CHOPIN AND WOMEN COMPOSERS: COLLABORATIONS, IMITATIONS, INSPIRATIONS

While the issue of Chopin reception has fascinated numerous scholars since the time of his death, with recent notable contributions made by Zofia Chechliriska, Derek Carew and Roy Howat, all three in Jim Samson's The Cambridge Companion to Chopin? and Mieczyslaw Tomaszewski's monograph, Chopin: Man, Work, Reception? the particular subject of Chopin's reception among female composers has remained a completely uncharted territory. The only woman composer who has been extensively discussed by Chopin scholars was virtuosa pianist and pre-romantic composer of songs and piano music, Maria Szymanowska (for details see below). Chopin's friend and colleague, singer-composer Pauline Viardot-Garcia attracted less attention, and, often, of a negative kind: her songs based on Chopin's Mazurkas have been dismissed as instances of musical kitsch with little or no artistic value.4 The Chopin inspirations in the music of Clara