polonaise, but not the first Impromptu. Its dark
introspection colors many of the preludes and mazurkas, and in the C
sharp minor Scherzo it is in acrid flowering--truly fleurs du mal.
Heine and Baudelaire, two poets far removed from the Slavic, show
traces of the terrible drowsy Zal in their poetry. It is the collective
sorrow and tribal wrath of a down-trodden nation, and the mazurkas for
that reason have ethnic value. As concise, even as curt as the
Preludes, they are for the most part highly polished. They are dancing
preludes, and often tiny single poems of great poetic intensity and
passionate plaint.

Chopin published during his lifetime forty-one Mazurkas in eleven
cahiers of three, four and five numbers. Op. 6, four Mazurkas, and op.
7, five Mazurkas, were published December, 1832. Op. 6 is dedicated to
Comtesse Pauline Plater; op. 7 to Mr. Johns. Op. 17, four Mazurkas, May
4, dedicated to Madame Lina Freppa; op. 24, four Mazurkas, November,
1835, dedicated to Comte de Perthuis; op. 30, four Mazurkas, December,
1837, dedicated to Princesse Czartoryska; op. 33, four Mazurkas,
October, 1838, dedicated to Comtesse Mostowska; op. 41, four Mazurkas,
December, 1840, dedicated to E. Witwicki; op. 50, three Mazurkas,
November, 1841, dedicated to Leon Szmitkowski; op. 56, three Mazurkas,
August, 1844, dedicated to Mile. C. Maberly; op. 59, three Mazurkas,
April, 1846, no dedication, and op. 63, three Mazurkas, September,
1847, dedicated to Comtesse Czosnowska.

Besides there are op. 67 and 68 published by Fontana after Chopin's
death, consisting of eight Mazurkas, and there are a miscellaneous
number, two in A minor, both in the Kullak, Klindworth and Mikuli
editions, one in F sharp major, said to be written by Charles Mayer--in
Klindworth's--and four others, in G, B flat, D and C major. This makes
in all fifty-six to be grouped and analyzed. Niecks thinks there is a
well-defined difference between the Mazurkas as far as op. 41 and those
that follow. In the latter he misses "savage beauties" and spontaneity.
As Chopin gripped the form, as he felt more, suffered more and knew
more, his Mazurkas grew broader, revealed more Weltschmerz, became
elaborate and at times impersonal, but seldom lost t