Although the popularity of Chopin and his music in East Asia is a well-known phenomenon, we know quite little about how exactly Asian people understand and listen to Chopin’s music. This article aims to show the general situation of the reception of Chopin and his music in Taiwan by examining three different aspects. Presented in the first part are the results of a questionnaire about Taiwanese choir singers’ impressions of Chopin and his music and their experience of listening to excerpts of four different compositions by the composer, while the second part deals with the cultural image of Chopin in Taiwanese books, textbooks and film. The results suggest that the designation ‘poet of the piano’ plays an integral role in Chopin reception in Taiwan. In order to understand how Taiwanese people’s understanding of beauty in poetry can affect their understanding of Chopin’s music, an aesthetic category called yijing, frequently used in literary and art criticism in Taiwan, is introduced in the last part of the article. It seems that the epithet ‘poet of the piano’ encourages Taiwanese people to understand Chopin’s works according to yijing (by seeing imaginary scenes and feeling the expression, they experience the deeper beauty and meaning of the music) and to associate them with poetry representative of that aesthetic category. Moreover, the Taiwanese tend to perceive Chopin’s music as lyrical and sentimental and to consider such qualities as characteristic of his oeuvre.
{"title":"The Reception of Chopin – the Poet of the Piano – and his Music in Taiwan. An initial assessment, based on a questionnaire for choir singers","authors":"Kwen-Yin Li","doi":"10.56693/cr.123","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.56693/cr.123","url":null,"abstract":"Although the popularity of Chopin and his music in East Asia is a well-known phenomenon, we know quite little about how exactly Asian people understand and listen to Chopin’s music. This article aims to show the general situation of the reception of Chopin and his music in Taiwan by examining three different aspects. Presented in the first part are the results of a questionnaire about Taiwanese choir singers’ impressions of Chopin and his music and their experience of listening to excerpts of four different compositions by the composer, while the second part deals with the cultural image of Chopin in Taiwanese books, textbooks and film. The results suggest that the designation ‘poet of the piano’ plays an integral role in Chopin reception in Taiwan. In order to understand how Taiwanese people’s understanding of beauty in poetry can affect their understanding of Chopin’s music, an aesthetic category called yijing, frequently used in literary and art criticism in Taiwan, is introduced in the last part of the article. It seems that the epithet ‘poet of the piano’ encourages Taiwanese people to understand Chopin’s works according to yijing (by seeing imaginary scenes and feeling the expression, they experience the deeper beauty and meaning of the music) and to associate them with poetry representative of that aesthetic category. Moreover, the Taiwanese tend to perceive Chopin’s music as lyrical and sentimental and to consider such qualities as characteristic of his oeuvre.","PeriodicalId":430697,"journal":{"name":"Chopin Review","volume":"38 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2023-04-27","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"131421804","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
The International Fryderyk Chopin Piano Competition in Warsaw was inaugurated in 1927, in part out of the desire to promote an authentic performance practice in relation to Chopin’s oeuvre. Among the main concerns were the establishment of, and strict adherence to, the original authoritative text and an authentic performance aesthetic. The debate over those issues has been at the heart of the artistic mission of the Competition ever since. As the Chopin Competition indeed exercised immense influence on the performance style of Chopin’s music during the twentieth century – an influence that has continued into the twenty-first century – this paper examines the evolution of that style through Competition performances. Has the performance style evolved at all? If so, to what extent? Starting with the 5th Competition, in 1955, the year in which the Competition audio archives were started, the author discusses selected performances by most of the winners of the First Prize. Also discussed are performances by some of the pianists who did not win but whose contributions were important in terms of their influence on Chopin performance practice. Besides addressing the question of whether the evolution of Chopin performance style is encouraged, discouraged or even possible at a Competition whose main goals include establishing and preserving an authentic performance practice, the paper questions whether that goal can ever be achieved. Also discussed is the place of the Competition in relation to the changes in Chopin performance style in the piano world outside the Warsaw Competition. In the introduction, the author briefly considers some of the characteristics and challenges of the unique style of Chopin as understood through most recent achievements in musicology, cultural studies, editing, research, performance, piano pedagogy and music criticism. He also describes the main principles of the so-called ‘Polish School’ of Chopin interpretation and its impact on the development of what is currently the principal way of performing Chopin. The article is supplemented by an online playlist comprising audio excerpts of some of the discussed performances.
{"title":"The evolution of performance style in the history of the International Fryderyk Chopin Piano Competition in Warsaw","authors":"Wojciech Kocyan","doi":"10.56693/cr.101","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.56693/cr.101","url":null,"abstract":"The International Fryderyk Chopin Piano Competition in Warsaw was inaugurated in 1927, in part out of the desire to promote an authentic performance practice in relation to Chopin’s oeuvre. Among the main concerns were the establishment of, and strict adherence to, the original authoritative text and an authentic performance aesthetic. The debate over those issues has been at the heart of the artistic mission of the Competition ever since. As the Chopin Competition indeed exercised immense influence on the performance style of Chopin’s music during the twentieth century – an influence that has continued into the twenty-first century – this paper examines the evolution of that style through Competition performances. Has the performance style evolved at all? If so, to what extent? Starting with the 5th Competition, in 1955, the year in which the Competition audio archives were started, the author discusses selected performances by most of the winners of the First Prize. Also discussed are performances by some of the pianists who did not win but whose contributions were important in terms of their influence on Chopin performance practice. Besides addressing the question of whether the evolution of Chopin performance style is encouraged, discouraged or even possible at a Competition whose main goals include establishing and preserving an authentic performance practice, the paper questions whether that goal can ever be achieved. Also discussed is the place of the Competition in relation to the changes in Chopin performance style in the piano world outside the Warsaw Competition. In the introduction, the author briefly considers some of the characteristics and challenges of the unique style of Chopin as understood through most recent achievements in musicology, cultural studies, editing, research, performance, piano pedagogy and music criticism. He also describes the main principles of the so-called ‘Polish School’ of Chopin interpretation and its impact on the development of what is currently the principal way of performing Chopin. The article is supplemented by an online playlist comprising audio excerpts of some of the discussed performances.","PeriodicalId":430697,"journal":{"name":"Chopin Review","volume":"11 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2023-04-27","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"122255623","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Review of Nicholas Cook Beyond the Score: Music as Performance","authors":"Kamila Stępień-Kutera","doi":"10.56693/cr.106","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.56693/cr.106","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":430697,"journal":{"name":"Chopin Review","volume":"40 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2023-04-27","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"133000320","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Review of Chopin and his World edited by Jonathan D. Bellman and Halina Goldberg","authors":"Antonio Cascelli","doi":"10.56693/cr.113","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.56693/cr.113","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":430697,"journal":{"name":"Chopin Review","volume":"97 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2023-04-27","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"123466853","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Review of Stewart Pollens Bartolomeo Cristofori and the Invention of the Piano","authors":"L. Todd","doi":"10.56693/cr.125","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.56693/cr.125","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":430697,"journal":{"name":"Chopin Review","volume":"28 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2023-04-27","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"122365140","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Music competitions around the world. Transcription of a panel discussion led by John Allison.","authors":"J. Allison","doi":"10.56693/cr.104","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.56693/cr.104","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":430697,"journal":{"name":"Chopin Review","volume":"12 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2023-04-27","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"134638592","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
In a music competition, victory is never unequivocal. Such a competition is a rivalry not just of artistic personalities, but also of the aesthetic values manifested through performances, which are measured and compared, often leading to relativisation. The performances of one candidate can be devalued compared with those of others. So are we dealing more often with the devaluation of one performance compared to another, or with the instability of the assessment criteria and changing circumstances to the issuing of the value judgement? While questions of an aesthetic nature can be considered in isolation from the interpreter of a musical work, that does not apply when we look at the ‘value exchange’ of a competition from the perspective of a gifted and sensitive performer engaged in rivalry.
{"title":"The competition as an ‘exchange’ of values: An aesthetic and existential perspective","authors":"Anna Chęćka","doi":"10.56693/cr.100","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.56693/cr.100","url":null,"abstract":"In a music competition, victory is never unequivocal. Such a competition is a rivalry not just of artistic personalities, but also of the aesthetic values manifested through performances, which are measured and compared, often leading to relativisation. The performances of one candidate can be devalued compared with those of others. So are we dealing more often with the devaluation of one performance compared to another, or with the instability of the assessment criteria and changing circumstances to the issuing of the value judgement? While questions of an aesthetic nature can be considered in isolation from the interpreter of a musical work, that does not apply when we look at the ‘value exchange’ of a competition from the perspective of a gifted and sensitive performer engaged in rivalry.","PeriodicalId":430697,"journal":{"name":"Chopin Review","volume":"301 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2023-04-27","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"132372511","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Rewiev of Dana Gooley Fantasies of Improvisation: Free Playing in Nineteenth-Century Music","authors":"K. Hamilton","doi":"10.56693/cr.115","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.56693/cr.115","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":430697,"journal":{"name":"Chopin Review","volume":"1 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2023-04-27","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"124253856","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
I explored different approaches to performing Chopin’s Second Piano Sonata using my experience of playing on two period instruments: an original Pleyel 1848 grand fortepiano (known to have been played by Chopin) and an original Erard 1845 grand fortepiano. I considered how my experience of these instruments generated new knowledge which then informed my approach to performing the piece on a modern piano. This article is not intended to encourage pianists to imitate or copy my performance on historical instruments, but to re-discover period instruments in a new context and develop the ideas and perception gained from them to transform approaches to interpretation on modern pianos.I first examined the differences between the Pleyel and Erard instruments, and how the characteristics of the two fortepianos are affected by their different mechanical features. I explain why these differences occur and how they affect performers, and this is connected to the famous statement by Chopin comparing Pleyel and Erard fortepianos.Examining the Pleyel and Erard fortepianos and comparing historical and modern instruments from the perspective of being a concert pianist myself, this research revealed how pianists can bring out a singing quality in performance on percussive keyboard instruments. Experimenting with the Pleyel and Erard fortepianos has expanded my view of how to listen to the sound, with consequences for the management of specific dimensions and for my approach to modern pianos.
{"title":"A New Interpretation of Chopin’s Piano Music Through Performance of the Second Piano Sonata on Pleyel and Erard Fortepianos and on a Modern Piano","authors":"Jun Ishimura","doi":"10.56693/cr.124","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.56693/cr.124","url":null,"abstract":"I explored different approaches to performing Chopin’s Second Piano Sonata using my experience of playing on two period instruments: an original Pleyel 1848 grand fortepiano (known to have been played by Chopin) and an original Erard 1845 grand fortepiano. I considered how my experience of these instruments generated new knowledge which then informed my approach to performing the piece on a modern piano. This article is not intended to encourage pianists to imitate or copy my performance on historical instruments, but to re-discover period instruments in a new context and develop the ideas and perception gained from them to transform approaches to interpretation on modern pianos.I first examined the differences between the Pleyel and Erard instruments, and how the characteristics of the two fortepianos are affected by their different mechanical features. I explain why these differences occur and how they affect performers, and this is connected to the famous statement by Chopin comparing Pleyel and Erard fortepianos.Examining the Pleyel and Erard fortepianos and comparing historical and modern instruments from the perspective of being a concert pianist myself, this research revealed how pianists can bring out a singing quality in performance on percussive keyboard instruments. Experimenting with the Pleyel and Erard fortepianos has expanded my view of how to listen to the sound, with consequences for the management of specific dimensions and for my approach to modern pianos.","PeriodicalId":430697,"journal":{"name":"Chopin Review","volume":"1 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2023-04-27","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"129712909","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
This article is devoted to analysis of the mechanisms behind the creation of the cultural image of Fryderyk Chopin in selected verse by twentieth-century Polish poets in exile, such as Kazimierz Wierzyński, Jan Lechoń, Stanisław Baliński and Czesław Miłosz. Verse (and excerpts from autobiographic texts) by those poets helps to forge and renew the ‘Chopin legend’ in various ways, through references to the most important moments in the composer’s biography and selected features of his music. From analysis of this verse, we learn that these poets looked at Chopin and his music primarily through the prism of the role assigned to them by history – similar to the role in which Chopin had tried to find his bearings a hundred years earlier on his departure from Poland. The attitude adopted by émigré writers towards Chopin and his music, representing one of the most important symbols in Polish culture, is not unequivocal. Its distinct affirmation is accompanied by reflection on the conditions and limitations of émigré mythology. The poems discussed show the significant currency in émigré circles especially of that aspect of the Chopin legend which refers to the image of a distant and enslaved homeland. That currency distinguishes the émigrés from their peers back home, who wished to see a different symbolism in Chopin and his music, especially one that was free from conventionalised patriotic references. This last observation may also be referred to the analysed poem by Miłosz, which from the proposed comparative perspective comes across as the reverse of the other works discussed in the article. An interesting perspective could no doubt be opened up by comparative studies of a broader scope, showing how this theme functioned and was functionalised in the output of foreign writers, within the constellation of other cultural, social and historical relations.
{"title":"Émigrés on an émigré: Poetic portraits of Chopin","authors":"Anna Teńczyńska","doi":"10.56693/cr.109","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.56693/cr.109","url":null,"abstract":"This article is devoted to analysis of the mechanisms behind the creation of the cultural image of Fryderyk Chopin in selected verse by twentieth-century Polish poets in exile, such as Kazimierz Wierzyński, Jan Lechoń, Stanisław Baliński and Czesław Miłosz. Verse (and excerpts from autobiographic texts) by those poets helps to forge and renew the ‘Chopin legend’ in various ways, through references to the most important moments in the composer’s biography and selected features of his music. From analysis of this verse, we learn that these poets looked at Chopin and his music primarily through the prism of the role assigned to them by history – similar to the role in which Chopin had tried to find his bearings a hundred years earlier on his departure from Poland. The attitude adopted by émigré writers towards Chopin and his music, representing one of the most important symbols in Polish culture, is not unequivocal. Its distinct affirmation is accompanied by reflection on the conditions and limitations of émigré mythology. The poems discussed show the significant currency in émigré circles especially of that aspect of the Chopin legend which refers to the image of a distant and enslaved homeland. That currency distinguishes the émigrés from their peers back home, who wished to see a different symbolism in Chopin and his music, especially one that was free from conventionalised patriotic references. This last observation may also be referred to the analysed poem by Miłosz, which from the proposed comparative perspective comes across as the reverse of the other works discussed in the article. An interesting perspective could no doubt be opened up by comparative studies of a broader scope, showing how this theme functioned and was functionalised in the output of foreign writers, within the constellation of other cultural, social and historical relations.","PeriodicalId":430697,"journal":{"name":"Chopin Review","volume":"88 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2023-04-27","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"117327302","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
京公网安备 11010802042870号
京ICP备2023020795号-1
扫码关注我们
求助内容：
应助结果提醒方式：