From Chopin to Kitsch? Pauline Viardot’s Vocal Mazurkas and the popularisation of classical music

Abstract

This article examines the concept of ‘popular music’ in the context of the work of Frédéric Chopin (1810–1849). The paper analyses six mazurkas by the Polish composer and their transcription for voice and piano, performed by the opera diva Pauline Viardot (1821–1910) to words by the French poet Louis Pomme (1831–1901). This chamber vocal cycle, composed by Viardot, illustrates the established poetics of the salons of the second third of the 19th century, where literature and music converged. Based on an analysis of various sources, this study examines the history of the works’ creation, their imagery and intonation, as well as the harmonic features of these vocal miniatures, whilst reconstructing their context. As a result, a connection is revealed between Viardot’s vocal mazurkas and Chopin’s songs, composed between 1829 and 1847, in the themes of love and loneliness. The aim of this article is to investigate how the opera singer bridges the gap between classical music and the mass audience and becomes a creator of kitsch. The research methodology includes an analysis of historical sources, as well as a musical and literary analysis of Chopin’s and Viardot’s mazurkas. The author concludes that kitsch emerges at the intersection of classical and popular music, where the integration of various elements from different mazurkas helps Viardot achieve a precise correspondence between the expressive content of the text and Chopin’s musical language.