Mazurka in C Sharp Minor

Wrote a short mazurka. Does anyone else know any mazurkas besides those of Chopin? Just curious if there are any other accompaniments for mazurkas besides the waltz type.

Composed July 3rd 2019

Chopin cornered the market on the mazurka, but he wasn't the only famous composer to write them. Debussy wrote a rather nice one, here. What makes a mazurka a mazurka is triple meter (such as 3/4 time), accent on the second or third beat, and usually Lydian mode (although not all composers—Chopin included—wrote mazurkas in Lydian).

You can probably do a quick Google search to find other composers who wrote mazurkas. I think you'll find the 'waltz' accompaniment is the most common. Debussy is a clear exception—as he is to most rules of thumb.

Hope this helps!

2 hours ago, Tónskáld said:

Chopin cornered the market on the mazurka, but he wasn't the only famous composer to write them. Debussy wrote a rather nice one, here. What makes a mazurka a mazurka is triple meter (such as 3/4 time), accent on the second or third beat, and usually Lydian mode (although not all composers—Chopin included—wrote mazurkas in Lydian).

You can probably do a quick Google search to find other composers who wrote mazurkas. I think you'll find the 'waltz' accompaniment is the most common. Debussy is a clear exception—as he is to most rules of thumb.

Hope this helps!

 

Thanks! (I really need to find more Debussy pieces) 

No problem!

Most of Debussy's piano works are gems, both to play and to listen to. This collection of piano works is available for free on IMSLP: https://imslp.org/wiki/Special:ImagefromIndex/02907/hfne. Unfortunately, the mazurka isn't in there.

After you've spent some time listening to his piano works, branch out and hear what he could do with an orchestra... some of his stuff (written in the early 1900's) could easily be mistaken for filmscores of modern films!

Thank you!

It's fine, but it seems like you've kind of truncated some sort of form? You have like .75 of a period and it's a little strange hearing (1 phrase + .5 of a phrase).

Chopin did use Lydian mode in some of his mazurkas. See the central section of op. 68 nº 3 in Bb lydian, with the raised 4th (E natural).

My bad, Luis... I meant to say Chopin didn't always compose his mazurkas in Lydian. Thanks for clarifying!

16 hours ago, Monarcheon said:

It's fine, but it seems like you've kind of truncated some sort of form? You have like .75 of a period and it's a little strange hearing (1 phrase + .5 of a phrase).

 

Yes, I agree. I wasn't really paying any attention to the form when writing this. 

This is a nice piece. Each individual phrase is well formed and leads somewhere.

However, I agree that it doesn't seem to have an obvious form. Where each phrase is good, they haven't been put together very well. Either you need some more on the end or something in the middle to round out the phrases.

Speaking of which, I think if you wanted to make this longer you could develop the ideas a lot. There are some nice moments that would furnish a development, such as bar 2 with the triplets to a higher chord.

I think the harmonic language could be a bit more developed. It seems to mostly rely on tonic and dominant with other chords not really getting a look in!

Thanks for sharing this, and I can see that it has great potential.

nice work CalibriStandard! the melody is very fluid and though it's quite simple you make some rythm changes here and there, that make it work.

I also agree that it needs some more development on the form. 

One option you could do a binary form. The 12 bars you wrote could be part A. Then you need a part B, which could be done keeping the same rythmic patterns, but starting with EMajor, which is the relative of C#minor. Let's say 8 mesures in EMajor and then you can link it with the last 4 mesures of part A to finish in Cminor. You can even repeat A and B twice (Ax2 + Bx2).

Of course, there are plenty of other solutions by developing the material, modulating to some other key or adding new ideas...I just gave you an easy solution without much pretensions, which I think I could perferctly work.

And one more point: I would leave a silence on the left hand on the third beat of bar 8, since only the last note (C) belongs to the harmony and I see it more like a anacrusic preparation for next strong beat returning to the starting theme. I feel with this silence bar 9 have more power.

I hope it helps ;)

On 7/24/2019 at 11:37 PM, aMusicComposer said:

This is a nice piece. Each individual phrase is well formed and leads somewhere.

However, I agree that it doesn't seem to have an obvious form. Where each phrase is good, they haven't been put together very well. Either you need some more on the end or something in the middle to round out the phrases.

Speaking of which, I think if you wanted to make this longer you could develop the ideas a lot. There are some nice moments that would furnish a development, such as bar 2 with the triplets to a higher chord.

I think the harmonic language could be a bit more developed. It seems to mostly rely on tonic and dominant with other chords not really getting a look in!

 

 

Thank you for your feedback. There was a lot of things I overlooked when writing this. The harmonic language is quite boring lol