When the great pianist and composer Frederic Chopin decided to write a piano sonata in 1837, fashions had turned against the genre itself. Perhaps it was a feeling that Beethoven had essentially "finished" the genre, or perhaps it was a sense that a non-Germanic composer couldn't possibly master a form such as the Sonata, but Chopin's forays into the realm of the Piano Sonata were not generally appreciated. Robert Schumann famously said this about the Sonata: "The idea of calling it a sonata is a caprice, if not a jest, for he has simply bound together four of his most maddest children, thus under his name smuggling them into a place into which they could not else have penetrated.", This is criticism that we'll pick apart later, because it is very specific and goes to a big challenge within the piece. Mendelssohn also despised the piece, and until 1900, most of the critical reception to the piece was negative, criticizing its supposed lack of coherence and the strange last movement in particular. As a complete piece, the Sonata was rarely played until the 20th century. But there was one movement of the Sonata that was played a lot, and which has remained perhaps one of the most recognizable pieces of classical music in history. Yes, the famous Chopin Funeral March isn't a standalone piece, it's part of the 2nd piano sonata! And slowly, as forms became less rigid, and as experiments with tonality and even with inner coherence of movements became less taboo, Chopin's sonata received a critical second look, and performers began to take on the piece not as an exercise in trying to make the rest of the Sonata work around the Funeral March, but as a great work in its entirety. Now it is firmly part of the repertoire and is hailed as a masterpiece of innovation and creativity. The Funeral March itself is probably in the top 5 most played pieces of classical music, and was played at Chopin's own funeral, as well as at the funerals of John F Kennedy, Winston Churchill, Margaret Thatcher, Queen Elizabeth II, as well as of Soviet and Communist leaders. This of course doesn't include the countless times the movement has been heard at funerals of lesser-known figures. It is practically a cultural meme at this point and has been adapted thousands of times - if you think about a funeral, or about death, it is certainly possible that the Chopin Funeral march filters through your mind. But today is about much more than the Funeral March, it is about exploring this whole sonata, from its scintillating first few chords, to the experiments with sonata form throughout the first movement, to the dramatic scherzo, to that funeral march, and to the frankly bizarre last movement, which is over before you even blink. We're going to talk about all this, and more, on this Patreon Sponsored episode. Join us!