Two curious and beautiful Chopin mazurkas

The first - shall we say bartok and grieg ? What is remarkable this is Chopin's Op 7!

Now late Chopin -

But still what function is harmony here? Color? Counterpoint seems to dictate the harmony rather than traditional harmony once the the full period is stated.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z4hwAO1BRfk

the first is rather curious - i think it is in the wrong time signature, or is not the most ideal placement of harmonies in relation to meter.

the second is indeed most sublime - especially the shifts of key! ashkenazy really rocks it. it seems to me that chopin is really at his best when he is being experimental harmonically.

Actually i think the first one is fine. Rather there is not sense of harmony ... totally a reliance on meter. But that is more my taste.

I think they are both very nice. Sort of reminds me of a piece he wrote name "Prelude in X" and wrote the whole thing in a different key except for the last few chords. It's quite a remarkable piece.

Hmmm -

Not sure which prelude you speak of, overall many are quite remarkable:

THe F minor - baroque recitative on steroids:

The F # minor - chromatically daring and gorgeous - pretty much late Romanticism with a few impressionistic hints already in this piece -

Or the famous A minor -

The lh may as well be early Berg

The G major for the unusual pentatonic like voicing in the left hand and the barely can call it a melody in the Rh --- yet it works so beautifully!

Ah and shall we dance? The E flat major one which has the curious diversions everyone studies in theory: