ive songs something may be heard which reminds
one of the pain of past sorrows; a plaintive sigh, a death-
groan, which seems to accuse the Creator, curses His
existence, and, as Tieck thinks, cries to heaven out of the
dust of annihilation:

"What sin have I committed?"

These are the after-throes of whole races; these are the pains
of whole centuries, which in these melodies entwine themselves
in an infinite sigh. One is tempted to call them sentimental,
because they seem to reflect sometimes on their own feeling;
but, on the other hand, they are not so, for the impulse to an
annihilating outpouring of feeling expresses itself too
powerfully for these musical poems to be products of conscious
creativeness. One feels when one hears these songs that the
implacable wheel of fate has only too often rolled over the
terrene happiness of this people, and life has turned to them
only its dark side. Therefore, the dark side is so
conspicuous; therefore, much pain and poetry--unhappiness and
greatness.

The remarks on Polish folk-music lead us naturally to the question of
Chopin's indebtedness to it, which, while in one respect it cannot be
too highly rated, is yet in another respect generally overrated. The
opinion that every peculiarity which distinguishes his music from that
of other masters is to be put to the account of his nationality, and may
be traced in Polish folk-music, is erroneous. But, on the other hand,
it is emphatically true that this same folk-music was to him a potent
inspirer and trainer. Generally speaking, however, Chopin has more of
the spirit than of the form of Polish folk-music. The only two classes
of his compositions where we find also something of the form are his
mazurkas and polonaises; and, what is noteworthy, more in the
former, the dance of the people, than in the latter, the dance of the
aristocracy. In Chopin's mazurkas we meet not only with many of the
most characteristic rhythms, but also with many equally characteristic
melodic and harmonic traits of this chief of all the Polish dances.

Polish national music conforms in part to the tonality prevailing
in modern art-music, that is, to our major and minor modes; in part,
however, it reminds one of other tonalities--for instance, of that of
the mediaeval church modes, and of that or those prevalent in the music
of the Hungarians, Wallachians, and other peoples of that quarter.

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