Chopin and jazz. The case of Andrzej Jagodziński’s arrangement of the Prelude in E minor
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Date
2010
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Publisher
Katedra Muzykologii, Wydawnictwo Naukowe PTPN, Wydawnictwo Naukowe UAM
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Abstract
The current of jazz interpretations of Chopin’s music appeared in Polish
jazz in the early 1990s. On the one hand, it is the most original and native stylistic
trend of all trends influencing jazz in Poland. On the other, it is an exceptional phenomenon
internationally, since no works of classical music have received so many jazz
arrangements worldwide. The achievements of Polish jazz pianists in this regard have
become most representative, since piano texture and the process of improvisation on a
given theme show the most obvious references – not only musically, but also emotionally
– to the musical language of Chopin. The recording of the award-winning album
Chopin by the Andrzej Jagodziński Trio in December 1993 triggered a host of artistic
arrangements of Chopin works by Polish jazz pianists, each of which constitutes an
individual approach to the Chopin material, reflected in basic factors such as the criteria
for the selection of compositions or themes and the process of the original’s transformation.
Most jazz arrangements of Chopin’s music involve the piano miniatures
that dominate the composer’s oeuvre. This is due to the clarity of the melodic lines,
which inspire artists to turn them into themes for jazz standards. The Prelude in E
minor, Op. 28 No. 4 has become the most frequently arranged piece of Chopin’s music
in the field of jazz. The numerous arrangements are also stylistically diverse.
Jagodziński’s arrangement is an example of this pattern being adapted for use in a jazz
context. For him, the themes and mood of Chopin’s music have become a pretext for
the creation of his own jazz compositions largely inspired by Chopin’s melodies and
harmonies, but also by symmetrical form.
Arrangements of Chopin’s music have been continually criticised by purists, who
regard such procedures as a sort of profanation (any patriotic content in Chopin’s
original compositions seems to vanish in the chaos of jazz improvisation, which disturbs
the integral form of the originals). The basic problem here seems to be ignorance
of the fact that Chopin’s music is essentially only a pretext, a kind of external emblem,
for the creation of entirely new compositions, carrying different content, characterised
by the author’s individuality.
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Keywords
Fryderyk Chopin, Jazz, Jazz arrangements, Andrzej Jagodziński
Citation
Interdisciplinary Studies in Musicology 9, 2010, pp. 371-382.
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ISBN
978-83-232-2148-7
ISSN
1734-2406