Chopin at the Boundaries: Sex, History, and Musical Genre (Convergences: Inventories of the Present) (Paperback)

~ Jeffrey Kallberg (Author)

Editorial Reviews

Review

"Chopin at the Boundaries" aim[s] 'to expose and partially recover aspects of Chopin's style perceived in his day to be marginal or foreign, but which today's listeners have transformed or repressed.' In this respect and in others, [it] succeed[s] brilliantly; Kallberg's scholarship is consistently of the highest caliber, his research meticulous and exhaustive, his arguments engaging. -- John Rink "Times Literary Supplement" --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

Review

Chopin at the Boundaries aim[s] 'to expose and partially recover aspects of Chopin's style perceived in his day to be marginal or foreign, but which today's listeners have transformed or repressed.' In this respect and in others, [it] succeed[s] brilliantly; Kallberg's scholarship is consistently of the highest caliber, his research meticulous and exhaustive, his arguments engaging.
--John Rink (Times Literary Supplement )

Kallberg is internationally accepted as one of the most knowledgeable writers on Chopin today. This book shows that he is also the most original. It is an extremely successful attempt to open out the study of Chopin into both social criticism and the history of reception...It is certainly the most stimulating book of Chopin criticism I have ever read.
--Charles Rosen

Mr. Kallberg...[explores] connections between 'gender and genre' by way of showing Frederic Chopin's small forms and surface beauties congruent with 19th-century concepts of feminine expression. Most of the pages [of his book] are given over to fine analysis of Chopin's work. There is in particular an excellent examination of that strange end piece to Chopin's career, the F-minor Mazurka.
--Kenneth LaFave (Washington Times )

[Kallberg's] meticulous scholarship is presented lucidly, and his acquaintance with pertinent literature of the past century and a half is impressive. (Choice )

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Product Details

• Paperback: 320 pages
• Publisher: Harvard University Press (January 21, 1998)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0674127919
• ISBN-13: 978-0674127913
• Product Dimensions: 9.2 x 6.2 x 0.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #674,393 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

14 of 16 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars FINALLY, May 17, 2000

By	John S. Hilliard (Washington, D.C. United States) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

This review is from: Chopin at the Boundaries: Sex, History, and Musical Genre (Convergences: Inventories of the Present) (Hardcover)

....we are all aware of the greatness of chopin. a few are privy to the greatness of george sand. here finally we learn a little of the chemistry which flowed between these two giants of the artistic paris in the 1840's. also importantly, the details, clearly presented, of the questions concerning chopin's music of the last years. this is a calm and reasoned book, showing the author's comprehensive knowledge of the subject. this is not a biography, rather a set of vignettes on particulars of chopin's life and gorgeous music. if you want some brilliant and clear-headed discussion of his gender ambiguity as a person and as expressed in his nocturnes, i encourage you to read this fine work.

9 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Sand was a killer!!!, April 17, 2007

By	Mr Bassil A MARDELLI "Antoun" (Riad El-SOLH , Beirut Lebanon) - See all my reviews

For instance, Aurore Dupin, pseudonym George Sand, the French novelist - later Baroness Dudevant - who wrote in masculine genres, was grotesque in her absurd ideas of love and she tortured the Polish Chopin who mainly composed in feminine styles.
Chopin must have felt her mind was a region utterly difficult to penetrate under the best of circumstances (she was six years his senior) hence the approaches he made to her daughter Solenge.
Chopin, fearing to be in the shadow of the strong willed George Sand of aristocratic lineage (through her father) and a distant relative of Louis XVI, would have none of it. Both were unhappily powerless.