ABSTRACT

In Szymanowski’s earliest published instrumental pieces, the piano works of 1899–1904 (Preludes, Op. 1, Variations in B flat minor, Op. 3, Four Études, Op. 4 and the First Piano Sonata, Op. 8), the melodic style is, understandably, heavily indebted to nineteenth-century Romantic models. In the Preludes the legacy of Chopin is strongly felt. The first and seventh of the set employ a lyrical right-hand melodic line over arpeggiated accompaniment [see Chopin: His Influence on Szymanowski]. The melodic style is characterised by the repetition and decorated variations of short one- and two-bar units to generate longer phrase structures. Expressivity is focused on mildly dissonant appoggiatura and occasionally florid patterning. The Chopin melodic idiom remains in the Études, Op. 4, but here there are also close parallels with the early piano music of Scriabin (who was also strongly influenced by Chopin) in the surging chromaticism and melancholic yearning. Also in these studies are hints of a Wagnerian melodic style, but it is in the larger piano works of this time (the sonatas and variations) that the melodic style more often approaches an Austro-German Late Romantic idiom, with hints of both Wagnerian chromaticism and Brahms’ expressive motivicism.