Chopin's mazurkas are considered the third dance form he cultivated in his music. With nearly 60 pieces, they constitute the largest of these three groups. In his mazurkas, Chopin experimented freely, resulting in strikingly original, sometimes even eccentric, compositions. As with the waltz, the polonaise, and the nocturne, he elevated a familiar musical form to the status of high art while preserving the characteristic elements of Polish folk dance.
Despite their brevity—few last longer than four minutes—and the various iterations of a simple ABA form, these miniatures possess the same epic density and depth as his more expansive ballads. The second volume of the complete mazurkas comprises the four late groups of Opus 50, 56, 59, and 63, followed by 15 individual dances composed between 1826 and 1849.
Particularly noteworthy are the Mazurkas Op. 67 No. 4 in A minor from 1846 and Op. 68 No. 4 in F minor. The latter is especially significant as it was Chopin's last musical idea, which he committed to paper shortly before his death, when he was already too ill to try out the piece at the piano. Although Chopin had ordered these works to be destroyed, the groups that appeared as Op. 67 and 68 were published after his death in 1855 by his friend Julian Fontana with the family's approval.