Barcarolle in F-sharp Major, Op. 60

Composer: CHOPIN, Frédéric
  • This is one of Chopin’s late works, composed between 1845-6 (he died in 1849). It is one of his longer pieces, and represents an experimentation with form for this composer who generally worked in miniature.1
  • This piece was published simultaneously in London, Leipzig and Paris in 1846, and dedicated to the Baroness de Stockhausen, wife of the Hanoverian ambassador who was serving in France.2 The Baron de Stockhausen was the dedicatee of Chopin’s Ballade in g minor, Op. 23.3
  • Scholars don’t know the reasons Chopin chose to embark (haha) upon the genre of Barcarolle for this work late in his career: he never visited Venice. According to this work’s page on the excellent Frederic Chopin Institute website, Chopin would have been familiar with barcarolles in the operas of Rossini and Auber. (Chopin’s piano pieces often draw on the lyrical style of bel canto opera.) Chopin also used to assign Mendelssohn’s Lieder ohne Worte to his piano students; one of the most famous of these is the Venezianisches Gondellied (Venetian Boat Song).4

Sources

  1. Kornel Michałowski and Jim Samson, “Chopin, Fryderyk Franciszek,” Grove Music Online (2001), accessed September 23, 2021, https://www.oxfordmusiconline.com/grovemusic/view/10.1093/gmo/9781561592630.001.0001/omo-9781561592630-e-0000051099.
  2. Liner notes to Chopin: Preludes, Barcarolle, Op. 60, Bolero, Op. 19, Idil Biret, Naxos 8.554536, CD, 2000.
  3. Michałowski and Jim Samson, “Chopin, Fryderyk Franciszek,” Grove Music Online.
  4. “Barcarolle in F sharp major, Op. 60,” Instytut Fryderyka Chopina (2021), accessed September 23, 2021, https://chopin.nifc.pl/en/chopin/kompozycja/128.

Cut IDs

11501 13631 18534 20833 21320 40180 41426 43596