The main theme to the Mazurka No. 16 bears a vague resemblance in its contour to that in the fourteenth. Even though both are from the same set, similarities between the two may well be coincidental, especially since this A flat major mazurka is of a generally positive mood, whereas No. 14 is reflective and sad.

The main theme to No. 16 is full of pauses—pauses which impart an elegance to its dance-like nature and seem to draw momentary attention to the last phrase, even to the last chord, which is always on the ascent. The whole is graceful and light, yet there are wistful overtones to the music, which give it that typical Chopinesque mixture of sweetness and sorrow. Still, this piece is more elegant, even aristocratic, than melancholy or regretful. The tempo marking is Moderato, con anima, and the emotional tenor throughout the piece is always subdued, whether in its brighter moments or in its more reflective ones. A typical performance of this mazurka lasts about three minutes.

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The mazurka originated in the Polish province of Mazovia, near Warsaw. In the seventeenth century, the dance began to spread beyond the boundaries of Poland. Stylized mazurkas, such as Chopin's, combine aspects of this and several other dances, but some characteristics are consistently present: an accented third beat (occasionally the second) in a 3/4 measure; the use of both the natural and raised versions of some scale degrees, particularly the fourth; and a drone bass. During the 1830s and 1840s "art" music mazurkas were very popular in drawing rooms throughout Europe.

Most of Chopin's Mazurkas are in strict ternary form, some of them actually sporting a da capo to indicate the return to the first section. Chopin's later Mazurkas are more stylized and are in many cases the testing ground for some of his most experimental ideas. Unlike other Romantic-era manifestations of "folk" music, Chopin's Mazurkas contain no actual folk tunes. He uses typical rhythms associated with Polish music, fragments of Polish melodies and Polish rhythmic and cadential formulas and combines them in an original way. Chopin's mazurkas are far more advanced than those by his contemporaries. Chopin borrowed sounds he found outside the European "art" music tradition and used them to create music within that tradition. Some consider Chopin's mazurkas to be the most original of his works.

Some of the melodies of the mazurkas are unusual in comparison to the melodies of European "art" music. Many of these are related to folk mazurkas in their "modular" melodies consisting of tiny rhythmic and melodic units. Also, some use cross rhythms, chromatic scales, and modes typically not found in Western music. Often, we find remote keys used as colorful excursions from the tonic.

By the time Chopin composed his Four Mazurkas, Op. 24, in 1832-3, he had become the darling of the musical establishment in Paris. The four pieces, in G minor, C major, A flat major and B flat minor, were published in 1836 in Leipzig. In this set, Chopin transforms the mazurka from a quaint dance piece for the salon into a more ambitious musical essay.

One of Chopin's most ethereal passages introduces the fourth of the Op. 24 set. Two lines, one syncopated, converge over a span of four measures. As the main theme begins, the upper of these two lines continues, providing a lofty counterpoint to the theme, the repeat of which is elegantly decorated. Thus, from the outset, the piece is far removed from what Chopin's contemporaries would have considered a "real" mazurka, which few of them had ever actually heard. A huge climax precedes the quiet entrance of the second theme. The harsh dissonances in this contrasting melody are a perfect example of the grotesque as found in French Romanticism (particularly Berlioz). Chopin's rearrangement and partial foreshortening of the return of the first theme decreases what would usually be a strong sense of reaffirmation at this point in a mazurka. Modal inflections permeate the opening of the trio, which is rounded by a return to the main themes but in reverse order.

The lengthy coda completely destroys the traditional proportions of the mazurka and serves to provide a close to the entire set. Chopin avoids a strong formal cadence at the close by writing the melody without accompaniment and ending on an F natural, not a more "satisfying" B flat. It is probably no accident that this "open" end is the final passage of not only this Mazurka, but the entire Op. 24 set.

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By the mid-1830s, Chopin was enjoying success with the publication of his music and had also been widely praised as a performer. These four mazurkas are among his better efforts from that period, and at least the first of them, in G minor, is one of his more popular, not least because of its relative ease of execution and melodic appeal. The four cover a wide range of moods and keyboard colors, their variety supposedly prompting the composer to play them differently every time he performed them. A performance of the group lasts perhaps 12 or 13 minutes.

That first mazurka, marked Lento, begins with a wistful theme, a typical Chopin creation in its elegance and overtones of sadness and longing. The middle section is brighter and more colorful, but does not quite dispel the overall dark feelings. The main theme returns to reinforce the reflective mood from the opening.

The second mazurka, in C major, is bright and joyous. Marked Allegro non troppo, it achieves an effective contrast with the preceding item and evokes the mazurka's folk-dance ancestry in its rhythmic vitality and playfulness. The main theme is sprightly and full of life, with the middle section of the same character but divulging a more muscular sound. Some Chopin scholars have heard a certain measure of restlessness or discontent in this piece, focusing on the mixture of church modes and other tonalities in the work, and consequently interpreting them to reflect indecision and uncertainty. In the end, this must be assessed as a fine, light work of bright colors.

The third mazurka in this collection, the A flat major. is marked Moderato, con anima; its main theme is vaguely reminiscent of that of the G minor mazurka, though the mood here is brighter. Once again, Chopin demonstrates that even when he is generally upbeat, he often cannot resist suggesting a vague longing or feelings of regret. Still, the music is mostly cheerful and elegant throughout. The composer offers an attractive coda to close the piece.

The last mazurka from Op. 24, in B minor, is the longest, at about five to six minutes, and perhaps the gem of the set. It presents a range of feelings and colors, yet every page is characteristic of the composer in its charm and grace. "Charm," in fact, is the catchall term that best describes this piece. The main theme is fiery, moving from elegance to passion, from appeal to seduction, never seeming to attain the climactic release it seems to augur. The middle section is subdued by comparison but ironically builds to a climax for the reappearance of the main theme. After a return of the opening materials, the piece fades slowly to silence.

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The mazurka originated in the Polish province of Mazovia, near Warsaw. In the seventeenth century, the dance began to spread beyond the boundaries of Poland. Stylized mazurkas, such as Chopin's, combine aspects of this and several other dances, but some characteristics are consistently present: an accented third beat (occasionally the second) in a 3/4 measure; the use of both the natural and raised versions of some scale degrees, particularly the fourth; and a drone bass. During the 1830s and 1840s "art" music mazurkas were very popular in drawing rooms throughout Europe.

Most of Chopin's Mazurkas are in strict ternary form, some of them actually sporting a da capo to indicate the return to the first section. Chopin's later Mazurkas are more stylized and are in many cases the testing ground for some of his most experimental ideas. Unlike other Romantic-era manifestations of "folk" music, Chopin's Mazurkas contain no actual folk tunes. He uses typical rhythms associated with Polish music, fragments of Polish melodies and Polish rhythmic and cadential formulas and combines them in an original way. Chopin's mazurkas are far more advanced than those by his contemporaries. Chopin borrowed sounds he found outside the European "art" music tradition and used them to create music within that tradition. Some consider Chopin's mazurkas to be the most original of his works.

Some of the melodies of the mazurkas are unusual in comparison to the melodies of European "art" music. Many of these are related to folk mazurkas in their "modular" melodies consisting of tiny rhythmic and melodic units. Also, some use cross rhythms, chromatic scales, and modes typically not found in Western music. Often, we find remote keys used as colorful excursions from the tonic.

By the time Chopin composed his Four Mazurkas, Op. 24, in 1832-3, he had become the darling of the musical establishment in Paris. The four pieces, in G minor, C major, A flat major and B flat minor, were published in 1836 in Leipzig.

In the second of the set, Chopin's four-measure introduction at once establishes C major as the tonic and creates a rustic atmosphere through the open fifths in the left hand. Also, the repetition of two chords makes the passage sound as if it is in duple, not triple, meter. Two four-measure themes follow: the first leaps upward then falls in arpeggios and is repeated, the second moves mostly stepwise, ends with repeated notes and is also repeated.

The longest modal passage in Chopin's music occurs in this Mazurka. The soaring, eight-measure theme of the of the second half of the first section is harmonized with F major. However, there are no B flats to be found, creating a Lydian sound for sixteen measures. As we would expect, the return of the opening themes rounds out the section, which Chopin closes ingeniously by extending the repeated-note fragment and again producing a duple-meter feel, as in the introduction, but this time through accents.

Chopin gives the trio great harmonic weight by setting it in D flat major, the Neapolitan of C major. He closes this section by again using repeated notes, generally open fifths. After a return to the main themes, the Mazurka ends with a reprise of the introduction and its metric ambiguity, hesitantly closing solidly in C major.

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With the exception of the polonaise, whose very title unabashedly evoked the nationalistic fervor of the large community of Polish immigrants living in Frédéric Chopin's Paris, the mazurka was the most characteristic piece of Polish culture transformed into salon piano miniatures at Chopin's hands. As a child, Chopin lived in the Mazovia region of Poland, the home of the mazur dance, and absorbed much of the region's cultural ethos. Only days after Chopin's arrival in Vienna in November 1830, he learned of the Warsaw uprising and its catalyst, the assassination attempt on Grand Duke Constantin. Perhaps searching for grounding in a foreign city unsympathetic to Poles and reacting to the political turbulence in his homeland, Chopin composed in Vienna the first two sets of mazurkas (Opp. 6 and 7) to be published during his lifetime. By the time Chopin published his Op. 24 mazurkas in 1835, he had offered no fewer than 16 essays in the genre. As Parisians embraced the Polish nationalist cause, Chopin refined the mazurka into the stylized, Polish-inflected salon piece for which he is commonly known today.

Nowhere are nationalistic expression and the intense intimacy of the solo piano salon piece more closely united than in Chopin's Mazurka Op. 24, No. 1 in G minor. Beginning with a dotted version of the standard mazurka rhythm (two eighth notes followed by two quarter notes in a measure in 3/4 time), the opening melody unfolds in waves of balanced ascending and descending arches over the generically standard chordal left-hand accompaniment. The prominence of the augmented second and the ponderous G minor key give the tune a sinewy Eastern European character. The third beat of the measure occasionally functions as an anacrusis into the following measure, and is an artful stylization of the musical accent that generated the stamps and midair heel clicks of the traditional Polish mazur. A modulation to the relative major key (B flat major) ushers in contrasting motivic material based on brilliant eighth-note triplet figures and sprightly hemiolas before the end of the first formal section. A shift to the closely related key of E flat major marks the beginning of another formal section, which features and develops the dotted rhythm of the mazurka's head motive and allows a seamless reprise of the opening music to round out the form and bring the piece to a close.

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