Jazz transcriptions of Fryderyk Chopin’s miniatures
Journal Title: Notes Muzyczny - Year 2014, Vol 1, Issue 1
Abstract
The author describes his experiences with jazz transcriptions of a few pieces by Fryderyk Chopin (Mazurka in A Minor op.17 no.4, Mazurka in A Minor op.7 no.2, Nocturne in C-sharp Minor op. posth., Prelude in C Minor op. 27). All these pieces were recorded in 1995 for the album entitled Chopin And Other Songs (Polonia Records CDO34). In the first part of the article the artist describes the role of the improvisation factor in Chopin’s music and he explains what made him translate selected compositions by this great Polish Romantic into the language of jazz. He describes arrangement procedures which the original Chopin’s music was subject to in detail. As much as it was possible, the author tried to preserve basic elements of the arranged pieces, i.e., their form and melodics. However, in exceptional cases de added interludes, links and codas. The element which was changed the most was harmony. It was contemporarised in the spirit of Free-Jazz, e.g. thanks to: adding colouristic elements, altering isolated elements through increasing or reducing characteristic chord elements, using the so-called tritone substitution, introducing elements of modal harmonics, introducing suspended chords and slash chords, using texture densing from clusters to hyper-wide harmonic order, or intentionally omitting obvious cadence and harmonic turns. Significant changes in rhythm are connected with swing, which is regarded by the author as the basic element making jazz different from classical music. Swinging is what multi-layering of rhythms and tension between them is connected with: moving of rhythmic accents, phrasing, stressing weak parts of a bar, sort of relaxing and loosening of tension, time moving caused by intense syncopation, and introducing irregular rhythmic formulas. With that the author assumes that natural swing is what you cannot learn – you need to have it “in you”. At the end the author stresses that while preparing jazz arrangements you need to avoid too avant-garde and ill-considered interference in Chopin’s text. Therefore, in order to keep a healthy balance between the original and the arrangement, you need a wide knowledge, experience and understanding of the jazz music phenomenon.<br/><br/>
Authors and Affiliations
Leszek Kułakowski
Keywords
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