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I said, "one thing," not necessarily the dominent thing. You'd think with French and German to choose from they'd be perfomed more often.

BTW I've got a book of popular Polish folksongs (in English). There are several in the book attributed to Chopin (with watered down accompaniments) so unless the editors felt they had to pay tribute to a Polish cultural icon, they appear to be a bit more appreciated in Poland.

Dang, so you did. It was the "painfully obvious" reason that caught my attention, and I overlooked that you left open the possibility that there were other ones, too. My apologies!

Steven

Perhaps these bits from the National Edition of the songs will shed a tiny bit of light on the problems related to their publication and dissemination. Or perhaps add more confusion:

“… please add yes or no in answer to the question that I will pose you: was it you who composed this? ‘Were I the glorious sun in the heaven, then to thee my light all should be given,” I received it in the last few days, and I dare not sing it, as I am afraid that, if it is yours, it might be entirely altered, like “Before the Battle” [“Wojak”], for example.”
–Maria Wodzińska to Chopin, September 1835

“Chopin wants one day to publish together his entire collection of songs and so keeps everything he has done suppressed.” –Stefan Witwicki to his sister, 1843

“Thus Chopin created in his prime, from 1832 to 1844, a considerable number of melodies, the greater part of which, unfortunately, perished. In moments of heartfelt effusion he confined himself to declaiming them with intonation and piano accompaniment, with the book of poetry in front of him; – but he continually postponed the moment of writing them out, despite our entreaties and insistence*. Illness and death befell him; and those artistic treasures now live only in the blissful recollections of a handful of his privileged friends.”
–Juljan Fontana, from the first edition of the songs, 1859

I do think that the Polish lyrics have been daunting to singers and publishers in other parts of the world. However, if a person can sing in one foreign language, why not another? (Well, there are reasons not to want to sing in consonant-heavy Polish.) The existence of the German translations is rather galling to me; if anything, they should have been in French! The German-speaking countries were less than friendly to Chopin, after all. And in the Schirmer edition, the English versions were clearly translated from the German, not the Polish, further disconnecting them from their actual meaning. It’s hard to imagine that there was not a single Polish person anywhere to be found who could have handled this job.

At any rate, until I heard them with the Polish lyrics, the songs mostly seemed rather inadequate to me. Somehow the correct lyrics made them snap into perspective and allowed me to appreciate them.

Some of the songs as we know them were put together from sketches and bits and pieces, and are not necessarily as perfectly finished as the composer might have wanted them. Some are simple “artificial folk songs.” Only a few are more substantial. I could conjecture that heavy-duty singers didn’t want to program them on their recitals, etc., because there didn’t seem to be enough to sink their teeth into. I don’t know. We’re told that the songs were always around in Poland from Chopin’s lifetime onward, yet there was no Polish edition extant for so many years (as far as I know).

There are some awkward octave jumps (in “Wiosna,” “Nie ma czego trzeba,” and “Dwojaki koniec”) that could possibly turn a singer off. They certainly give me fits, but then my voice is not very functional at this point. I was wondering if these are in any way characteristic of Polish folk music. I should know, but I don’t.

*Obviously he needed a MIDI keyboard and one of those notation programs.

Elene

Thank you for these fascinating quotations, Elene. What do you think is meant by the above? Do you suppose he spoke the words rather than sang?

Personally, I think he sang. Even I can't keep myself from singing or humming whatever I'm practicing. How could someone as musical as he was merely speak when there was music to be sung?

The National Edition gives both Polish and English for those quotes, so I looked at what Fontana actually said. It's pretty much the same as the translation: "...na deklamowaniu ich z intonacja...." My dictionary doesn't add any further enlightenment. But I think "declaiming with intonation" would imply words and a tune. He was probably singing softly, to whatever degree his throat would allow.

Elene

Kathleen, Frycek, MaryRose, Elene, Steven, friends,

I want to offer a profuse and sincere apology to all of you as well to all others involved for the absence of the www.chopinrecital.org site. The provider has made some changes without our consent, and I've been running ragged these last two weeks and unable to follow up on this matter.

Upon verification, the files are still present, but the site is inaccessible at the moment from the outside world. I want to assure all of you that this issue is in my to-do queue.

With humble admiration for all of you,

Greg

I know from personal experience that even when the capacity is gone, the impulse remains.

I agree with Frycek. Chopin always told his students to sing, sing and sing. And I believe he was told that he missed his calling when he played the organ, sang and acted, as a teen.

I imagine he had a deep and resonant voice.

And, of course, there is always the reason...why did he write so many songs if he didn't have the ability and desire to sing them?

Kathleen

The only description I've ever heard of Chopin's speech was that his voice was low and husky, that he customarily spoke softly and that his French was fluent but heavily accented.

He may have spoke French fluently, but he certainly couldn't write it well. I always get a kick out of reading how angry he would get with people who couldn't spell so many Polish words/name correctly, but he, himself, didn't seem to think it that important to write French correctly. A genius trait, I believe. No patience with the mundane in life.

Kathleen

Oh, again with Hershey (enough already, I know).

He was nominated for the Ovation Award yesterday for his Beethoven at the Geffen Theater in CA. I hope he wins.

Kathleen

Gerg, these things happen….

With the persistent irritation of his throat, Chopin’s voice must indeed have been husky. With the lack of lung Qi to push it, it must have been quiet. He was a small person so probably didn’t have a very deep voice to begin with, but the voice doesn’t always match the body, so who knows.

I may have mentioned before that my Polish friend here is a stickler for others getting the pronunciation of Polish names exactly right, but with her 8-foot-thick accent she never really pronounces ANYTHING right in English, and says she can’t tell the difference. Though her speech is extremely educated and erudite. She can spell perfectly, though.

French is actually a much more difficult language for spelling than Polish. I don’t think that’s a good excuse, though, especially when it comes to getting names right.

Elene

My guess is that this refers to something like what we refer to as Sprechstimme in Schoenberg's music. Schoenberg's practice, we know, derives from the kind of sing-songy delivery that was common among the great actors of the late 19th century (I believe one can hear recordings of the likes of Sarah Bernhardt doing this). So rather than "singing," Chopin may have been speaking the parts with exaggerated variations in pitch and dynamics, in a way that approached "song" without fully becoming lyrical.

Jeff Kallberg

Hi Greg:

Having almost gone bald with pulling my hair out on so many occasions dealing with computers/programs/software/code and the like, I empathize with you completely. And we certainly appreciate your taking so much time and effort into getting the chopinrecital up and running. Please don't worry yourself sick over it. Things always have a way of working out.

Take care,
Kathleen

Dear Dr. Kallberg:

Could this sing-songy delivery possibly have given birth to the hammy delivery that we see in so many old movies?

Kathleen

First of all let me say I'm thrilled to see you on this site!!
And let me wonder.....would this perhaps have put Chopin on the forefront of that? I don't mean, did he "invent" something like Sprechstimme, but as per what you say, that kind of delivery probably wasn't common till after his time.

Dear Kathleen: Probably so, though I can't really claim any authority on this topic!

Here's a YouTube clip where you can hear Sarah Bernhardt declaiming; at times it sounds to me almost like song:

Bernhardt - La Samaritaine

Jeff Kallberg

Again, I'm out of my depth here, but I think I've read that this style of declaiming went back at least as far as the 18th century. So I doubt Chopin was leading the way in this area.

Jeff Kallberg

I was rather enjoying the image of Chopin crooning to himself by candlelight.

Frycek, I forgot to ask: what are the Polish folk songs attributed to Chopin in that book?

Elene