Of all the genres that Chopin wrote in, perhaps the most personal is the mazurka, which recalls the rhythms, modes, and characteristics of Polish music, allowing the listener to experience a sense of the composer's native land. Combining the influences of classical Polish music with the traditional dances—namely, the Mazur, the Kujawiak, and the Oberek—the mazurka allowed for a variety of compositional approaches and combinations. The result is a collection of 57 distinct short pieces, each with its own personality and flavor. The collection as a whole stands as an important part of the modern piano repertoire.

Op. 41 marks the halfway point in the compositional development of Chopin's mazurkas, and in it we can see more daring experiments in mode, form, and character. The opening piece of the collection is in the Phrygian mode, and the form is enlarged to a rondo. A recurring theme includes a subtle melody line that expands and soars by the end of each phrase. This mazurka's contrasting sections include a more lively and dance-like passage and a more dramatic and frenzied portion. Ending with a coda, the piece simply melts away. Hymn-like in its beginning, the second mazurka develops into an expression of pure joy. Chopin maintains a rich chordal texture throughout the piece. The third piece of the set is rather brief, with a contrast between the recurring opening rhythmic chordal figure and the energetic, arching melody. The final mazurka is very much a waltz, friendly and warm in character.

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Chopin had several love affairs during his short 39 years, the most famous and enduring of which was with novelist Aurore Dupin Dudevant, better known by her pseudonym of George Sand. Their relationship began in 1838. Chopin wrote this C sharp minor mazurka shortly after he had returned from Majorca with her, where he had been seriously ill with tubercular infection throughout the winter of 1838-39.

Clearly the mood of the work reflects a happy Chopin at the outset, a man whose life is filled with joy and hope. This is one mazurka that sounds dance-like, too, unlike a good many of the 51 he wrote. In the middle section, Chopin becomes reflective and the mood vaguely suggests a conflict, as the main theme seems to struggle in making its return. Near the end, the dance melody is converted into an heroic theme, after which the music fades amid hazy darkness, the joy and happiness from the opening completely absent.

Marked Maestoso, this mazurka seems a microcosm of a life cycle, moving from the happiness of childhood onto conflict and triumph, and finally to death. A typical performance of this C sharp minor mazurka lasts about four minutes.

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This mazurka reflects the generally happy state of mind Chopin was enjoying when he composed it. All four mazurkas comprising this set were written after he had met George Sand (Aurore Dupin Dudevant), the novelist with whom he would have a decade-long love affair. Only the second, No. 27 in E minor (written before the others, in 1838), divulges a somewhat pessimistic character, the other three being generally light and quite upbeat. It was not just his relationship with Sand that gave Chopin reason to feel happy in this effort: he had become seriously ill from tubercular infection on Majorca where he had spent the winter of 1838 - 1839 with Sand. He returned with her to France in early 1839 sufficiently recovered and obviously relieved he had survived the life-threatening ordeal.

This is the shortest piece among the four comprising the Op. 41 mazurka collection, lasting around a minute in a typical performance. The piece begins with a vibrant, light theme whose rhythmic elements gather greater weight as the music progresses. Near the end the main theme returns to its opening guise and the piece ends quietly. This is not a major effort on Chopin's part, but as a miniature it is a worthwhile composition.

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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.

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.

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 than the earlier ones 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 traditional European "art" music and used them to create music within that tradition. Some consider Chopin's mazurkas to be the most original of his works.

Completed on November 28, 1838, the Mazurka in E minor, Op. 41, No. 2, was first published in Paris in 1840, separately from Op. 41, Nos. 1, 3 and 4. These latter three, composed in 1839-40, were published as a set in Leipzig in 1840. Instead of the expansion on the "traditional" mazurka structure we find in the previous two sets (Opp. 30 and 33), compression characterizes those of Op. 41, especially the second, in E minor. This, however, does not mean the pieces are any less innovative.

Chopin opens his E minor Mazurka with an E major chord that includes a seventh. As our ears might expect, this chord resolves to A minor, making us think, naturally, that this is the key of the piece. The first eight-measure phrase stops on E minor, but there is no cadence. Such tonally ambiguous openings appear in many of Chopin's mazurkas. After another statement of this phrase, without a contrasting theme, the central section begins, spending most of its time on B major (the dominant), perhaps making up for the lack of this harmony in the first section.

Although the first section is not rounded as in most mazurkas, the central, trio section is, and features droning open fifths in the bass throughout. The recurring repeated note in the trio theme creates a transition to the reprise of the main theme, which ends just as it does in the beginning, nebulously, without any real confirmation of E minor.

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Most of the mazurkas in the Op. 41 set reflect a happy Chopin, a composer who was often prone to express depression and discouragement in his works, mainly because of his exile from Poland, but also owing to the ups and downs of his love life. It was in the latter area, however, that he had achieved a measure of stability when he began his decade-long affair in 1838 with novelist George Sand (Aurore Dupin Dudevant).

This mazurka came during the early years of that romance, and if there is a sense at the close of its two expository sections that the good cheer is fading, the piece is nevertheless generally high-spirited. The main theme is jovial but, oddly, vaguely reminiscent of the anxious melody in the Prelude No. 17, in A flat major, from the Twenty-four Preludes, Op. 28 (1836-39). That piece seethes with a fiery passion, and features a different musical climate altogether. In any event, Chopin offers a rhythmically alive, thematically multi-faceted mazurka here, that twice evolves from joy and celebration to a sort of soothing peaceful close, with a hint of weariness. Typically, this piece lasts about two minutes in performance.

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