Miscellanea op. 16

The works contained in the Miscellanea op. 16 were written over the course of eleven years. This set opens with Legende I. In this composition, Paderewski juxtaposed different impressions: calm, anxiety, dynamism, and buoyancy.

The next work is Melodie, characterised by a beautiful sweeping cantilena, which begins and ends with the composer’s favourite interval: a fourth. Meanwhile, the Variations atest to Paderewski’s considerable compositional skill. We find here both simple harmonic structures and passages with an almost polyphonic texture. The next worki s the Nocturne in which the significant role is played by impressions and emotions.

In the next miniature in this set Legende II one hears distinct reminiscences of the ballades of Chopin. The Moment musical, the shortest piece in the set, written in a Schumannian-Schubertian spirit is the penultimate composition in the cycle Miscellanea, which ends with the Minuet. In this piece, Paderewski returns to his favourite stilisation.