Chopin’s funeral march (‘Marche funèbre’) forms the second part of his Piano Sonata No.2 in B♭minor, published in 1840. Though it is one of the most important works in the piano literature, it is also one of the most controversial— Robert Schumann describing it as ‘four of [the] maddest children under the same roof.’ Here is the story of what some consider to be Chopin’s most uneven masterpiece.
The Funeral March
Chopin wrote the funeral march in 1837. It is possible that it was written as a standalone work—Chopin’s own description of his sonata as ‘containing’ the earlier funeral march would suggest so. There is also some evidence in the manuscript that it was intended as a gift for an unnamed recipient.
The funeral march is by some distance Chopin’s most well-known composition, the definitive and perhaps too well-worn evocation of death and mourning. In the proper context, however, it still can have a powerful effect, as evidenced by its use in the state funerals of John F. Kennedy, Winston Churchill, Leonid Brezhnev and Queen Elizabeth II, amongst others. It was also used during the funeral of Chopin himself, in 1849.
The State Funeral Of John F. Kennedy 1963
It opens in B♭minor with sepulchral alternating B♭minor and G♭major chords. Over this we hear the plaintive melody that is characterised by repeated dotted rhythms—a very common stylistic trait of funeral marches. There is a melancholically serene middle section in D♭major before a return to the opening material B♭minor.
The movement is amongst our most popular of our works here on 8notes, with more than 30 versions of it to choose from.
Origins of the Sonata—I’ll see the publishers damned!
Though is may have been intended as a standalone work, there was pressure on Chopin to write a new sonata. An earlier, immature sonata by Chopin had been published without his permission or payment by Tobias Haslinger. This was the source of some rancour and it was likely that the composer wanted an authorised composition that would supersede it. And this time, as he commented to a friend, he would ‘see the publishers damned before they get [it] for nothing.’ In this context, it would have made sense for Chopin to speed things up by basing his new sonata around an existing piece.
The new sonata was finished in the summer of 1839 and published the following year. It is in four movements:
The first, Grave – Doppio movimento in B♭minor, begins with a dramatic introduction before leading into a sonata form movement with a stormy main subject. The second subject is serene, but builds passionately before launching back into the main material.
The second movement is a scherzo in E♭minor, the main section containing repeating rhythms reminiscent of Beethoven. The trio section is, however, pure Chopin, with a gorgeously sensuous singing melody.
The funeral march, Marche funèbre: Lento, (see above), forms the third movement before the short Finale: Presto, a skittish and unique perpetuum mobile, consisting entirely of octave triplets.
Withering criticisms
Some critics and composers have remarked that, whilst each movement is a masterpiece, the work as a whole does not seem to fit together. Critic James Gibbons Huneker said of it ‘is not more a sonata than it is a sequence of ballades and scherzi’, whilst James Cuthbert Hadden wrote that the movements ‘have little thematic or other affinity.’ Schumann’s comment about the work, quoted in the introduction, introduces a note of more damning criticism. He went on to say that the Marche funèbre "has something repulsive" about it. Felix Mendelssohn was most damning of all—when asked about the sonata, he said: ‘Oh, I abhor it.’
But built to last
We shouldn’t, perhaps, take the criticisms of Chopin’s rivals too seriously—they had all sorts of reasons for making these comments, not all of them honest. And, anyway, the sonata has stood the most important test of all, that of time. It remains popular amongst performers and audiences alike and is nowadays considered one of the most important pieces of its kind in the repertoire.
And the funeral march has developed a life all of its own, having made countless appearances in popular culture, including, most bizarrely, in an advert for an erasable pen…
...as an introduction for an American wrestler Mark William Calaway, aka “The Undertaker”….
...and in a cover by thrash-metal artist The Great Kat:
What Chopin would make of all this, we can only guess at.
