Preludes

Prelude 15, page 1 (autograph)

Frédéric Chopin wrote a number of preludes for piano solo, most famously his 24 Preludes, Op. 28.

24 Preludes, Op. 28

	Prelude Op. 28 no. 4 in E minor Porticodoro / SmartCGArt Media Productions - Steinway Piano Prelude Op. 28 No. 20 in C minor MIDI recording by Michael Angelkovich
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These are a set of short pieces for the piano, one in each of the twenty-four keys, originally published in 1839. Although the term prelude is generally used to describe an introductory piece, Chopin's stand as self-contained units, each conveying a specific idea or emotion.

Chopin wrote the Op. 28 preludes between 1835 and 1839, partly at Valldemossa, Majorca, where the composer spent the winter of 1838-39 and where he had fled with George Sand and her children to escape the damp Paris weather.^[1]

Due to their brevity and apparent lack of formal structure, the Op. 28 preludes caused some consternation among critics at the time of their publication.^[2] No prelude is longer than 90 measures (No. 17), and the shortest, No. 9, is a mere 12 measures. Robert Schumann said: "They are sketches, beginnings of études, or, so to speak, ruins, individual eagle pinions, all disorder and wild confusions."^[3] Franz Liszt's opinion, however, was more positive: "Chopin's Preludes are compositions of an order entirely apart... they are poetic preludes, analogous to those of a great contemporary poet, who cradles the soul in golden dreams..."^[3] Despite the lack of thematic structure, for example motives that appear in more than one prelude, scholar Jeffrey Kresky has argued that Op. 28 is more than the sum of its parts:

"Individually they seem like pieces in their own right ... But each works best along with the others, and in the intended order ... The Chopin preludes seem to be at once twenty-four small pieces and one large one. As we note or sense at the start of each piece the various connections to and changes from the previous one, we then feel free to involve ourselves – as listeners, as players, as commentators – only with the new pleasure at hand."^[4]

The Op. 28 preludes have become standard fare for pianists of all types, and many have recorded the set, beginning with Alfred Cortot in 1926.

Like Chopin's other works, the Op. 28 preludes are not named or further described, in contrast to many of Schumann's and Liszt's pieces.

List of Op. 28 preludes

Prelude No. 20 in C minor, used as the theme for Sergei Rachmaninoff's Variations on a theme by Chopin.

1. Agitato – C major
2. Lento – A minor
3. Vivace – G major
4. Largo – E minor
5. Molto allegro – D major
6. Lento assai – B minor
7. Andantino – A major
8. Molto agitato – F-sharp minor
9. Largo – E major
10. Molto allegro – C-sharp minor
11. Vivace – B major
12. Presto – G-sharp minor
13. Lento – F-sharp major
14. Allegro – E-flat minor
15. Sostenuto – D-flat major ("Raindrop Prelude")
16. Presto con fuoco – B-flat minor
17. Allegretto – A-flat major
18. Molto allegro – F minor
19. Vivace – E-flat major
20. Largo – C minor
21. Cantabile – B-flat major
22. Molto agitato – G minor
23. Moderato – F major
24. Allegro appassionato – D minor

Description and analysis

Epithets are as given by Hans von Bülow^[5]. They are not official, and certainly not named by Chopin, but are cited in various sources as mnemonics. Only No. 15 "Raindrop" is ubiquitously used, but No. 20 is often referred to as the "Chord" prelude.

• Prelude No. 1 "Reunion", marked agitato, is short and uniform with its triplet-semiquaver figuration.
• Prelude No. 2 "Presentiment of Death" is an immediate contrast, with a slow melody over a fixed accompaniment of four-note chords played two quaver notes at a time.
• Prelude No. 3 "Thou Art So Like a Flower" is marked vivace, and has a running semiquaver bass part throughout.
• Prelude No. 4 "Suffocation" is one of the most famous pieces Chopin wrote; it was played at his funeral. It consists of a slow melody in the right hand and repeated block chords in the left hand.
• Following the exuberant ostinati of Prelude No. 5 "Uncertainty", the melancholy Prelude No. 6 "Tolling Bells" (also played at Chopin's funeral) features the melody primarily in the left hand.
• Prelude No. 7 "The Polish Dancer" is written in the style of a mazurka, in 3/4 time. It is the basis of Federico Mompou's Variations on a Theme by Chopin.
• Prelude No. 8 "Desperation", molto agitato, is considered one of the most difficult in the set, featuring continuous demisemiquaver figuration in the right hand, with semiquaver triplets (alternating with quavers) in the left hand. The entire piece employs a ceaseless figuration of polyrhythms.
• Prelude No. 9 "Vision" is a harmonically dense piece with a low "plodding" bass line.
• Prelude No. 10 "The Night Moth", molto allegro, is short and light, with alternating triplet and non-triplet semiquavers in the right hand, over arpeggiato chords in the left.
• Prelude No. 11 "The Dragonfly" is in 6/8 time and is similarly brisk, with continuous quavers.
• Prelude No. 12 "The Duel" presents a technical challenge with its rapid hold-and-release of quavers against crotchets in the right hand, involving much chromatic movement.
• Prelude No. 13 "Loss", lento, is long and has continuous single-note quaver movement in the left hand, with chords and melody in the right.
• Prelude No. 14 "Fear" recalls Prelude No. 1 in its shortness and textural uniformity.
• Prelude No. 15 in D-flat, nicknamed the "Raindrop" Prelude, is the longest of the twenty-four. The main melody is repeated three times; the melody in the middle, however, is much more dark and dramatic. The key signature switches between D-flat major and C-sharp minor (its parallel minor).
• Following the "Raindrop", the angry Prelude No. 16 "Hades" starts with six heavily accented chords before progressing to an impromptu-like passage in the right hand. The left hand mainly supports the right hand and repeats the same melody repeatedly. This piece is considered by many to be the most difficult of the set.
• Prelude No. 17 "A Scene on the Place do Notre-Dame de Paris" is one of the longest and the favourite of many musicians, including Clara Schumann. Mendelssohn wrote of it, "I love it! I cannot tell you how much or why; except perhaps that it is something which I could never at all have written." ^[6]
• The irregular Prelude No. 18 "Suicide" is suggestive of a mortal struggle. The technical challenges lie chiefly in the irregular timing of the three runs, each faster than its predecessor, played simultaneously by each hand one octave apart. A fortissimo five-octave arpeggio echoes downward into the depths of the bass registers, where the final struggle takes place and culminates with the double-fortissimo chord finale.
• Prelude No. 19 "Heartfelt Happiness", vivace, consists of widely spaced continuous triplet-quaver movement in both hands.
• Prelude No. 20 "Funeral March" is short but quite popular, with slow majestic crotchet chords in the right hand predominating, against crotchet octaves in the left. It is often called the "Chord" prelude. It was originally written in two sections of four measures, although Chopin later added a repeat of the last four measures at a softer level, with an expressive swell before the final cadence. It served (without the repeated bars) as the theme for Sergei Rachmaninoff's Variations on a theme by Chopin, a set of 22 variations in a wide range of keys, tempos and lengths.
• Prelude No. 21 "Sunday" is marked cantabile, and features an easy melody in the right hand; the left has continuous doubled quavers characterized by chromatic movement, taken up by the right hand also in the latter half of the piece.
• Prelude No. 22 "Impatience", molto agitato, is in 6/8 time; it begins with a characteristic dotted rhythm (quaver, dotted quaver, semiquaver) that Scriabin was later to make his own, in his early preludes that are perhaps the most important to emulate this genre of Chopin's.
• Prelude No. 23 "A Pleasure Boat" is spacious and melodic in the left hand, with running semiquavers throughout in the right.
• The long last Prelude of the set, No. 24 "The Storm", opens with a thundering five-note pattern in the left hand. Throughout the piece, the left hand continues this pattern as the right hand plays a powerful melody punctuated by trills, scales (including a rapid descending chromatic scale in thirds), and arpeggios. The piece closes with three booming unaccompanied notes– the lowest D on the piano.

Comparisons

Chopin's Op. 28 preludes have been compared to Johann Sebastian Bach's preludes in the Well-Tempered Clavier. However, each of Bach's preludes leads to a fugue in the same key, and Bach's pieces are arranged, in each of the work's two volumes, in ascending chromatic order (with major preceding parallel minor), while Chopin's are arranged in a circle of fifths (with major preceding relative minor). Harold C. Schonberg, in The Great Pianists, writes: "It also is hard to escape the notion that Chopin was very familiar with Hummel's now-forgotten Op. 67, composed in 1815 – a set of twenty-four preludes in all major and minor keys, starting with C major." As Schonberg says: "the openings of the Hummel A minor and Chopin E minor concertos are too close to be coincidental."^[7]

Chopin's other preludes

Chopin wrote three further preludes.

Prelude No. 25

The Prelude in C-sharp minor, Op. 45 (sometimes listed as Prelude No. 25), was composed in 1841^[8]. It was dedicated to Princess E. Czernicheff, and contains widely extending basses and highly expressive and effective chromatic modulations over a rather uniform thematic basis.

Prelude No. 26

The untitled Presto con leggierezza was composed in 1834^[9] as a gift for Pierre Wolff and published in Geneva in 1918. Known as Prelude No. 26, the piece is very short and generally bright in tone.

"Devil's Trill" Prelude

A further prelude exists. It is in E-flat minor and has been subtitled "Devil's Trill" by Jeffrey Kallberg, a professor of music history at the University of Pennsylvania. Kallberg gave it this nickname for its similarities to Giuseppe Tartini's violin sonata known as The Devil's Trill, Tartini being a likely influence on Chopin. The original signature was hastily scrawled (more so than usual of Chopin's original manuscripts). Chopin left this piece uncompleted and seems to have discarded it; while he worked on it during his stay on Majorca, the E-flat minor prelude that ultimately formed part of the Op. 28 set is a completely unrelated piece. Kallberg's realisation of the prelude from Chopin's almost illegible sketches goes no further than where Chopin left off. The piece was scheduled for its first public performance in July 2002 at the Newport Music Festival in Newport, Rhode Island with the pianist Alain Jacquon.^[10]

References in other media

No. 2 in A minor

• In Ingmar Bergman's film Autumn Sonata, Prelude No. 2 is an important motif in the story. The subject of technical performance and interpretation of the prelude opens a film-long disagreement between the two major characters, Charlotte (Ingrid Bergman) and Eva (Liv Ullmann).

No. 4 in E minor

• Baritone saxophonist Gerry Mulligan recorded an arrangement for his album Night Lights.
• Radiohead adapted it for the song "Exit Music (For a Film)."
• Philip Aaberg, Barbara Higbie and Daniel Kobialka recorded an arrangement on The Romantics, a 1995 various artists release on Windham Hill Records.
• A child performs the prelude in an episode of the television series Star Trek: The Next Generation.
• Used in the film Fatal Attraction
• Used in the film The Notebook (film)
• Used in the film Hope and Glory
• Used as the basis for "Clubbed to Death 2" by Rob Dougan. Left hand chords are played by string sections over a big beat drum line that stops when right hand piano notes are played.

No. 7 in A major

• This prelude is sometimes included in the music for the ballet Les Sylphides.
• Prelude No. 7 was used during a flashback sequence in Craig Whitney's 2008 film Harvest Home. The piece was also featured in the trailer for the film.^[11]

No. 15 in D-flat major "Raindrop"

• The "Believe" trailer for Halo 3 uses the prelude.
• The 1979 James Bond film Moonraker features the prelude in one scene.
• Used in Kurosawa's Dreams under the segment titled Crows.
• Used in Face/Off, in a scene where the antagonist dines with the protagonist's wife.

No. 20 in C minor

• Barry Manilow adapted the piece for his song "Could It Be Magic" in 1975. The song has since been covered by several artists, including Donna Summer and British boy group Take That.
• Jean-Luc Ponty recorded an arrangement on his 1989 album Storytelling.
• Richard Schönherz recorded an arrangement on The Romantics, a 1995 various artists release on Windham Hill Records.

No. 24 in D minor

• The prelude is used as a leitmotif for the eponymous protagonist in the 1945 film The Picture of Dorian Gray.

Citations

Sources

• Leontsky, Jan: Interpreting Chopin. 24 preludes op. 28. Analysis, comments and interpretive choices. Tarnhelm editions.

External links

• Detailed study guide of Chopin's preludes, with sheet music and recordings
• Preludes Op.28: Free scores at the International Music Score Library Project.
• 24 Préludes Op. 28 sheet music available at Musopen.com
• BBC Discovering Music Audio Program covering Chopin's Opus 28 Preludes
• Free listening (MP3's) of 24 Preludes Op. 28 (OnClassical record label)
• Prelude No. 4 in E Minor and No. 9 in E Major (Shockwave required) in hypermedia presentation at the BinAural Collaborative Hypertext