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.Because the C theme shares the pastoral tone of the siciliano materialbut differs from it in content, there can be a separation between thenarrator s voice and the first theme, as there was in Meyerbeer s balladeand the later reminiscences of it, where Alice and Robert converse inrecitative over the baleful thematic fragments symbolizing Bertram, Ro-bert s demonic father.The new theme can assume the responsibility ofnarratorial commentary without speaking only of idealized Poland, andso it now can deepen, so to speak, the story of which the first theme is apart.The narrator can deftly guide the listener through the unsettled andincreasingly insecure middle section, which is linked to the main story bythe siciliano rhythm in increasingly stormy realization (Poland is remem-bered sweetly, but then things go from bad to worse) via the glosses of theC theme, which perhaps suggests a hint of the hopefulness of the duetfrom Rossini s Guillaume Tell: Love in Travail, struggling to prevail in themidst of great historical forces.In that latter context, it is hard not to162 chopin s polish ballade EX.6.12.Chopin, Ballade no.2, op.38, mm.108 115.remember Mallefille s retrospective image of gloomy farewells ex-changed on somber woodland paths. When the storm music returns, the C theme is gone forever hopedashed, seemingly but the siciliano rhythm returns twice more as akind of psychological reminiscence.At the end of this fourth section, thesiciliano rhythm is stated three times over an E pedal (mm.157 164) inasort of expanded i6 passage, which has the ultimate function of establish-4ing, once and for all, that there will be no harmonic escape from the secondkey: the siciliano rhythm now has a clear role in the A minor cadence thatsets up the reckoning one that cannot be gainsaid.It is present butcompletely powerless: overborne, its pastoral spirit and characteristictempo completely gone and controlling absolutely nothing.The siciliano sfinal, glum appearance, of course, is at the very end: the narrator, singing ableak A minor farewell to Polonia in the final bars, reminds us that therewas no satisfactory ending, and that the tragic story goes on.Let me now summarize the narrative as concisely as possible.I see, inChopin s Second Ballade, an explicitly nationalistic tale: the martyrdomof the Poles and their national aspirations told in tones.A variety offactors point to this reading: Chopin s chosen topics, their operatic re-ferents, the extraordinary and unique form of the piece, the Polish cultur-al zeitgeist in Paris, and the important external clues provided by thetribute of Mallefille and the mention of Probst.The musical gestures andtheir referents work in concert with each other, in both literal and subtlerpsychological ways, as the story unfolds:martyrdom and exile 163 " First, mm.1 46 consist of the nostalgic F major siciliano-pasto-rale, as if sung by a narrator with listeners soft antiphonal assent.This is Chopin s Poland Before the Fall, in a kind of Edenic stateof never-to-be-recaptured beauty and joy.The resemblance toRaimbaut s ballade from Meyerbeer s Robert le diable is seen inthe introductory unison vamp and melodic and harmonic mate-rials, and that specific reference will be strengthened and mademore explicit by later reminiscences throughout the piece.Theslightly melancholy, bucolic innocence contributes to the poi-gnant affect: nostalgia for something beautiful but irretrievablylost." Second, mm.47 83 present a sudden, furious storm and battlescene that with its descending treble gusts answered by as-cending eighth-note bursts in the bass echoes the storm andbattle music from Rossini s Guillaume Tell, referencing thatnarrative of struggle for national freedom.It also evokes Jankiel sdescriptive playing in Mickiewicz s Pan Tadeusz, especially the storm of the Russians 1794 descent upon Praga; the sudden-ness and fury of the onslaught now call to mind the first Russianresponse to the Insurrection of November 1830: violent andirresistible." Third, we find in mm.83 140 an unstable middle section, in-creasingly troubled and inconclusive, beginning with the A themesiciliano but soon dispersing into increasingly wan statements ofthe C theme.Via the general relationship to the siciliano withoutthe specificity of the rhythm or thematic content, the C themecalls to mind once again the narrator s voice, glossing the ongo-ing action, perhaps (via the Rossinian operatic referent) sketch-ing a subplot about love in a deepening crisis.The recurrentpresence of the siciliano rhythm suggests the unraveling of as-pirations and dreams, much like the period between late Marchand September 1831, when it seemed possible though the like-lihood appeared more and more distant that the damage withRussia could be minimized.Chopin s subtle vacillation of moodin this section is masterful: the sweet C theme is repeatedlyprevented from reaching a proper cadence now by a quiet wispof the siciliano, now by an angry and explosive excerpt of it.Bythe time hopes are finally crushed, the C theme has been stated,hoping against hope, in the too-innocent and harmonically un-dermined tonic of F major, and neither the theme nor that origi-nal tonic key will ever return." Fourth, in mm.141 168 there is a return to the storm music ofthe second section, the very cataclysm the central section had164 chopin s polish ballade been seeking to forestall.The parallels to both the two-stageRussian response to the Insurrection and Mickiewicz s twofoldmention of storm in Jankiel s performance are striking.Thistime, the storm does not subside, but instead prepares, via a longharmonic extension, what is clearly to be an A minor apocalypse.In the course of this passage, the thematic fragment with thesiciliano rhythm is repeated three times, without resolution,against a dissonant tremolando figure in the right hand (mm.157 164), almost as if suspended in midair and scourged.Thehistorical parallel with this section, of course, would be theRussians return, and the musical style and harmonic trajectorytell us that there will be no escape, no return to the belovedPoland of childhood memory." Fifth, Chopin presents the ballade s reckoning section in mm.169 197
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