Chopin mazurka 23 ending smorzando

Great question — smorzando at Chopin endings is never just a generic “get softer.” In this Mazurka it’s doing something very specific and very Chopin-ian.

1. What

smorzando

literally means (and doesn’t)

Smorzando (from smorzare, “to extinguish, to smother”) means:

a gradual dying away — of sound, motion, and energy

Crucially, it is not only dynamic. It usually implies:

• diminuendo ✔️

• ritardando or loss of forward impulse ✔️

• a sense of breath running out ✔️

Think a candle guttering, not a neat decrescendo.

2. Why Chopin uses

smorzando

here (Op. 33 No. 2)

This mazurka is already:

• rhythmically unstable

• harmonically veiled

• psychologically inward

By the end, Chopin is withdrawing the dance itself.

In this particular ending:

• The harmony does not resolve triumphantly

• The rhythmic identity of the mazurka loosens

• The melodic line loses its insistence

So smorzando here means:

Let the dance stop being a dance before it actually stops.

3. How this differs from

diminuendo

or

morendo

Chopin could have written:

• dim. → just softer

• rit. → just slower

• morendo → dying away emotionally

But smorzando suggests:

• suppression

• self-extinguishing

• a gentle collapse inward

It’s less sentimental than morendo, more psychological.

4. Stylistic context: the mazurka tradition

Mazurkas are dances, but remembered dances.

At the end of this piece, Chopin seems to say:

• the village is gone

• the floor is empty

• the rhythm survives only as a memory

So the smorzando is almost anti-dance:

• no accentuation

• no stomp

• no clear pulse

Just residue.

5. Practical performance advice (what Chopin likely wanted)

🎹 What to do:

• Let tempo relax naturally, not mechanically

• Allow the tone to thin, not just soften

• Reduce arm weight progressively

• Avoid a clean, “finished” cadence feeling

🚫 What not to do:

• Don’t exaggerate rubato suddenly

• Don’t slow too early

• Don’t make it sentimental or syrupy

• Don’t end with a “buttoned-up” classical cadence

Think smoke dissipating, not a bow.

6. The emotional subtext (this is very Chopin)

This smorzando feels like:

• speech trailing off

• a thought left unfinished

• someone turning away mid-sentence

Which fits Chopin’s frequent endings that feel:

• private

• withdrawn

• unobserved

He’s not ending for the audience.

He’s ending for himself.

7. One sentence summary

In the ending of Mazurka Op. 33 No. 2, smorzando means:

Let the sound, rhythm, and will to continue quietly extinguish themselves — as if the dance forgets itself and fades from memory rather than ending.

If you want, I can compare this to smorzando endings in Op. 24 or Op. 68, or suggest recordings where pianists really “get” this moment.