# Listening to Elgar, Episode Two



## Vesteralen (Jul 14, 2011)

Written during the same calendar year as "The Language of Flowers", but after he turned fifteen, Elgar's *"Chantant"* is a piano piece composed in the basic form of a Mazurka.

And, though "Mazurka" may suggest something Chopinesque, to my ears there is something a little more Schumannesque going on here. All I can say is that Schumann, even in his younger years, would probably have shortened this piece considerably. Clocking in at just over five minutes in length in the version I heard, there seem to be far too many exact repetitions of the opening two phrases to sustain any real interest.

About half way through, Elgar slows down the pace and works some mildly developmental things with the basic chords so that the return to the main theme near the end is reasonably dramatic. But, I can't help thinking the whole thing would leave a slightly better impression if an editor's pen would have been taken to the opening, especially to the period from about a minute thirty through the two twenty mark.

But, what can you really say about the composition of a fifteen year old, after all? Mozart and Mendelssohn would probably have done better at that age, but probably not too many others.


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