Risa Matsuo

Risa Matsuo is a musicologist and comparative scholar. In 2010-2013, she studied at the Institute of Musicology and the Institute of Polish Literature at the University of Warsaw. From 2010-2013, she was a fellow of the Japan Society for the Promotion of Science (JSPS-DC1) and in 2018, she received her PhD from the Department of Comparative Literature and Culture at the University of Tokyo. After completing a post-doctoral fellowship (JSPS-PD), she is now a visiting scholar at the CERC at Sorbonne Nouvelle. She received the Japanese Association of Comparative Literature Award in 2020.

The project

Title: « Fantaisie » selon Frédéric Chopin : Une étude comparée avec les œuvres de George Sand et Adam Mickiewicz

"Frederic Chopin (1810−1849) composed four works related to “fantasy”: Fantasy on Polish Airs, Op. 13 (probably 1828), Polonaise, Op. 44 (1841) which he stated was a kind of fantasy in the form of a polonaise, Fantasy, Op. 49 (1841), and Polonaise-Fantasy, Op. 61 (1846). The solo piano works (Op. 44, Op. 49, Op. 61), except for the different potpourri-style concerto (Op. 13), which he composed in his youth, were written in the 1840s. This study investigates what motivated Chopin to compose these series of “fantastic” works. In 1839, George Sand wrote and published “Essay on Fantastic Drama: Goethe, Byron, Mickiewicz.” This immensely impressed Chopin and he wrote to Wojciech Grzymała regarding the greatness of Sand’s article and expressed his own views on Adam Mickiewicz’s dramatic poem, Dziady (Forefathers’ Eve) part 3, referred to as “metaphysical drama” by Sand in her article and praised alongside Faust and Manfred. This study argues that “fantasy” for Sand was more philosophical than just imaginative or dream-like. Dziady is a large scale historico-philosophical work. However, its text is difficult even for Polish people. Is it possible that Chopin’s concept of “fantasy” was influenced by Sand, which led to his own “fantastic” works in the 1840s?"

Hosting institution: CERC (Centre d’Etudes et de Recherches Comparatistes), Université Paris 3 Sorbonne Nouvelle

Selective Bibliography

• Risa Matsuo, Chopin no Shigaku (Chopin’s Poetics - From Literary Ballade to Piano Ballade), Misuzu Shobo, Ltd., 2019.
• Risa Matsuo, « Aspekty dramatyzacji w balladach Fryderyka Chopina w odniesieniu do form romantycznej ballady literackiej », Litteraria Copernicana, vol. 43, no. 3, 2022, pp. 149-163,
• Risa Matsuo, « Paroles et musique pour Lutosławski : article illustré par des poèmes de Iłłakowiczówna », Slavia Iaponica = Studies in Slavic languages and literatures, vol. 24, 2021, pp. 77-103.
• Risa Matsuo, « Requirements of a “Ballade for Piano” : A Study of the New Genre Created by Chopin », Renyxa : Contemporary Literary Studies, vol. 6, 2016, pp. 264-284.
• Risa Matsuo, « Z gór, gdzie dźwigali: Chopin's Song lnterpreted by the Poem of Krasiński », ONGAKUGAKU : Journal of the Musicological Society of Japan, vol. 61, no. 1, 2015, pp. 16-34.