Chopin’s Four Ballades: Genre, Pianism, and Musical Narrative

Chopin’s Four Ballades: Genre, Pianism, and Musical Narrative

An Interactive Lecture-Recital
Gordon Marsh, piano

January 23, 2015
1:00 pm


Frédéric Chopin (1810-1849) came of age during the post-classical period, where a consortium of battling virtuosos, piano manufacturers, music publishers, and taste-making critics, fed the public’s appetite for pianistic showmanship. In his mid-twenties, Chopin quit this world in order to focus on a unique musical language that joined popular genres and brilliant pianism in a deeply personal blend of thematic, harmonic, and contrapuntal narrative. The four ballades span Chopin’s most productive years (1836-1842), and have come to exemplify the composer’s achievement as a European master. Pianist and composer Gordon Marsh will present these works and others in an interactive performance where audiences learn firsthand what makes Chopin’s music so special.
Gordon Marsh, Professor of Music, joined the faculty of the Fine Arts Department at Roanoke College in 1996, where he has served as Director of General Education, Director of Pedagogical Development, and, most recently, the Fine Arts Department Chair.  Dr. Marsh received his B.M. from The Eastman School of Music, M.F.A. from The University of California at Irvine, and Ph.D. from The University of Chicago. Over the years, Dr. Marsh has performed as recitalist, chamber musician, concerto soloist, and conductor.  Dennis Polkow of the Chicago Reader wrote, “Gordon Marsh did an absolutely spectacular job with the [Ives] Concord Sonata, bringing it off as effectively as I have heard it in performance or on record… Marsh was not only up to the most fiendish technical demands of the piece… but also managed to reveal the subtlety, poetry, and riotous humor… a memorable performance.” Awarded a sabbatical for 2003-2004, Dr. Marsh spent a year at the Cité Internationale des Arts, an artist residency in Paris, during which time he completed professional training in computer music at IRCAM, France’s national institute for the coordination of music and acoustic research. In addition to his compositions for various vocal and instrumental combinations, exhibitions of his sound art have included installations in France, Germany, and the United States. Winifred Smith Hall     1:00 pm
Free and open to the public.
Dates: 
Friday Jan 23, 2015, 1:00 pm