Ballade No.2, Op.38
Ballade · in F major · Op. 38
Frédéric Chopin 1810–1849
F major
Key
Ballade
Form
Andantino, Presto con fuoco
Tempo
Op. 38
Catalogue
Score
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Themes & character
Pastoral calm·Sudden violence·Unresolved ending·Dedicated to Schumann
At a glance
- Catalogue
- Op. 38
- Key
- F major
- Tempo / character
- Andantino, Presto con fuoco
- Form
- Ballade
About the piece
The second of Chopin's ballades, composed by 1839 and dedicated to Robert Schumann, who had dedicated his own Kreisleriana to Chopin the year before. It is built on stark contrast: a hushed, pastoral melody in F major, almost a lullaby, is repeatedly shattered by violent presto storms in A minor.
Unusually, the piece refuses to resolve back to its calm beginning and ends in the darkness of the stormy music instead, a bold structural stroke that unsettled early listeners, Schumann among them.
The composer
Frédéric Chopin
1810–1849
Frédéric François Chopin was a Polish composer and virtuoso pianist of the early Romantic period who wrote primarily for solo piano. He has maintained worldwide renown as a leading composer of his era whose "poetic genius was based on a professional technique that was without equal in his generation".
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