NATIONALISM AS A MESSAGE
The Polish-American musicologist Karol Berger has argued that Chopin invented the instrumental Ballade as a vehicle to tell the story of Poland as he and his fellow émigrés conceived it—not the story of Poland's lamentable past (although that past is surely referred to) but the story of its future. “Personal and collective identities always have narrative structure,” Berger writes. “We identify ourselves by means of the stories we tell about ourselves, stories about where we have come from, and where we are going.”29 The story Chopin told in the Ballade was a modified and (by means of his music) universalized version of the story Mickiewicz and other exiled Polish intellectuals were telling about Poland—that is, about themselves. It was a story of impending revolution.
- Citation (MLA):
- Richard Taruskin. "Chapter 7 Self and Other." The Oxford History of Western Music. Oxford University Press. New York, USA. n.d. Web. 21 Jan. 2025. <https://www.oxfordwesternmusic.com/view/Volume3/actrade-9780195384833-div1-007011.xml>.
- Citation (APA):
- Taruskin, R. (n.d.). Chapter 7 Self and Other. In Oxford University Press, Music in the Nineteenth Century. New York, USA. Retrieved 21 Jan. 2025, from https://www.oxfordwesternmusic.com/view/Volume3/actrade-9780195384833-div1-007011.xml
- Citation (Chicago):
- Richard Taruskin. "Chapter 7 Self and Other." In Music in the Nineteenth Century, Oxford University Press. (New York, USA, n.d.). Retrieved 21 Jan. 2025, from https://www.oxfordwesternmusic.com/view/Volume3/actrade-9780195384833-div1-007011.xml
