Espronceda’s The Student of Salamanca and Chopin: Poetry and Musical Structures

Abstract

The influence of literature upon music was especially marked in the nineteenth century, notably with the vogue of programme music. Rarely is there a movement in the opposite direction, however, such as we find in some of the works of George Sand. Accordingly, this article explores how José de Espronceda’s narrative poem El estudiante de Salamanca bears striking formal affinities with Chopin’s second piano sonata, the ‘Funeral March’ sonata. Although both artists were resident in exile in Paris at the same time it is highly improbable that they would have been familiar with each other’s work. Nonetheless, the article suggests how structural details and devices in Espronceda’s poem betray characteristics both of Chopin’s sonata and other music of the period in such features as sonataform, the ‘turbulent’ nocturnes of Chopin, and thematic metamorphosis, a technique often employed by Liszt.

Keywords

• espronceda
• chopin
• programme music
• sonata-form
• thematic metamorphosis