ABSTRACT
Chopin's obsession with the funeral plainchant, described by George Sand, brought about a remarkable proliferation of the Dies Irae motifs in the Prludes. The opening section of the Ballade is often described as bucolicin part because of the siciliano rhythm, traditionally associated with bucolic scenes and melancholy emotions, and in part because F major is customarily considered to be a pastoral key. Polonaise-fantaisie is shaped as a sonata form with an introduction, a vast exposition, a short development, and a severely compressed recapitulation. A host of melodic phrases constructed of octatonic tetrachords is not the sole thematic attribute that the Winterreise shares with the Prludes. Parisian audiences at that time enthusiastically applauded between the movements of a symphony, often forcing the orchestra to repeat individual movements. The type of the octatonic scale, however, consists of two identical chromatic rather than diatonic tetrachords that both can, therefore, be defined as catatonic.
