![]() Such a schema would be equally unsupportable by internal musical criteria, as a great number of periodizations put forward in various monographic studies. While the issues examined by the group of scholars who worked under my direction had not been given a satisfactory answer in the previous Chopin literature, our focus on “transformation” was not directly connected to a need to introduce yet another periodization of Chopin’s music. Considering such nuanced progress of Chopin’s creative evolution, the examination of his whole oeuvre could leave some doubts whether the observed changes are, indeed, the effect of the evolution of the expressive means, or whether they result from introducing an entirely new genre. The research of these scholars indirectly points to the absence of a unified foundation for the analyses and interpretations of different genres. Both Józef Chomiński (b1960) and Teresa Dalila Turło (1960) stated that certain genres provided particular “centers of gravity” for individual phases in the development of Chopin’s music. The barrier which makes it difficult to unearth the sources of these changes also arises from the chronological variability of the genres that Chopin cultivated. The research into the transformations of Chopin’s style is made complicated by more factors than the absence of characteristic, qualitative changes in his musical language. ![]() In the final analysis, the evolution of genres in Chopin’s oeuvre is only a certain tendency that may reveal itself to a weaker or stronger extent in individual works. These innovations do not necessarily entail changes of a lasting character they are configured in a stable arrangement with other elements co-present in a given genre, and do not always bring in a permanent transformation of the genre’s paradigm. Certain genres in Chopin’s music may be associated with the emergence of particular innovations in harmony, tonality, syntax, style, and form. ![]() The changes of Chopin’s style displayed a continuity that was as organic and solid as that found in the evolution of individual styles of other major artists of European romanticism. Therefore, one may speak of “quantitative crises” instead of qualitative breaks. Changes in Chopin’s style did not happen in a series of “breakthroughs,” but as a gradual, organic process of maturation: first, through the assimilation and expansion of a range of artistic means provided by the musical tradition, then through the creation of new expressive values on the basis of these inherited means. The evolution of this language was not marked by spectacular turning points, resulting from shifts of his whole musical system. Transformations of Chopin’s style have not always been accepted as a legitimate research problem because of the nature of Chopin’s musical language. Guest editorial by Maciej Gołąb translated by Maja Trochimczyk 1.
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