Dodson, Alan. “Metrical Dissonance and Directed Motion in Paderewski’s Recordings of Chopin’s Mazurkas.” Journal of Music Theory 53 (2009): 57–94.

Abstract:

This is an analytical study on metrical structure in Chopin's Mazurka op. 1 7/4 (complete) and excerpts from his Mazurkas opp. 59/2 and 63/3, and on the effects of expressive details in Paderewski's recordings upon that structure. The methodology is based mainly on Harald Krebs's theory of metrical dissonance but is also informed by William Caplin's theory of formal functions, by Robert Philip's categorization scheme for tempo rubato in early recordings, and by research in meter perception and empirical performance analysis. Several addenda to Krebs's taxonomy of metrical consonance and dissonance are proposed, including a distinction between two types of intensification processes (graduated and terraced). Paderewski's performance practices are shown to greatly enhance (or even to introduce) intensification processes that span entire phrases or sections, and to highlight the arrival of events of long-range structural importance such as cadences that provide tonal and formal closure at the deepest level.