BIFD Risa Matsuo

“Fantasy” according to Fryderyk Chopin: A Comparative Study Using Subjects by George Sand and Adam Mickiewicz

Fryderyk Chopin (1810-49) composed three piano-solo works related to “fantasy (fantaisie)” (op. 44, op. 49 and op. 61), all in the 1840s. This study investigates what motivated him to compose this series of “fantastic” works. In 1839, his lover George Sand wrote Essay on Fantastic Drama, in which she praised Adam Mickiewicz’s dramatic poem Dziady (Forefathers’ Eve) Part III as the most “fantastic world”. We can see from Chopin’s letters that he was moved by Sand’s manuscript. Dziady Part III was an important work for the Polish people, who then were forced into exile or combat by Russian imperial rule, to reflect on their Catholic spirituality. This presentation will make a comparative reference to Spiridion (1839), a philosophical novel written by Sand during her stay in Mallorca with Chopin, and consider whether Mickiewicz and Sand’s “fantasy” could have influenced Chopin’s subsequent compositions. I would like to attempt to project a scene from the 19th century, a time when many peoples, ideas and arts intersected, with the current crisis in Ukraine close to our hearts.

Bio

Risa Matsuo is a musicologist and comparative scholar. In 2010-2013, she studied at the Institute of Musicology and the Institute of Polish Literature at the University of Warsaw. From 2010-2013, she was a fellow of the Japan Society for the Promotion of Science (JSPS-DC1) and in 2018, she received her PhD from the Department of Comparative Literature and Culture at the University of Tokyo. After completing a post-doctoral fellowship (JSPS-PD) and served as a Visiting Researcher at the CERC at Sorbonne Nouvelle University, she is currently an Assistant Professor at the Waseda Institute for Advanced Study. She received the Japanese Association of Comparative Literature Award in 2020.
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