of a forced
gayety, but they are swallowed up in the mists of dissolution--the
dissolution of one of the most sensitive brains ever wrought by nature.
Here we may echo, without any savor of Liszt's condescension or de
Lenz's irony: "Pauvre Frederic!"

Klindworth and Kullak have different ideas concerning the end of this
Mazurka. Both are correct. Kullak, Klindworth and Mikuli include in
their editions two Mazurkas in A minor. Neither is impressive. One, the
date of composition unknown, is dedicated "a son ami Emile Gaillard;"
the other first appeared in a musical publication of Schotts' about
1842 or 1843--according to Niecks. Of this set I prefer the former; it
abounds in octaves and ends with a long trill There is in the
Klindworth edition a Mazurka, the last in the set, in the key of F
sharp. It is so un-Chopinish and artificial that the doubts of the
pianist Ernst Pauer were aroused as to its authenticity. On
inquiry--Niecks quotes from the London monthly "Musical Record," July
1, 1882--Pauer discovered that the piece was identical with a Mazurka
by Charles Mayer. Gotthard being the publisher of the alleged Chopin
Mazurka, declared he bought the manuscript from a Polish
countess--possibly one of the fifty in whose arms Chopin died--and that
the lady parted with Chopin's autograph because of her dire poverty. It
is, of course, a clear case of forgery.

Of the four early Mazurkas, in G major and B flat major--dating from
1825--D major--composed in 1829-30, but remodelled in 1832--and C
major--of 1833--the latter is the most characteristic. The G major is
of slight worth. As Niecks remarks, it contains a harmonic error. The
one in B flat starts out with a phrase that recalls the A minor
Mazurka, numbered 45 in the Breitkopf & Hartel edition. This B flat
Mazurka, early as it was composed, is, nevertheless, pretty. There are
breadth and decision in the C major Mazurka. The recasting improves the
D major Mazurka. Its trio is lifted an octave and the doubling of notes
throughout gives more weight and richness.

"In the minor key laughs and cries, dances and mourns the Slav," says
Dr. J. Schucht in his monograph on Chopin. Chopin here reveals not only
his nationality, but his own fascinating and enigmatic individuality.
Within the tremulous spaces of this immature dance is enacted the play
of a human soul, a soul that voices the sorrow and revolt of a dying
race, of a dying poet. They are epigrammatic, fluctuating, crazy