University of Cincinnati

Home , Antonio Soler, Edition Peters, Friedrich Kalkbrenner, Ludwig Finscher, Preludes (Chopin)

UNIVERSITY OF CINCINNATI

Date:______

I, ______, hereby submit this work as part of the requirements for the degree of: in:

It is entitled:

This work and its defense approved by:

Chair: ______

Chopin’s 24 Préludes, Opus 28: A Cycle Unified by Motion between the Fifth and Sixth Scale Degrees

A document submitted to the

The Graduate School of the University of Cincinnati

in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of

DOCTOR OF MUSICAL ARTS

in the Keyboard Studies Division of the College-Conservatory of Music

2008

Andreas Boelcke

B.A., Missouri Western State University in Saint Joseph, 2002

M.M., University of Cincinnati, 2005

Committee Chair: bruce d. mcclung, Ph.D.

ii ABSTRACT

Chopin’s twenty-four Préludes, Op. 28 stand out as revolutionary in history, for they are neither

introductions to fugues, nor etude-like exercises as those preludes by other early nineteenth-century

composers such as Johann Nepomuk Hummel, Johan Baptist Cramer, Friedrich Kalkbrenner, and

Muzio Clementi. Instead they are the first instance of piano preludes as independent character pieces. This study shows, however, that Op. 28 is not just the beginning of the Romantic prelude tradition but forms a coherent large-scale composition unified by motion between the fifths and sixth scale degrees. After an overview of the compositional origins of Chopin’s Op. 28 and an outline of the history of keyboard preludes, the set will be compared to the contemporaneous ones by Hummel, Clementi, and Kalbrenner. The following chapter discusses previous theories of coherence in Chopin’s Préludes, including those by Jósef M. Chominski, Jean-Jacques Eigeldinger, and Anselm Gerhard. The final chapter consists of an analysis demonstrating that all twenty-four preludes are distinguished and unified by recurrences of movement between the fifth and sixth scale degrees. The scalar movements are grouped into the following categories: scalar motion as melodic idea, motion between fifth and sixth scale degree as motivic seed, alternation between major and minor sixth scale degrees, alternation between the two scale degrees to form an underlying structure, motion of fifth and sixth scale degrees highlighted by marcato accents, and motion between the two scale degrees at climactic moments. The study includes all twenty-four preludes and shows that the movements between the two scale degrees appear in significant ways throughout the set to unify the entire composition and create a coherent cycle.

iii

iv ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

During the work on this document in 2007, I lost three family members, first my aunt who had always been like a mother to me, one month later my dear father, and less than two months after that my first-born child, Adrian. All deaths were unexpected and shocking. Going through this difficult time would have been impossible without my wife, who has not only supported me in these times but also encouraged me to continue with this project.

I want to further thank my advisor, Dr. mcclung who has taught me––with his many corrections––more about writing style, research, and how to organize my thoughts on paper than anyone else in my academic career. This document would have never been possible without his help.

My further thanks go to the two readers of this document, Professor Frank Weinstock––my piano teacher and mentor throughout my time at CCM who has always helped me in all matters throughout the years––and Professor Elizabeth Pridonoff, a most warm and wonderful person whose master-classes have inspired me as a musician.

I want to thank Dover Publications for allowing me to reproduce all twenty-four preludes of

Chopin’s Op. 28 as musical examples in this document, as well as Cambridge University Press for the permission to include Eigeldinger’s list of examples.

Ursula Kolb,

Armin Boelcke,

and Adrian

I must signalize the Preludes as most remarkable. I will confess that I expected something quite different, carried out in the grand style, like his Etudes. It is almost the contrary here: these are sketches, the beginnings of studies, or, if you will ruins, eagles’ feathers, all wildly, variegatedly intermingled. But in every piece we find, in his own refined hand, written in pearls, “This is by Frederic Chopin.” We recognize him in his pauses, and by his impetuous respiration. He is the boldest, the proudest, poet-soul of today. To be sure, the book also contains some morbid, feverish, repellent traits. But let everyone look in it for something that will enchant him. Philistines, however, must keep away. ––Robert Schumann (1839)

vii

CONTENTS

ABSTRACT……………………………………………………………………………… iii

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ……………………….………………………………..…… v

LIST OF MUSICAL EXAMPLES ………………………………………………..…….. x

LIST OF TABLES ……………………………….……………………………………… xii

INTRODUCTION……………………………………….……………...... … 1 Chopin as a Revolutionary………………………………………………………… 2 Document Organization …………………………………………………………… 3 Literature on The Préludes……………………….………………………………... 4

CHAPTER 1: ORIGINS OF THE PRÉLUDES, OP. 28………………………...……….. 9 Dates of Composition………….. ………………………………...... 9 Majorca: October 1838–January 1839……………………………………...…….. 10

CHAPTER 2: HISTORY OF PRELUDES PRIOR TO CHOPIN………………………. 15 Origins and Early Development…………………………………….…………… 15 Preludes during the Baroque…………………………………………………….. 18 Preludes during the Classical Era…………………………………………….….. 21 Revival of Preludes in the Nineteenth Century………………………………….. 24

CHAPTER 3: BAROQUE TRENDS AND THE CREATION OF THE ROMANTIC PRELUDE TRADITION………………………………….. 27 Chopin and the Baroque…………………………………………………………. 27 Contemporaneous Sets of Preludes……………………………………………… 32 Chopin’s Préludes in Comparison to Contemporaneous Sets of Preludes……... . 36

CHAPTER 4: NOTION OF COHERENCE IN OPUS 28…………………………….… 39 General Coherence Elements……………………………………………….….… 39 Chominski’s Large-Scale Plan…………………………………………..………. 43 Eigeldinger’s Motivic Recurrences……………………………………………… 46 Anselm Gerhard’s Philosophical Idea……………………………………….....… 54 Summary……………………………………………………………………….… 58

CHAPTER 5: MOTIONS BETWEEN THE FIFTH AND SIXTH SCALE DEGREES IN THE THE PRÉLUDES …...... 59 Scalar Motion as Melodic Idea…………………………….…………………….. 59 Motion Between Fifth and Sixth Scale Degree as Motivic Seed………………... 61

viii Alternation Between Major and Minor Sixth Scale Degrees……………………. 65 Alternation between the Two Scale Degrees to form an Underlying Structure…. 67 Motion of Fifth and Sixth Scale Degrees Highlighted by Marcato Accents….… 69 Motion Between the Two Scale Degrees at Climactic Moments ……………..… 71 Summary……………………………………………………………………….… 73

CONCLUSION………………………..………………………………………………… 75

BIBLIOGRAPHY……………………...……………………………………………...... 77

MUSICAL EXAMPLES

Fig. 3.1 Prelude No. 20 in C minor, mm. 5–8...... 28

Fig. 3.2 Prelude No. 18 in F minor, mm. 9–13...... 29

Fig. 3.3 Prelude No. 1 in C Major, mm. 1–6...... 31

Fig. 4.1 Prelude No. 1 in C Major, mm.28–33. The soprano ends on E4...... 40

Fig. 4.2 Prelude No. 2 in A minor, mm. 1–4. E4 resounds in the right hand...... 40

Fig. 4.3. Chominski’s list of motives...... 45

Fig. 4.4 Eigeldinger’s X motive...... 47

Fig. 4.5 Eigeldinger’s Y motive...... 47

Fig. 4.6 Eigeldinger’s list of X and Y motives in the Préludes...... 48

Fig. 4.7 Prelude No. 15 in Db Major, mm. 5–9. The dominant pedal Ab3 in the left hand creates harmonic instability...... 55

Fig. 4.8 Prelude No. 1 in C Major, mm 1–3. Opening movement from G3 to A3...... 56

Fig. 4.9 Prelude No. 1 in C Major, mm. 28–34. Closing Statement from A3 to G3...... 56

Fig. 4.10 Prelude No. 20 in C minor, m. 1. Beginning (G4–Ab4) and ending (Ab4–G4) takes place in the same measure...... 56

Fig. 4.11 Prelude No. 7 in A Major, mm. 1–4...... 57

Fig. 5.1 Prelude No. 4 in E minor, mm. 1–3...... 59

Fig. 5.2 Prelude No. 9 in E Major, mm. 1–2...... 60

Fig. 5.3 Prelude No. 11 in B Major, mm. 1–5...... 60

Fig. 5.4 Prelude No. 20 in C Minor, m.1...... 61

Fig. 5.5 Prelude No. 1 in C Major, mm. 1–3...... 61

Fig. 5.6 Prelude No. 1 in C Major, mm. 28–34...... 62

x Fig. 5.7 Prelude No. 3 in G Major, mm. 1–2...... 62

Fig. 5.8 Prelude No. 3 in G Major, mm. 3–5...... 62

Fig. 5.9 Prelude No. 8 in F# minor, mm. 1–2...... 63

Fig. 5.10 Prelude No. 10 in C# minor, mm. 1–2...... 63

Fig. 5.11 Prelude No. 14 in Eb minor, mm. 1–3...... 64

Fig. 5.12 Prelude No. 18 in F minor, mm. 1–2...... 64

Fig. 5.13 Prelude No. 22 in G minor, mm. 1–4...... 64

Fig. 5.14 Prelude No. 23 in F Major, mm. 1–2...... 65

Fig. 5.15 Prelude No. 2 in A minor, mm. 5–6 and mm. 20–1...... 65

Fig. 5.16 Prelude No. 5 in D Major, mm. 1–4...... 66

Fig. 5.17 Prelude No. 5 in D Major, mm. 32–9...... 66

Fig. 5.18 Prelude No. 19 in Eb Major, mm. 48–61...... 66

Fig. 5.20 Prelude No. 15 in Db Major, mm. 1–2...... 68

Fig. 5.21 Prelude No. 7 in A Major, mm. 1–10...... 69

Fig. 5.22 Prelude No. 17 in Ab Major, mm. 6–7...... 70

Fig. 5.23 Prelude No. 21 in F Major, mm 39–40...... 70

Fig. 5.24 Prelude No. 6 in B minor, mm. 1–8...... 71

Fig. 5.25 Prelude No. 13 in F# Major, mm. 18–23...... 71

Fig. 5.26 Prelude No. 12 in G# minor, mm. 70–81...... 72

Fig. 5.27 Prelude No. 24 in D minor, mm. 72–77...... 73

TABLES

Table

1.1 Compositional dates of Chopin’s Préludes……………………………………………. 10

3.1 Publications of preludes in the early nineteenth century………………………..……... 33

4.1 All Instances of resounding tones between two successive preludes……..…………. 41

4.2 Chominski’s large-scale outline of the Préludes…………………………..…………. 43

4.3 Central core of Op. 28……………………………………………………..…………. 44 ^ ^ 5.1 Type of 5–6 Motion………………………………………………………….……….. 74

xii INTRODUCTION

The 24 Préludes, Op. 28 are the most discussed and, yet, most controversial work of

Frederic Chopin.1 Since they were published in 1839, these unusual pieces have attracted the attention of pianists, composers, and music scholars. Robert Schumann expressed his surprise and admiration in his famous review published in the same year as the Préludes,2 and in 1888,

James Huneker wrote, “The Préludes alone would make Chopin’s claim to immortality.”3 The

Préludes influence on subsequent composers was tremendous. In the New Grove Dictionary of

Music and Musicians, Howard Ferguson writes, “Typical of the Romantic period and its

aftermath, however, are the many independent preludes for piano, whose prototype was Chopin’s

matchless set of 24 Préludes…of 1836–9…. [Chopin] seems to have established the prelude as

an important kind of non-programmatic characteristic piece subsequently exploited by such composers as Skryabin, Szymanowski, Rachmaninoff, Debussy, Kabalevsky, Antheil, Gershwin,

Messiaen, Ginastera, Scelsi and Martinů.”4 The Préludes’ influence continued throughout the

twentieth century. In 1974 Maurice Ohana composed a set of twenty-four preludes in which the

last piece ends with the three low Ds, an homage to Chopin’s set of preludes that ends in the

same manner.

1 Chopin published his set of twenty-four preludes as 24 Préludes pour le piano. With respect to his intentions, I will maintain the French spelling when referring to the set as a whole. When discussing the general term, works in this genre by other composers, or individual preludes by Chopin I will use the English spelling.

2 Robert Schumann, Neue Zeitschrift für Musik (November 1839): 163, quoted in Jean-Jaques Eigeldinger, Chopin Préludes, Op. 28, Op. 45 (London: C. F. Peters, 2003), 91.

3 James Huneker, Mezzotints in Modern Music, 2d ed. (New York: n.p. 1899), 171–2, quoted in ibid., 93.

4 Howard Ferguson, “Prelude,” in The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians, 2d ed., ed. Stanley Sadie and John Tyrell, 20: 293.

1 Chopin as a Revolutionary

Chopin was a revolutionary for his time. His musical style reveals a progressiveness and a desire to move into a new direction. His music was a forerunner of what is now termed extended chromaticism. As a result, his harmonic language must have sounded new and bewildering to contemporaneous audiences. Chromaticism as found in Chopin’s works became more common during the second half of the nineteenth century. In the early nineteenth century, his musical language was remarkable. Eugene Narmour writes:

Chopin’s importance in the development of tonal harmony has received wide acclaim in the field of musicology. His bifocal use of seventh chords, his local and remote mixtures of modal and chromatic harmony, his rapid, tonicising chromatic sequences, his planning of unresolved seventh chords, his extended pedal points creating a sense of harmonic stasis, his non-cadential endings, his vague tonal beginnings, his modulations to remote keys, his occasional experiments in non-tonality–– all these have captured the attention of scholars.5

From all of Chopin’s works, the Préludes, Op. 28 are particularly innovative and

revolutionary. Although there have been preludes for keyboard for centuries, Chopin’s contribution to this genre is distinct from both previous and contemporaneous preludes. His

Préludes stand out because they are pieces composed in an entirely new manner. They are

neither introductory pieces to fugues nor etude-like exercises as found in other sets of the time by

Hummel, Kalkbrenner, and Kramer. Jean-Jacques Eigeldinger writes, “Chopin’s twenty-four

Preludes Op. 28 (1839) mark a significant break in the long history of the genre, for with this

collection the hitherto utilitarian prelude became essentially autonomous.”6

5 Eugene Narmour, “Melodic Structuring of Harmonic Dissonance: A Method for Analyzing Chopin’s Contribution to the Development of Harmony,” in Chopin Studies, ed. Jim Samson (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1988), 77.

6 Jean-Jacques Eigeldinger, preface to Préludes Op. 28 by Frédéric Chopin (London: Edition Peters, 2000), vi.

2 Chopin’s Préludes are unusual in their brevity and the lack of traditional form (in many

of them), but also in terms of the striking variety of musical styles, ranging from mazurka-like dances, to etude-like pieces, to lyrical song-forms. They are short emotional statements, organized into all major and minor keys and published under one opus number. Chopin employed the old genre of the prelude as a vehicle for intense emotional expression. In keyboard literature, preludes had existed as improvisatory and introductory pieces since the fifteenth century. But Chopin’s set is the first instance of preludes that stand out as a set of character

pieces. Because the Préludes do not fit into any contemporaneous category, they were unique in

music history.

Document Organization

No document on a musical work is complete without containing a note on its origins; and in this case, it is also indispensable to discuss the composer’s letters from that time, for they provide insights into the compositional progress of Op. 28. Therefore, the first chapter of this document focuses on the origins of the Préludes. To appreciate that Chopin’s set of preludes was unique and new, it is necessary to briefly trace the history of the prelude genre. Only if one places Chopin’s set into its historical context can the newness and revolutionary aspects of his

Préludes become clear. Thus, the second chapter consists of a concise summary of the history of

the prelude genre. Those preludes contemporaneous to Chopin’s work, the sets by Muzio

Clementi, Johann Nepomuk Hummel, and Friedrich Kalkbrenner, will be discussed in the following chapter. In the fourth chapter of this document, I discuss the idea of coherence in

Chopin’s Op. 28 as theorized by Jeffrey Kresky, Jean-Jacques Eigeldinger, Anselm Gerhard, and

Jósef M. Chominski. All four scholars have identified features within the Préludes that

3 contribute to an overall coherence. Finally, the fifth chapter proposes my own theory about the

unifying principle of Chopin’s Préludes. During my research I found that two scale degrees, the

fifth and the sixth, are of special importance to all pieces in the set. Repeated movements

between these two scale degrees appear in the melody, as ostinato patterns, and opening motives

from which the material of the piece is derived. The repetition of these two scale degrees unifies

the set.

Literature on The Préludes

There are several doctoral documents on Chopin’s Préludes. In her thesis “Non-Harmonic Tones

as Aesthetic Elements in Chopin’s Preludes, Op. 28,” Yangkyung Lee has grouped the non-

harmonic tones of the Préludes into five categories: harmonic color, motivic integration,

temporality, continuity between phrases, and inventive accompanimental patterns.”7 Out of the

twenty-four preludes she has selected those fourteen, that include non-harmonic tones most

prominently in their musical language: No. 2 in A minor, No. 5 in D Major, No. 8 in F# minor,

No. 10 in C# minor, No. 11 in B Major, No. 12 in G# minor, No. 13 in F# Major, No. 14 in Eb

minor, No. 17 in Ab Major, No. 18 in F minor, No. 19 in Eb Major, No. 20 in C minor, No. 21 in

B-flat Major, and No. 22 in G minor. She has grouped these fourteen preludes according to three

types of non-harmonic tones, neighbor tones, suspensions, and anticipations. She concludes that

the role of non-harmonic tones in Chopin’s Op. 28 can be summarized as harmonic color,

motivic integration, temporality, continuity between phrases, and inventive accompanimental patterns. Her thesis is an attempt to reveal the unique compositional qualities in the Préludes based their non-harmonic tones.

7 Yangkyung Lee, “Non-Harmonic Tones as Aesthetic Elements in Chopin’s Preludes, Op. 28” (D.M.A. thesis, University of Cincinnati, 2002).

4 Yunjoo Kang, in her dissertation, “The Chopin Preludes Opus 28: An Eclectic Analysis

with Performance Guide,”8 attempts to uncover compositional techniques and performance practice. Her study is based on a detailed analysis of four selected preludes: No. 15 in Db Major,

No. 16 in Bb minor, No. 17 in Ab major, and No. 22 in G minor. She uses the so-called eclectic

analysis, an approach that functions on different analytical levels. This method is sensitive to the

different ways on how the music is experienced. Kang provides a conventional analysis of syntax,

a descriptive phenomenological analysis of sound-in-time, and a hermeneutic phenomenological

analysis of musical references. In addition, she explains musical syntax with a Schenkerian approach.

In 1987 David Bunker Schwarz wrote a theoretical dissertation entitled “Structuralism,

Post-Structuralism, and a Classical Musical Text: A New Look at Chopin’s Preludes, Opus 28.”

He discusses the cross-reference between a selected number of preludes with “an emphasis upon

one parameter of the music such as pitch, texture, and register.”9 He considers all available tools

of musical analysis as so-called codes, which may be used in a variety of combinations. While he

applies his system of codes to Prelude No. 1 in C Major, he discusses cross-references with an

emphasis upon one parameter of the music such as pitch, texture, register to Preludes No. 2 in A

minor, No. 4 in E minor, No. 6 in B minor, No. 8 in F# minor, No. 9 in E Major, No. 12 in G# minor, and No. 19 in Eb Major. Following that he analyses Prelude No. 21 in Bb Major using

Schenkerian sketches. In the conclusion he explains how the cross-referential codes might be

extended to form the basis of a theory of music perception.

8 Yunjoo Kang, “The Chopin Preludes Opus 28: An Eclectic Analysis with Performance Guide” (Ph.D. diss., New York University, 1994).

9 David Bunker Schwarz, “Structuralism, Post-Structuralism, and a Classical Musical Text: A New Look at Chopin’s Preludes, Opus 28” (Ph.D. diss., The University of Texas, Austin, 1987).

5 Allen Dorfman in his dissertation focused on ratio relations within individual preludes as

well as with regard to the entire set. 10 He applies his method for the interpretation of musical

form in all twenty-four preludes. His diagrams represent the structure and shape of each prelude

as well as the opening periods of twelve selected preludes. Based upon the resulting thirty-six

forms he concludes in his study that structural divisions tend to occur within the ranges of .19–

.33, .44–.55, and .69–.84, proportionate to the whole, while points of climax generally occur

within the range .56–.67.

Besides other useful references such as the Die Musik in Geschichte und Gegenwart, The

New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians, Chopin’s Musical Style by Gerald Abraham, and

Chopin Studies edited by Jim Samson, there are, of course, Chopin’s letters. I have consulted three different editions, including the complete letters in the original French,11 and two English

translations, one from 1931,12 the other from 1963.13 I have examined the articles “Autour des

Préludes de Chopin” (Concerning the Chopin preludes),14 “Chopin et l’héritage baroque”

(Chopin and the heritage of the Baroque),15 “Le prélude «de la goutte d’eau» de Chopin” (The

10 Allen Arthur Dorfman, “A Theory of Form and Proportion in Music” (Ph.D. diss., University of California, Los Angeles, 1986).

11 Fryderick Chopin, Correspondence de: édition définitive (The correspondence of Frédéric Chopin: The definitive edition), Vol. I–III, ed. and trans. Bronislav Édouard Sydow, Suzanne, and Denise Chainaye (Paris: La Revue Musicale, 1981).

12 Fryderick Chopin, Chopin’s Letters, coll. and ed. by Henryk Opieński (New York: Alfred Knopf, 1931).

13 Fryderick Chopin, Selected Correspondence of Fryderyk Chopin, ed. and trans. Arthur Hedley (New York: Da Capo Press, 1963).

14 Jean-Jacques Eigeldinger, “Autour des Préludes de Chopin” (Concerning the Chopin Preludes), Revue Musicale de Suisse Romande 25 (1972): 3–7.

15 Jean-Jacques Eigeldinger, “Chopin et l’héritage baroque” (Chopin and the heritage of the Baroque), Schweizer Beiträge zur Musikwissenschaft 2 (1974): 51–74.

6 “raindrop prelude” by Chopin)16 by the renowned Swiss musicologist Jean-Jaques Eigeldinger, and “Chopins Preludes und Etudes und Bachs Wohltemperiertes Klavier” (Chopin’s preludes and etudes and Bach’s Well-Tempered Clavier) by Walter Wiora,17 who proposes that Chopin had originally intended the Préludes as introductory pieces to his twenty-four etudes, resembling the traditional prelude and fugue coupling––an interesting theory, however, mostly based on speculation.

The most essential sources for this document, however, are those written by the four scholars who have explored the topic of cyclic coherence: Jeffrey Kresky,18 Jean-Jacques

Eigeldinger,19 Anselm Gerhard,20 and Jósef M. Chominski.21 All four authors believe that the

Préludes are not merely twenty-four miniatures, but, instead, form a unified set.

An extended research of these sources as well as an analysis of the Préludes has led me to the conclusion that Chopin’s Op. 28 is a unified composition that stands as something unique in history. Chopin has looked back to one of the most popular genres in keyboard literature, the

16 Jean-Jacques Eigeldinger, “Le prélude «de la goutte d’eau» de Chopin” (The “Raindrop Prelude” by Chopin), Revue de Musicologie Société Française de Musicologie 61 (1975): 70–90.

17 Walter Wiora, “Chopins Preludes und Etudes und Bachs Wohltemperiertes Klavier” (Chopin’s preludes and etudes and Bach’s Well-Tempered Clavier), Historische und Systematische Musikwissenschaft, ed. Hellmut Kühn and Christoph-Hellmut Mahling (München: Hans Schneider Tutzing, 1972), 323–35.

18 Jeffrey Kresky, A Reader’s Guide to the Chopin Preludes (London: Greenwood Press, 1994).

19 Jean-Jacques Eigeldinger, “Twenty-four Preludes Op. 28: Genre, Structure, Significance,” in Chopin Studies, ed. Jim Samson (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1988), 167–93.

20 Anselm Gerhard, “Reflexionen über den Beginn der Musik. Eine neue Deutung von Frédéric Chopins Préludes op. 28 (Reflections on the beginning of music: A new interpretation of Frédéric Chopin’s Préludes op. 28),” in Deutsche Musik im Wegkreuz zwischen Polen und Frankreich (German music as an intersection between Poland and France), ed. Christoph-Hellmut Mahling and Kristina Pfarr (Eurasburg: Hans Schneider Tutzing, 1996), 99–112.

21 Jósef M. Chominski, Preludia Chopina (Chopin’s preludes) (Kraków: PWM, 1950). This article is not available in English but its essence has been summarized in Janet Marie Lopinski, “The Preludes Opus 28 by Fryderyk Chopin with Emphasis on Polish Sources” (D.M.A. thesis, University of Cincinnati, 1990).

7 prelude, and transformed it into a nineteenth-century cyclic composition. He did not give descriptive titles or other hints to the pieces (as often found in Robert Schumann’s cycles), but instead he unified the preludes on a more subtle level, as I will show in the final chapter of this document. For these reasons the Préludes are a milestone in piano literature.

8 CHAPTER 1

ORIGINS OF THE PRÉLUDES, OP. 28

Date of Composition

There is uncertainty to the exact origins of the Preludes. While most scholars suggest that

Chopin composed some, if not most pieces of Op. 28, during his stay in Majorca during the winter of 1838–9, there is little evidence to support this idea. The composer’s previous work is the two Nocturnes, Op. 27, written in Autumn 1835, and published in May 1836, while the

Preludes’ successor, is the Impromptu in Ab Major, Op. 29, published in 1837 in Paris and

London.22 By the time Chopin published the Préludes, Op. 28, in June 1839, his compositional

output had already reached the opus number 34. Based on these facts, it is almost certain that

Chopin had at least started to think about composing the Preludes in 1836––after the publication

of the Nocturnes, Op. 27––and had spent a long time writing the preludes, most likely from

1835–39. Because the compositional process took several years, the opus number 28 remained

open, while he moved on with other compositions. However, it is incorrect to assume that it was

of particular importance to Chopin that his Préludes would receive the number 28, for he

confessed in a letter to Pleyel on 17 March 1839 that he could not remember the opus number

reserved for the twenty-four Preludes.23 Maurice J. E. Brown has attempted to reconstruct the

compositional history of the Préludes. Based on an evaluation of all available facts and logical

22 Kornel Michalowski and Jim Samson, “Chopin, Fryderyk Franciszek,” in The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians, 2d ed., ed. Stanley Sadie and John Tyrell, 5: 728.

23 Maurice J. E. Brown, “The Chronology of Chopin’s Preludes,” Musical Times 98 (1957): 424.

9 assumptions, he has compiled a list of possible composition dates with only six preludes (marked

with an asterix in Table 1.1) whose actual date can be assigned with certainty.24

Table 1.1 Compositional dates of Chopin’s Préludes. Autumn October 1836 1837 1835– 1838– October 1838 January 1839 at Majorca 3, 5, 6, 8, 9, Preludes 7* 17*, 20 11, 12, 13, 14, 1, 2*, 4*, 10*, Nos. 15, 16, 18, 19, 21* 22, 23, 24 . Table 1.1 shows that the vast majority of preludes were most likely composed between 1835 and

1838. While the popular assumption that most pieces were composed during Chopin’s stay in

Majorca is still possible, there is only certainty for only four out of the twenty-four preludes, Nos.

2, 4, 10, and 21. It is certain, however, that Chopin spent more time on the Préludes than on his

other works––four years at the least––and that some of them were composed during his stay in

Majorca. Everything else about the Préludes origins remains speculative.

Majorca: October 1838–January 1839

Chopin’s stay in Majorca with George Sand has been often mentioned and romanticized

when in reality it was an extremely difficult, if not disastrous trip. At their first meeting, in

autumn 1837, Sand left a terrible impression on Chopin,25 but when they met again in April 1838, their love was “almost kindled almost instantly,” and by early June of the same year “the pair were lovers.”26 Only four months later, in October 1838, they found themselves on the

24 Ibid.

25 Michalowski and Samson, 709. Chopin wrote, “What an unattractive person La Sand is. Is she really a woman?”

26 Ibid.

10 Mediterranean island of Majorca, “with Sand’s two children, partly to escape the difficulties

posed by her former lover Félicien Mallefille.”27 It was not only Chopin’s intention to finish the

remaining preludes during this stay but he even paid for this vacation by selling his Préludes in

advance to the Paris publisher Camille Pleyel in October.28 At the beginning of the vacation,

Chopin was thrilled with the wonderful island. On 19 November he wrote to Julian Fontana from

Palma in Majorca:

A sky like turquoise, a sea like lapis lazuli; mountains like emerald, air like heaven. Sun all day, and hot; everyone in summer clothing; at night guitars and singing for hours. Huge balconies with grape-vines overhead; Moorish walls. Everything looks towards Africa, as the town does. In short, a glorious life…. Go to Pleyel; the piano has not yet come. How was it sent? You will soon receive some Préludes. I shall probably lodge in a wonderful monastery, the most beautiful situation in the world; sea, mountains, palms….Ah, my dear, I am coming alive a little.29

This letter shows that Chopin enjoyed the Mediterranean setting and the warm

temperatures. He awaited the piano and was confident he would be able finish the

Préludes in no time. This was only the beginning, however. About two weeks later, he gives a frightening picture of himself. On 3 December 1838 he wrote again to Fontana:

I can’t send you the manuscript [of the Préludes], for it is not finished. I have been sick as a dog these last two weeks; I caught a cold in spite of 18 degrees of heat, roses, oranges, palms, figs and three most famous doctors of the island. One sniffed at what I spat up, the second tapped where I spat it from, the third poked about and listened how I spat it. One said I had died, the second that I am dying, and the third that I shall die.30

The letter shows that Chopin’s health condition had worsened, and the change in climate and

scenery had given him an upswing that lasted for only a few days. Besides the devastating health

27 Ibid.

28 Brown, 423.

29 Frederic Chopin, Chopin’s Letters, trans. and ed. E. L. Voynich (New York: Alfred A Knopf, 1931), 185.

30 Ibid., 186.

11 situation, the piano had not arrived yet, and therefore, his capability to work was very limited.

Despite these circumstances, he remained ambitious, for he worked on the Scherzo in C# minor,

the Mazurka in E minor, the Ballade in F Major, and the Polonaise in C minor. The following

letter shows his continued threatening physical problems but also a spirit of hope and his

confidence in finishing the Préludes as well as the Ballade. Less than two weeks after his visit

with the three doctors, he wrote to Fontana on 14 December 1838:

Meanwhile my manuscripts sleep, but I can’t sleep; only cough and covered with poultices for a long time past, wait for the spring or for something else. Tomorrow I go to that wonderful monastery of Valldemosa, to write in the cell of some old monk, who perhaps had more fire in his soul than I…I think I shall soon send you my Préludes and a Ballade.31

Two weeks later, Chopin seemed to be still full of hope, but again, without compositional results.

On 28 December 1838, he wrote to Fontana, “I can’t send you the Préludes, for they are not

finished: I feel better and will hurry up.”32

After the move to the Carthusian monastery in Valldemosa––into which Chopin had put

so much hope––things deteriorated, however, and the entire stay in Majorca––originally intended

as a recreational vacation––turned into an extremely difficult time. In The New Grove Dictionary

of Music and Musicians Kornel Michałowski and Jim Samson write:

[The stay in Majorca] was an ill-considered venture, during which Chopin’s health deteriorated rapidly. For most of the time their rooms were in an old Carthusian monastery at Valldemosa, a few hours’ journey from Palma, and it was accommodation which was quite unable to withstand the harsh Majorcan winter.…The locals treated the group [Chopin, and George Sand her two children] with the utmost suspicion and were reluctant even to sell them basic provisions.…By late January Chopin’s illness had reached a shocking state, and the party was obliged to leave the island.33

31 Ibid., 187–8.

32 Frederic Chopin, Selected Correspondence of Frederic Chopin, trans. and ed. Arthur Hedley (New York: Da Capo Press, 1963), 166.

33 Michalowski and Samson, 709.

12 As Brown has shown, only four preludes can be attributed with certainty to Chopin’s stay in Majorca (see Table 1.1).34 Even the famous anecdote about Chopin composing the so- called “Raindrop Prelude” inspired by a storm on the island is almost certainly a myth.

Brown writes:

It is necessary, of course, to consider the very well known anecdote of the rainstorm at Valldemosa which occurred during the soujourn in Majorca, described in after-years with such a vivid and poetical pen by George Sand, and also by Franz Liszt. The storm was supposed to be described by Chopin too: a musical description, to be found in his Prelude No. 15 in Db Major. The assertion is, in my view baseless. We have here, without doubt a remarkable instance…of the aetiological legend. The repeated pedal note Ab (=G# later) in the fifteenth Prelude inspired a nickname––it was called the “Raindrop” Prelude. With the establishment of that nickname, a cause was sought for it outside the suggestion implicit in the musical material itself. Hence George Sand’s flowery story.…Liszt takes over the rainstorm story, but applies it, not to the “Raindrop” Prelude at all, but to No. 8, in F# minor.35

However, even though facts about Majorca and the Préludes are insufficient and––as the

“Raindrop” Prelude anecdote shows––exist often only behind the veil of Romanticized allusions,

Chopin finished composing the Préludes on the island as the following letter demonstrates. The set as a whole was ready on 22 January of 1839 when Chopin wrote to Fontana:

My dear friend, I am sending you the Préludes. Copy them out, you and Wolff. I don’t think there are any mistakes. You should give the copy to Probst and my manuscript to Pleyel…In a week or two you will receive the Ballade, Polonaises and Scherzo. Tell Pleyel to settle with Probst about the date of publication of the Préludes….Hand over my letter and the Préludes to Pleyel yourself.36

In his letters from November and December Chopin had implied his intentions and worries in finishing the Préludes, while on January 22, he mentions the completion of the set. Therefore, his stay on the island is directly linked to the Préludes. Despite his serious health condition, the

34 Brown, 424.

35 Ibid., 423.

36 Chopin, Selected Correspondence of Frederic Chopin, 167.

13 delayed arrival of the piano, and the uncomfortable accommodations at the monastery, Chopin had managed to finish his greatest work to that point, the Préludes. This must have elevated his state of mind, so that he wrote yet another letter on the same day to Camille Pleyel in Paris, spreading the good news about his compositional results. In this letter he is discusses business matters in detail:

Dear friend, I am sending you my Préludes. I finished them on your cottage piano which arrived in perfect condition in spite of the sea crossing, the bad weather and the Palma customs. I have instructed Fontana to hand over my manuscript. I am asking 1,500 francs for the French and English rights. Probst, as you know, has bought the German rights for Breitkopf for 1,000. I am no longer under contract to Wessel in London so he can pay more.

Chopin published his Préludes first in Paris, in June 1839, for Pleyel by Adolphe Catelin

Co.––without opus number37––and entitled simply 24 Préludes pour le piano.38 In this publication, the preludes were split for “purely commercial reasons” into two volumes: nos. 1–12 and 13–24.39 Breitkopf & Härtel published the Préludes in Germany in the same month as one set, under the opus number 28.40 The omission of the opus number in the first publication––due to the fact that Chopin had forgotten which number had been reserved for the set––continued in England in 1840 when Wessel published the set without it and in France until as late as 1860.41

37 Brown, 424.

38 William Sobaskie, “Precursive Prolongation in the Préludes of Chopin,” Journal of the Society of Musicology in Ireland 3 (2007–8): 25.

39 Jean-Jaques Eigeldinger, “Twenty-Four Preludes Op. 28: Genre, Structure, Significance,” in Chopin Studies, ed. Jim Samson (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1988), 167.

40 Brown, 424.

41 Ibid.

14 CHAPTER 2

HISTORY OF PRELUDES PRIOR TO CHOPIN

Origins and Early Development

In its original meaning, the term prelude indicates “a piece that preceded other music

whose mode or key it was designated to introduce.”42 In German the term exists as a verb as well.

Praeludieren (lit.: to prelude) means to improvise or play an introduction to something. The sole

purpose of the “Praeludieren-practice” was to establish the key or mode for the succeeding work

or composition, to introduce vocal music at church, to ask for the listener’s attention in a musical

way, to check the tuning of the instrument, or to loosen the fingers and warm up. By the sixteenth century, this technique of “preluding” had became a standard practice, and all keyboard performers were expected to be able “to prelude” for church services as well as secular concerts.

Because the prelude is in its very essence an improvisation, the surviving notated examples can only give a sample of this genre, which had became essential to all keyboardists by the mid sixteenth century. Musicians wrote down preludes only occasionally, either to be used again at a later time or for pedagogical use. David Ledbetter writes, “The purpose of notating improvisation was generally to provide models for students, so an instructive intention, often concerned with a particular aspect of instrumental technique, remained an important part of the prelude.”43

42 David Ledbetter, “Prelude,” in The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians, 2d ed., ed. Stanley Sadie and John Tyrell, 20: 291.

43 Ibid., 20: 291–2.

15 The general practice of preluding is far older than any written manuscripts and goes back

to the performance of epic dramas in the ancient orient.44 In Western music preludes have been an integral part of keyboard music since the very beginning as introductory or improvisatory pieces. The earliest surviving examples are five short preludes for keyboard in Adam Ileborgh’s tablature from 1448.45 Ileborgh uses both terms Praeambula and Praeludia. From about the

same time date the keyboard preludes of Wolfgang de Nova Domo found in bonum fundamentum.46 The German musicologist Arnfried Edler points out that these early examples

border between written-out improvisation and composition. According to him, the pieces found

in Ilebourgh’s collection called praeludia diversarum notarum (variously notated preludes)

could be used on five different tones. That means, they are written-out examples of introductions

to be used or recycled on various tones. Other sources include preludes for use in only one

particular mode. For instance, at the end of Fundamentum organisandi, there are three preludes

that can be used only in one particular mode and for one main purpose, the intention of

practicing ascending and descending tenor motions.47 These preludes most likely functioned as

introductory warm-up exercises for succeeding compositions. In the so-called Buxheimer

Orgelbuch (ca. 1470) there are many preludes distinguished by completely different sections

contrasting with one another.48 Two types of textures can be identified in early keyboard

preludes: simple sustained chords and florid passages.49

44 Arnfried Edler, “Präludium,” in Die Musik in Geschichte und Gegenwart, 2d ed., ed. Friedrich Blume and Ludwig Finscher, Sachteil 7: 1793.

45 Ledbetter, 292.

46 Edler, 1793.

47 Ibid.

48 Ibid.

16 During the sixteenth century, the improvisatory character of the prelude gave way to a

more rigid structure, often with sequential patterns, imitation, and passages of antiphony between

voices. Early sixteenth-century examples include the preludes of H. Kotter, a composer from

south-west Germany. The pieces in his tablatures (ca. 1513) represent Renaissance trends in two ways––seeking inspiration from the ancient Classics and providing music for an increasing bourgeois––for his preludes bear Greek and Latin titles such as Anabol, Harmonia, and

Prooemium, and are intended for use at home on a clavichord.50 Kotter’s preludes begin to show

sections of light imitation with passages of antiphony between voices.51 This foreshadows the

sectional organ praeludia of the Baroque with their alternating sections.

It is impossible and pointless to try to draw a line between preludes and contemporaneous

improvisatory pieces that bear other titles. Because a prelude was originally an improvised

introduction, it could include different musical styles, and thus, was not tied to a particular form

or texture. A virtuosic and brilliant prelude, for instance, might have been called a toccata, while

a piece distinguished by imitation might have been titled ricercare. Ledbetter writes, “From the

later sixteenth century the term praeludium and its cognates were not commonly used in southern

Germany, nor in Italy and Spain, where prelude-type pieces generally bore other titles

(Intonazione, Intrada, Ricercare, Toccata).”52

49 Ledbetter, 292. This is based on Pauman’s instructional Fundamentum organisandi (1452) and the Buxheimer Orgelbuch (ca. 1470).

50 Edler, 1794.

51 Ledbetter, 292.

52 Ibid.

17 Preludes during the Baroque

The development of seventeenth-century preludes was distinguished by the instruments

for which they were written. While improvisatory keyboard pieces continued to be written in the

south by composers like Frescobaldi, Froberger, and Kapsberger, two main types of preludes

emerged in the north: the organ praeludia in Northern Germany and the unmeasured preludes for

lute or harpsichord in France. The German large-scale praeludium pedaliter originated with the

works of Scheidemann, Tunder, and Weckmann. Their works were distinguished by sectional

contrasts between free improvisatory and strict fugal sections. This development saw its climax

in the works of Buxtehude (ca. 1637–1707) who worked as organist and Werckmeister in Lübeck

from 1668–1707. His multi-sectional praeludia make full use of the organ, especially the pedals,

and are highly virtuosic. These pieces represent the North German stylus phantasticus, a style

that displays great virtuosity and juxtaposes free improvisation with careful planning.53 With

Buxtehude, the truly virtuosic, figurative, complex, and highly imaginative organ music with an extreme use of pedals developed to an unprecedented level. His organ preludes are of

considerable length, complicated in structure, and at times very chromatic. Typically, there are

free improvisatory sections with toccata-like figurations alternating with contrapuntal ones. The

number of sections and overall structure vary, and it is hard to put them into one category. The

general structure can be outlined as follows:

Opening Improvisatory Section (I)—First Fugue (F)—Remaining Sections

53 Kerala J. Snyder, “Buxtehude,” in The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians, 2d ed., ed. Stanley Sadie and John Tyrell, 4:700. In 1650 Athanasius Kircher described the stylus phantasticus. He writes, “The fantastic style is suitable for instruments. It is the most free and unrestrained method of composing; it is bound to nothing, neither to words nor to a melodic subject; it was instituted to display genius and to teach the hidden design of harmony and the ingenious composition of harmonic phrases and fugues.”

18 Many pieces have the following sequence, I—F—I—F—I, but I—F—I—F, and even I—F—F—

I preludes can be found. Generally, a distinction can be made between the pieces ending in a

fugal section (I—F––…F), and the ones ending with the improvisatory one (I—F––…I).

England fostered the prelude genre with the works of Henry Purcell and George

Frederick Handel. Purcell employed long and advanced preludes as found in the fifth suite from

Musick’s Hand-maide, while Handel mainly composed shorter works distinguished by

figurations such as scale-passages and arpeggios. Seventeenth-century France saw the emergence

of a very distinctive prelude type, the so-called unmeasured prelude. This prelude is

distinguished by a lack of rhythmic notation leaving the execution of rhythm to the performer.

This unusual type of prelude has been linked to two origins. The unmeasured prelude might have

emerged from an increasingly elaborated tuning practice for the lute, for, in concerts, lutenists tuned before beginning to play. During this tuning process they might have tried out the instrument, playing scales and other figurations. It is very likely that this tuning process became gradually more elaborate and resulted in improvising a prelude-type introduction. Ledbetter suggests that there is a second, and more recent, explanation for the emergence of the unmeasured prelude.54 This theory is based on the fact that since about 1620, there was a

rhythmic loosening in French preludes in general. In that case, preludes became rhythmically

freer and looser until composers responded to this trend with an unmeasured notation. This genre

was fostered by the most important French composers including Jacques Champion de

Chambonières, Denis Gaultier, Louis Couperin, Nicolas Antoine Lebegue, and Jean Henri

D’Anglebert.

54 Ledbetter, 292. This is based on the music found in the manuscripts of Lespine and Lord Herbert.

19 Since the the earliest examples of written out non-measured preludes for lute, dating from

about 1630,55 the genre became popular in French music and lasted for about seventy years. In

some of these preludes there are two free and unmeasured sections framing a middle section in

strict rhythm.56 The notation of unmeasured preludes is distinguished by a succession of slurred

whole notes. Only a well-trained musician is able to interpret and play these preludes, and today,

there are few pianists who know how to interpret these freely written scores that lack any

indications of rhythm. Even at the time, playing unmeasured preludes was considered to be

difficult to understand. Nicolas Lebègue mentions in the introduction to his Les pièces de

clavicin: “la grande difficultè de render cette metode de preluder” (lit.: the great difficulty to

perform this method of preluding).57 At the beginning of the eighteenth century, French

composers returned to writing out preludes in strict rhythm.58 The prelude genre continued to

exist in the form of introductory pieces to begin dance suites.59

J. S. Bach brought the prelude genre to its apotheosis, both in terms of variety of styles as well as in quality. Ledbetter writes, “With Bach the prelude reached the pinnacle of its development, both in its compositional quality and in its range of styles, manners and formal

55 Davitt Moroney, “Prélude non mesuré,” in The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians, 2d ed., ed. Stanley Sadie and John Tyrell, 20:294. He refers to five short unmeasured preludes in the lute manuscript of Virginia Renata intended for various tunings.

56 Ibid. This is the case in four preludes of Louis Couperin’s Pièces de clavecin.

57 Edler, 1797.

58 Graham Sadler, “Rameau, Jean–Philippe,” in The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians, 2d ed., ed. Stanley Sadie and John Tyrell, 20:787. One of the last unmeasured preludes was published as part of J. P. Rameau’s Premier Livre, a collection of dance pieces for harpsichord.

59 The first example of a prelude preceding a solo instrumental dance suite is Chancy’s Tablature de mandore from 1629. Throughout the Baroque, preludes were used as introductory pieces to suites. Examples are the dance suites by the French clavicinists, and the English Suites and Partitas by J. S. Bach.

20 prototypes.”60 Bach’s Well-tempered Clavier demonstrates not only the new tuning systems that

allowed one to play in all twenty-four keys, but functions as a synthesis of prelude styles. It was

the most complete catalogue of preludes written up to that point, and according to Ledbetter, the

“first to provide keyboard examples in all 24 keys.”61 The preludes in Bach’s Well-tempered

Clavier are examples for many compositional prototypes. They range from toccata-like to lyrical

aria-like pieces, and from pieces covering specific technical problems to large-scale binary forms

in the second book of the Well-tempered Clavier. With the two volumes of the Well-tempered

Clavier (1722 and 1742), Bach provided a catalogue of preludes demonstrating the sheer variety

of styles and forms within the genre. Edler writes, “Here [in the Well-tempered Clavier] Bach created new types of preludes, which must be explained as synthesized forms of various traditions, and which form a catalogue of encyclopedic character.”62

Preludes during the Classical Era

Preludes continued to be composed after Bach’s Well-tempered Clavier. Ledbetter writes that particularly Bach’s pupils, although not his sons, continued to foster the genre.63 However,

the popularity of preludes as one of the main genres of keyboard literature decreased as they

gave way to the new forms of the Classical era, especially sonatas and rondos. Having been one

of the most essential genres of keyboard literature during the Baroque and before, the prelude’s

60 Ibid.

61 Ibid., 293.

62 Edler, 1800, trans. Andreas Boelcke. “Hier … bildete Bach neue Typen des Präludiums … aus, die als synthetische Bildungen aus unterschiedlichen Gattungstraditionen zu erklären sind und der Sammlung als ganzer einen enzyklopädischen Charakter verleihen.”

63 Ledbetter, 293.

21 status as a popular performance genre changed to that of mere pedagogical exercises. With the

disappearance of dance suites, preludes as introductory pieces also vanished.64 If one looks at the output of the three great composers of the Classical era––F. J. Haydn, W. A. Mozart, and

Beethoven––the last genre coming to one’s mind would be preludes. The few examples by

Mozart include the 4 Preludes in C (K395/300g, also catalogued as KV6:284a) from 1777––all of which have been lost––and the Prelude and Fugue in C, composed after he had been exposed to Bach’s music by the nobleman Baron Gottfried van Swieten, an enthusiastic collector of the music of Bach. In 1976 Editio Musica Budapest published a one-page piece by W. A. Mozart, entitled Praeludium.65 The lack of both bar lines and meter indication in this piece is reminiscent

of an unmeasured prelude. This short Praeludium is distinguished by ascending broken triads,

descending sequences, and thirty-second note figurations. It begins in F Major and ends in E

Major. However, interesting as this discovery may be, it is nothing more but a sketch that Mozart

might have done when experimenting with the unmeasured prelude tradition.

In 1789 Beethoven composed Zwei Präludien durch alle Dur-Tonarten für das

Pianoforte oder die Orgel (Two Preludes through all Major Keys for the Piano or the Organ),

published under Op. 39. Both preludes begin and end in the key of C, working their way through

the circle of fifths. Both preludes move quickly through all keys, remaining in some of them for

only two measures. These written-out warm-up exercises––allowing the student to become

familiar with all key-signatures within one piece––foreshadow the exercise-like preludes of

Chopin’s contemporaries such as Kalkbrenner and Hummel. The few contributions to the prelude genre by Mozart and Beethoven show only the prolificacy of the two composers in all

64 Ibid. Pieces introducing sonatas such as those by G. B. Martini and Giuiseppe Sarti were more commonly called fantasia.

65 W. A. Mozart, Praeludium, ed. Imre Sulyok (Budapest: Editio Musica Budapest, 1976). This piece has been published as facsimile without a Köchel number.

22 genres of music but do not represent their full compositional capabilities nor account for a

development of the prelude tradition.

During the Baroque most preludes had been written for harpsichord or organ, both of

which decreased in popularity during the eighteenth century. The decline of the church as a main

patron brought upon a decreased use of the organ, whereas the rise of the fortepiano led to a

decreased use of the harpsichord. The emergence of new keyboard genres––sonatas, rondos, sets

of theme and variations, occasionally fantasias, and piano concertos––is, however, due not only

to the change of instruments but also to the cultural and social changes of the late-eighteenth century. The heavy contrapuntal and chromatic textures of the Baroque did not fit with the aesthetics of the style galant, simplicity, lightness, and symmetry. The music in demand had to be clearly structured, easy to understand, and transparent in its formal design. Music of the mid to late eighteenth century was distinguished by motivic development, contrasting thematic groups, and the return of previously stated sections, easy to recognize for the listener. The

preluding practice continued only to serve purely practical purposes. In church it was continued

to introduce the service or the congregational singing. In secular concerts, the need to introduce music with improvisations further declined with the increased use of written-out introductions to sonatas and symphonies––a development that further edged out any need for the preluding

practice. It is certain that Mozart and Beethoven improvised not only cadenzas, variations on

given themes, and fantasias, but also introductions, thus “preludes.” But the lack of notated

examples from the Classical period shows that preludes had lost their place of prominence in

keyboard literature. Whereas the prelude had been one of the most important keyboard genres

during the Baroque, it survived merely in form of short improvised introductions to major works,

not as notated compositions.

23 Revival of Preludes in the Nineteenth Century

During the nineteenth century, there was a rediscovery and a renewed interest in the

prelude genre. Ledbetter writes that “the 19th century’s awakening interest in music of earlier

times encouraged a revival of forms that had fallen into disuse.” He continues, “The attached

prelude reappeared in a number of Bach-influenced works, such as Mendelssohn’s Six Preludes

and Fugues for piano, Op. 35 (1832–7), Liszt’s Prelude and Fugue on B-A-C-H (1855),

Brahms’s two preludes and fugues for organ (1856–7), Franck’s Prélude, choral et fugue for

piano (1884), and Reger’s Prelude and Fugue for violin, Op. 117.”66 The preludes attached to

fugues are clearly an homage to Bach and the Baroque era. Although there was a nineteenth- century prelude revival, the number of published preludes seems nevertheless small in comparison to the Baroque Era. The few sets of preludes include those by Muzio Clementi

(1811, rev. 1820), Johann Nepomuk Hummel (1814–15), Johan Baptist Cramer (1818), and

Friedrich Kalkbrenner (1827). None of these, however were intended for a performance or the

concert stage, but were written for pedagogical use.

In addition to these published examples, however, preludes continued to be improvised. It

has been suggested only recently by Shane Levesque that the small number of prelude

publications in relation to other genres in nineteenth-century piano literature should not be

interpreted as a hint that the prelude genre had diminished in popularity. In his essay “Functions

and Performance Practice of Improvised Nineteenth-Century Preludes,” he shows that the

prelude genre continued as a form of improvisation. He goes even so far to claim that the prelude

was one of the “most widely cultivated keyboard genres of the nineteenth century:”67

66 Ledbetter, 293.

67 Shane Levesque, “Functions and Performance Practice of Improvised Nineteenth-Century Preludes,” Tijdschrift voor Musiektheorie 13, no. 1 (2008): 109.

24 Ask a pianist to name one composer who wrote piano preludes in the nineteenth century, and undoubtedly nearly all will respond with Chopin. However, ask them to name a second composer and most will likely draw a blank. Definitions of the piano prelude are marginalized in many music encyclopedias as nothing more than short character pieces, typically listing a handful of composers who wrote twenty-four in every major and minor key, just like Bach. Surveying the composition lists of the major Romantic composer pianists––Clementi, Beethoven, the Mendelssohns, the Schumanns, Liszt, Brahms, and others––would seem to suggest that they all composed very few works, if any, in this genre. This is true, as they improvised (rather than composed) many of their own preludes, unique to each piece and each performance.68

Levesque shows that preludes continued to be an integral part of performing at a time when pianists cared for establishing and maintaining a direct connection to the audience––in contrast to today’s pianists who seem to only “connect with their composers’ intentions.”69 Comparing the art of nineteenth-century improvising with that of the eighteenth century, Levesque points out that the interest in this mastery did not decrease, only the way it was executed. He writes:

Unlike those found in the earlier treatises of Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach, Johann Joachim Quantz, Antonio Soler, and Daniel Gottlob Türk, nineteenth-century improvisation instructions were gradually emancipated from a prerequisite understanding of continuo realization and some do not employ figured bass numerals. Whereas seventeenth- and eighteenth-century treatises first lay a harmonic groundwork with figured bass progressions to which keyboard figurations can later be applied in the improvisation of preludes, the reverse approach can be obtained from many nineteenth-century treatises, which are largely exhaustive compendiums of virtuosic figurations that can be applied to harmonic progressions studied either concurrently or later.70

Improvising introductions and thus, preludes, continued during the nineteenth century.

Pianists made use of this practice wherever they performed. It is almost certain that extraordinary composer-pianists such as Liszt and Chopin improvised dozens of preludes without writing them

68 Ibid., 109.

69 Ibid., 113.

70 Ibid., 110.

25 down.71 Nevertheless, in the early nineteenth century, there were no publications of preludes that

could compare with Chopin’s Opus 28. Those preludes published at the time are merely

technical exercises or notated examples for the instruction on how introduce other pieces. Thus,

Chopin’s set of preludes stands as a turning point in the development of the genre. His Opus 28

became the model for a new type of piece and led to an increase in writing sets of preludes as

independent concert pieces in the decades to follow. Since its publication in 1839 it has inspired

and greatly influenced subsequent composers of the nineteenth and twentieth century. Skryabin,

Rachmaninoff, Debussy, Kabalevsky, and Shostakowitch, all composed sets of twenty-four

preludes. With Chopin’s Préludes, the genre became once again one of the most popular and

prominent ones in piano literature.

71 Ibid., 109. He writes, “Chopin did not compose only twenty-six preludes, but likely improvised hundreds: revising, notating, and publishing his best examples in twenty-four major and minor keys.”

CHAPTER 3

BAROQUE TRENDS AND THE CREATION OF THE ROMANTIC PRELUDE TRADITION

Chopin’s set of twenty-four preludes is the link between the Baroque tradition and the

many piano preludes of the Romantic era and its aftermath, for it uses Baroque elements

introducing the idea of the modern piano prelude composed for the concert stage. Chopin used an old keyboard genre to move into a new direction. Entirely set apart from contemporaneous

exercise-like pieces by Hummel, Kalkbrenner, and Cramer, Chopin’s set of twenty-four preludes

is a contribution to the genre on a different level. Highly influenced by one of the seminal keyboard compilations in history, Bach’s two books of the Well-tempered Clavier, Chopin’s Op.

28 broke with all contemporaneous preludes and paved the road for his successors including

Scriabin, Rachmaninoff, Debussy, and Shostakovich. All the popular sets of Romantic and

twentieth-century preludes are indebted to Chopin, for he was the first composer to compose a

set of preludes for the concert stage. This chapter will demonstrate that Chopin looked back to

the Baroque while simultaneously breaking entirely with his own time. Following a discussion of

some neo-Baroque elements in Op. 28––especially those from the Well-tempered Clavier,

Chopin’s break with contemporaneous sets of preludes by Hummel, Kalkbrenner, and Clementi

will be explained.

Chopin and the Baroque

Chopin was well aware of eighteenth-century music and admired the masters of the

Baroque. On 30 July 1840, he wrote, “The Public has to think of itself lucky if from time to time

27 it is allowed to hear a bit of Händel or Bach.”72 The many traces of Baroque elements throughout

Op. 28 show his interest in eighteenth-century music. For instance, neo-Baroque elements can be

found in the chorale-like texture of the C-minor prelude. This short prelude consists of a chorale-

like passage repeated two times, at different dynamic levels. The chromatically descending bass

line and inner voices in the example recall Baroque chorale-style writing.

Fig. 3.1 Prelude No. 20 in C minor, mm. 5–8.

In his article Autour de Preludes de Chopin (Concerning the Chopin preludes), Eigeldinger points at the similarities between Chopin’s descending bass line in this prelude and the works of

Bach. He writes: “Bach had inherited from Monteverdi and the madrigalists the descending chromatique line as a symbol of sadness and affliction. Chopin made use of this same symbolism in the Preludes Nos. 4 and 20, which seem to have derived directly from the Crucifixus of the B- minor Mass, the cantatas Weinen, Klagen and Jesu der du meine Seele, the ninth three-part

Invention, and in the twenty-first of the Goldberg Variations.73 According to the Baroque

doctrine of affections, music has the power to move human emotions by use of specific musical

devices such as the choice of key or, in this case, the chromatically descending bass line. Chopin

takes advantage of this doctrine. The homorhythmic structure in this prelude, the dotted eight-

72 Fryderik Chopin, Selected Correspondence, ed. Arthur Hedley (New York: Da Capo Press, 1979), 190.

73 Jean-Jacques Eigeldinger, “Autour de Preludes de Chopin” (Concerning the Chopin preludes), Revue Musicale de Suisse Romande 25 (1972): 5. “Bach avait hérité de Monteverdi et des Madrigalists la ligne chromatique descendante comme symbole de tristesse, d’affliction. Chopin fait usage de se même symbolisme dans les Préludes 4 et 20 qui semblent deriver directement du Cruzifixus de la Messe en si, des cantatas Weinen, Klagen, et Jesu de du meine Seele, de la 9e Sinfonia a trios voix ou de la 21e des Variations Goldberg.” My translation.

28 notes in the right hand––reminiscent of funeral march rhythm––combined with a descending

bass line that had often been exploited by Baroque composers to portray despair, make this a

tragic prelude influenced by the eighteenth century.

Even more striking is the quasi-improvisatory style of composition in the F-Minor prelude, a direct imitation of the Baroque recitative style. Figure 3.2 shows abrupt changes of accented chords separated by eighth rests from rapid moving sixteenth notes. While the chords are reminiscent of those played by an accompanying Baroque harpsichordist, the parallel sixteenth-note runs are reminiscent of the vocal melody in a recitative. This speech-like quality is additionally highlighted by the rhythm, changing from sixteenth notes in mm. 9–10, to quintuplets in m. 11, to group of seventeen notes in m. 12. While this passage reflects the restless quality of furious declamation interrupted by the sforzando chords, the texture is a clear homage to the recitatif secco of the Baroque.

Fig. 3.2 Prelude No. 18 in F minor, mm. 9–13.

29 Of all the Baroque composers, it was J. S. Bach, in particular, that occupied Chopin’s

attention. His letters are full of his admiration for the Baroque master. On 28 December 1838, he wrote in a letter to Julian Fontana that the things surrounding him in his cell in Palma are, besides a leaden candle stick and a little candle, his scrawls and Bach.74 There is further proof

that Chopin thoroughly studied and edited Bach’s works, for he wrote on 8 August 1839, “When

I have nothing particular to do I am correcting for myself, in the Paris edition of Bach, not only the mistakes made by the engraver but those which are backed by the authority of people who are supposed to understand Bach––not that I have any pretensions to a deeper understanding, but

I am convinced that I sometimes hit on the right answer.”75 Chopin appreciated Bach’s works

also as exercises for pianists. On 31 October 1844 he closes his letter to Mlle de Rozières simply

with the salutation, “Practice a little Bach for me.”76

Considering Chopin’s admiration for Bach it is not surprising that the Préludes were

greatly influenced by the two books of the Well-tempered Clavier. Jean-Jacques Eigeldinger

writes, “Bach’s influence on the Préludes, as on Chopin’s music in general, is infinitely more

powerful and subtle than that of any of the post-classical composers.”77 Comparing the first

prelude of Bach’s WTC and Chopin’s Opus 28, he writes:

Through a succession of what strikes the listener as waves of sound, Chopin’s complex notation, with the help of the sustaining pedal, may be taken as an instinctive, stylized development of the “brisé” lute writing of which Bach’s piece is an obvious example. This detail is enough on its own to substantiate Chopin’s debt to Bach.78

74 Chopin, Selected Correspondence, 165.

75 Ibid., 181–2.

76 Ibid., 241.

77 Jean-Jaques Eigeldinger, “Twenty-Four Preludes Op. 28: Genre, Structure, Significance,” in Chopin Studies, ed. Jim Samson (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1988), 173.

78 Ibid., 175.

Fig. 3.3 Prelude No. 1 in C Major, mm. 1–6.

The example shows the waves of sound sustained by the damper pedal. The harmonic rhythm here is reminiscent of Bach’s famous C-Major prelude from the first book of the WTC where the harmonies also change every measure. While Eigeldinger calls prelude Op. 28, No. 3 a reworking of a two-part invention, he links the famous E-minor prelude, again, to the Crucifixus in the B-minor Mass:

In Op. 28 No. 4 the layout of the left hand, with its chords in close position, cloaks the descending, chromatic movement of three independent lines; superimposed lines which represent Chopin’s response to the harmonic polyphony of the “Crucifixus” from the B minor Mass. In writing this elegy in E minor, Chopin had recourse to the key traditionally associated with lamentation in the Baroque catalogue of affects.79

About Bach’s influence on Chopin’s set as a whole, Eigeldinger writes:

The transfigured imprint of Bach in the twenty-four preludes is to be seen most clearly in their texture; powerful and new as this is, the harmony is often clearly the result of superimposed lines. Many of the pieces are built from a polymelodic texture of the most inventive kind, and very long way from the neo-Baroque counterpoint practiced at this same period by Mendelssohn or Schumann.80

Other scholars have referred to the connection between Bach and Chopin as well. For

instance, Yunjoo Kang compares the twelfth prelude from the WTC I to Chopin’s C-Major

prelude. In her dissertation, she writes that in both pieces “a melodic line is drawn from a short

79 Ibid., 176.

80 Ibid., 175.

31 motivic figuration which also generates a harmonic progression.”81 Edgar Stillman Kelley also

explains Bach’s influence, “Chopin had not only learned the art of development from Bach…,

but also how to economize, for he utilized to the utmost his thematic material, wasting

nothing.”82 There is no scholar who would disagree or deny that there is a major influence of

Bach’s Well-tempered Clavier (WTC) on Chopin’s work. After all, he even took a copy of the

WTC with him to Majorca where he composed at least some of his Préludes.83 Chopin’s Op. 28,

was not only highly influenced by J. S. Bach, it was also the first publication of highly

sophisticated preludes since the Baroque. Therefore it is fair to say that Chopin revitalized the

Prelude tradition.

Contemporaneous Sets of Preludes

Chopin’s set was not only the first major contribution to the prelude genre in all twenty-

four keys since Bach, but also a revolutionary change in the history of preludes. To understand

Chopin’s drastic break in style, it is essential to take a closer look at the contemporaneous

publications of preludes. The most important sets of nineteenth-century preludes published prior

to Chopin’s opus 28 are shown in Table 3.1.

81 Yunjoo Kang, “The Chopin Preludes Opus 28: An Eclectic Analysis with Performance Guide” (Ph.D. diss., New York University, 1994), 19–21.

82 Edgar Stillman Kelley, Chopin: The Composer (New York: G. Schirmer, 1913), 127–8.

83 Anselm Gerhard, “Reflexionen über den Beginn der Musik: Eine neue Deutung von Frédéric Chopins Préludes op. 28” (Reflections on the beginning of music: A new interpretation of Frédéric Chopin’s Préludes op. 28), in Deutsche Musik im Wegkreuz zwischen Polen und Frankreich (German music as an intersection between Poland and France), ed. Christoph-Hellmut Mahling and Kristina Pfarr (Eurasburg: Hans Schneider Tutzing, 1996), 100.

32 Table 3.1 Publications of preludes in the early nineteenth century.

Composer Title Publication Date

Bernard Viguerie 12 Preludes 1804 (c. 1761–1819)

Daniel Steibelt Trois preludes ou caprices 1806 (1765–1823) pour le forte-piano

Muzio Clementi Preludes and Exercises 1811, rev. 1820 (1752–1832)

Johann Nepomuk 24 Preludes Op. 67 1814–15 Hummel (1778–1837)

Twenty six preludes or Johan Baptist Cramer short introductions in the 1818 (1771–1858) principal major & minor keys for the piano forte

Friedrich Kalkbrenner 24 préludes dans tous les 1827 (1785–1849) tons

A closer look at these publications shows that they are not concert pieces but exercises for

pedagogical use. Clementi’s Preludes and Exercises is subtitled “School of Scales” and is clearly a method book with music not intended for the concert stage. It contains twenty-four exercises or etudes, one in each major and minor key. Eighteen of these exercises are preceded by one or more preludes in the same key.84 The number of preludes for each exercise ranges from none to

84 The C-Major exercise is preceded by five preludes, whereas only one prelude introduces the D-Minor exercise.

33 five. Those exercises preceded by several preludes leave the student with a choice of which to

use. Clementi has organized the preludes and exercises neither chromatically––as Bach did in the

Well-tempered Clavier––nor according to the ascending circle of fifths. Although every major

key is followed by its relative minor––just as in Chopin’s set––the order of keys is unorthodox.

Clementi starts in C Major. After that he moves in succession one fifth downwards from C (to F),

followed by a move by one fifth upwards from C (to G). That means, the first set of preludes and

exercises is in C Major and A minor, the second one is in F Major and D minor, the third one in

G Major and E minor, followed by one in Bb Major and G minor. Therefore, the first pair of

preludes has no accidentals, the second one has one flat, the third one has one sharp, the fourth

one has two flats, the fifth one has two sharps, and so on. In short: C–a, F–d, G–e, Bb–g, D–b,

Eb–c,…. This procedure continues through all major and minor keys until the set closes with F# major and Eb minor. Starting with the key of E minor, there is only one prelude to each exercise and after the key of Db major, there are no preludes anymore. That leaves the last six exercises

without preludes. Since the number of preludes decreases from five to zero, Clementi most likely

encouraged the student to begin improvising the introductions as he moved through the method book. That would also explain why the first etudes have several different preludes as models for

improvisation. In this case the student, having been exposed to different types of preludes at the beginning of the set, gradually has to leave the printed page and improvise on his own.

Kalkbrenner’s set of twenty-four preludes in all the major and minor keys is clearly for teaching purposes as well. The preludes are exercises reminiscent of Czerny’s etudes, distinguished by parallel scale, and broken chord, movement in both hands. The preludes are organized chromatically, starting with C Major and C minor, followed by Db Major and C# minor, and so on. The last prelude, in B minor, stands out. This eleven-page piece begins in B minor in

34 4/4 time marked Agitato. Following a slow middle-section in 3/4 time in the key of F# minor, the piece closes with a Presto-section, back in 4/4 time in the original key. The piece is further distinguished by a short four-voice fugato and several drastic texture changes. This prelude, at the end of a catalogue of exercises, is an attempt to expose the student to a variety of keyboard writing styles. However, it would certainly not make a good performance piece, with its awkward abrupt changes in style and texture.

Hummel’s Op. 67 is the most commonly quoted example of twenty-four preludes published prior to Chopin. However, these preludes are not independent pieces to be grouped for performance or played as a whole set. Hummel’s purpose for this group of exercises is made clear by its title: Vorspiele für das Piano–Forte: Vor dem Anfange eines Stückes aus allen 24

Dur und mol Tonarten zum nützlichen Gebrauch für Schüler (Preludes for the piano-forte: for

“before-the-beginning” of a piece, in all twenty-four major and minor keys, for useful usage by students).85

These twenty-four preludes are cadenza-like sketches to be played before a piece in the

given key. The preludes, almost all in rapid tempos with scalar motions, either moving parallel in

both hands, or in the right hand over sustained chords, are reminiscent of warm-up exercises. The only similarity to Chopin’s set of twenty-four preludes is the tonal organization, according to the ascending circle of fifths, each major key followed by its relative minor. Hummel’s preludes comprise a useful catalogue of short fragments of music to be used as introductions to other

music in all twenty-four major and minor keys, but are not concert pieces to be selected for a

performance.

85 Johann Nepomuk Hummel, “24 Preludes, Op. 67,” The Complete Works for Piano (New York: Garland Publishing, 1989), 195.

35 Chopin’s Préludes in Comparison to Contemporaneous Sets of Preludes

The early nineteenth-century preludes by composers like Hummel and Kalkbrenner are

short pieces intended for pedagogical use. In contrast, Chopin’s twenty-four preludes are highly

sophisticated concert pieces that have remained in the standard repertory of pianists since their

first publication. Scholars and performers alike have tried to explain why Chopin’s set of

preludes is so revolutionary and provocative. Schumann initially expressed his bewilderment,86 but in 1841 Franz Liszt called the collection as a unique class governed by its own rules.87 Even

today, Chopin’s Op. 28 has not lost its provocative qualities. In 2007 James William Sobaskie

wrote, “Brief as they may be, the Préludes of Frédéric Chopin never fail to provoke us.”88

There are several reasons for this provocation. First, many of these miniatures lack a traditional form. Some of the preludes are cast in binary and ternary form, but there are several that stand out as a short single musical idea in one-part form.89 Second, there is striking stylistic

and emotional variety and the pieces are unpredictable, for they range from Mazurka-like

miniatures (A-Major prelude) to tremendously difficult full-scale etudes (Bb-minor prelude).

Chopin juxtaposes extreme contrasts and stylistic differences throughout the set to an extent that

the listener does not know what will come next. For instance after the threatening and furious F

minor prelude, which lacks any melody or recognizable form, there is the Eb-Major prelude,

cheerful, light in a simple ternary form. The sheer emotional variety within the set is so striking

86 Robert Schumann, Neue Zeitschrift für Musik 41 (November 1839): 163, quoted in Jean-Jaques Eigeldinger, Chopin Préludes, Op. 28, Op. 45 (London: C. F. Peters, 2003), 91.

87 Franz Liszt, “Frédéric Chopin,” trans. Edward N. Waters (New York: Macmillan, 1963), 14.

88 James William Sobaskie, “Precursive Prolongation in the Préludes of Chopin,” in Journal of the Society of Musicology in Ireland 3, (2007–8): 1.

89 Ronald Eugene Cole, “Analysis of the Chopin Preludes, Opus 28” (M.M. thesis, The Florida State University, 1968), 4.

36 that each prelude functions as a unique emotional statement, a brief idea or a feeling expressed at

the piano. As Jeffrey Kresky writes, there are “twenty-four distinct moods, each in miniature.”

He continues, “The group as a whole may stand almost as a summary of the imaginable mood

types available to the romantic composer, a veritable museum of the expressive possibilities

opening up to the composer in Chopin’s century.”90

The third reason for their uniqueness is their poetic quality. Sobaskie recalls that both

Robert Schumann and Franz Liszt were moved to invoke the metaphor of poetry.91 He writes,

“Describing the contents of Chopin’s Op. 28 as poetic Préludes, he [Franz Liszt] acknowledged

their capacity to engage the imagination, to stimulate expectation, to convey more than their

surfaces connote—in short, to provoke aesthetic responses akin to those of verse.”92 The beauty about poetry is that it can imply things that cannot be directly said. That means, poetry can evoke imaginations beyond the realms of regular speech. This is the case with Chopin’s Op. 28.

Sobaskie explains the relationship between Chopin’s preludes and poetry as follows:

Chopin may have been inspired by the example of poetry when composing his Préludes, perhaps emulating its capacity for nuance, its power to suggest more than it says, its ability to begin a story without finishing it at the last line or start one in the middle and lead to an inevitable conclusion. While one finds nothing analogous to syllabic patterns, rhyme schemes, alliteration or assonance, there is an unmistakable seductiveness to Chopin’s music, as well as a certain vocality, that is reminiscent of poetry. This may begin to explain why we have found the Préludes so provocative—and endlessly intriguing.93

Analyzing half of the Préludes, he demonstrates musical types of allusion, especially tonal

implication. Just as verbal implication in poetry, tonal implication has the power to elicit

90 Jeffrey Kresky, A Reader’s Guide to the Chopin Preludes (London: Greenwood Press, 1994), 14.

91 Sobaskie, 26.

92 Ibid.

93 Ibid., 27

37 expectation and to arouse anticipation and inspire imagination. In short, it provokes aesthetic responses in engaged listeners.94

While inspired by Bach’s works and the Baroque tradition, Chopin’s Préludes stand apart from contemporaneous publications not only in their sophistication and compositional quality, but in their lack of traditional form, emotional variety, and poetry-like allusions. They were the first and only publication of serious concert pieces within this genre at the time. However,

Chopin’s Op. 28 stands out in one more way. The Préludes are a coherent cycle of works unified on several levels.

94 Ibid., 28.

38 CHAPTER 4

NOTION OF COHERENCE IN OPUS 28

General Coherence Elements

There are several reasons why one perceives the Préludes as a unified composition when

listening to the entire set. When performed in order, they seem to belong to each other, or in

contrary, they do not make musical sense when grouped randomly. In the introduction to A

Reader’s Guide to the Chopin Preludes, Jeffrey Kresky writes, “The question of the organic unity and status of the collection––are these preludes twenty-four pieces, or one (in twenty-four parts)––is not just interesting, but perhaps unique.”95 In an attempt to answer this question,

Kresky compares the Préludes to other sets of Chopin, who is known for grouping his

compositions in clusters according to genre, such as mazurkas, nocturnes, waltzes, scherzos,

ballades, impromptus, and etudes. Kresky points out that these sets, published together, recorded,

or even performed together, constitute a list rather than an extended composition. For instance,

when listening to “The Waltzes,” or “The Nocturnes,” one would never perceive these groups as

an organic unit, but rather as individual pieces that have nothing but the genre in common. The

Mazurkas, though presenting a remarkable variety in mood, resemble each other in the Polish

dance character. The Nocturnes share the lyrical, and long-breathed melodies––in some pieces a

night-like, gloomy and dark mood. The Etudes, most of them in rapid tempos, are distinguished

by their virtuosity and the tremendous demand on the pianist. The Préludes, however, stand out

within Chopin’s oeuvre. They follow a succession of keys that bonds them together, more than

the chromatically ascending preludes and fugues of Bach’s WTC. Kresky writes, “The move of

95 Jeffrey Kresky, A Reader’s Guide to the Chopin Preludes (London: Greenwood Press, 1994), xiv.

39 major to parallel minor may well be heard in compositional terms, as a shifting or adjustment of

mode; but the move up is not tonal in any usual sense, keys a half step apart having pretty much

nothing in common in normal tonal ways.”96 Chopin has arranged his Préludes in a less

catalogue-like but more musical way, so that the route through these keys will seem itself

musical.97 Kresky points out, “The move into the next major key from the relative minor of the

previous major key will feature certain automatic correspondences in terms of shared scale tones,

chords, and the like.”98 This can be observed already at the very beginning of the set, where the

second prelude in A minor is directly linked to the first one in C Major.

Fig. 4.1 Prelude No. 1 in C Major, mm.28–33. The soprano ends on E4.

Fig. 4.2 Prelude No. 2 in A minor, mm. 1–4. E4 resounds in the right hand.

A comparison of the two examples shows that the final note E4 in the soprano of the C-Major prelude––emphasized by the fermata––resounds, in a different context as the first melody note in the A-minor prelude, after the dark and slow moving left-hand accompaniment introduces the piece. This might be analogous to the same character of a theater play finding himself in a

96 Ibid., xv.

97 Ibid.

98 Ibid.

40 completely different setting or state of mind. Chopin is careful to not exaggerate these special re- soundings of last notes as new first notes. Kresky points out, “Indeed, these possibilities are not compositionally exploited by the composer, but seem instead to lurk under the surface, enforcing an even flow of convincing naturalness.”99 Table 4.1 lists all instances of re-soundings of common tones between the ending and beginnings of two successive preludes.

Table 4.1 All instances of resounding tones between two successive preludes.

1. in C Major –– 2. in A Minor

3. in G Major –– 4. in E Minor

11. in B Major –– 12. in G# Minor

17. in Ab Major –– 18. in F Minor

19. in Eb Major –– 20. in C Minor

21. in Bb Major –– 22. G Minor

Table 4.1 shows that there are six such instances, spread throughout the entire set. When performed as a set, the connections between these coupled preludes give the impression of a continuous flow from one piece to another.

Another factor with an even greater and more obvious impact on the overall coherence is the use of contrasts between pieces. Whereas the preludes and fugues in the WTC comprise a catalogue-like organization––there are no compelling balances or flow as the pieces progress––

99 Ibid.

41 the preludes in Chopin’s set seem to fit together, one being a consequence of the other. Kresky

points out, “In the Chopin Préludes we find the greatest care taken to assure that a piece of one

stark type is followed by a striking and refreshing contrast, in terms of mood, length, scope,

intensity.”100 One only has to think of the extremely short and agitated Prelude No. 14 in Eb

minor which is embedded in between the long and lyrical Preludes in F# Major and Db Major.

Another instance is the furious and restless Prelude No. 18 in F minor followed by the pure and cheerful Prelude No. 19 in Eb Major.

In his search for motivic relations between individual preludes, Kresky could not find any

obvious connections. He writes, “Motivic recurrences of this kind are lacking across the Chopin

preludes.”101 He does, however, find that far more subtle relations are “sometimes detectable,” as

for instance the fact that E4 at the beginning of the second prelude moves down to D4, the

mirrored motion of what had been repeatedly stated in the previous prelude, D4 moving up to E4.

With these observations he concludes:

I conclude, therefore, that Chopin’s Préludes form a quite unique musical organism, much like, say, the sense in which a society of ants or coral formations is viewed as being simultaneously a collection of individuals and a super-organism of many small parts. If in such instances biologists can describe each ant as more individual than the cells or organs of one higher animal, but less complete than one higher animal, we can conceive of these preludes as occupying just such a middle position. Individually they seem like pieces in their own right, of perhaps too brief otherwise to stand on their own. But each works best along with the others, and in the intended order.102

In search for other cohesive elements beyond the tonal organization, resounding of

common tones, and stark contrasts from one prelude to another, scholars have posed

different theories to the possibility of organic unity.

100 Ibid., xvii.

101 Ibid.

102 Ibid. xvii–xviii.

42 Chominski’s Large-Scale Plan

In 1950 the Polish Chopin specialist Jósef M. Chominski compared the Préludes to

Robert Schumann’s cycles such as Carnaval, Opus 9, and Kreisleriana, Opus 16, series of

miniatures grouped together to compare a large-scale form.103 He suggested that there is

coherence on a deep macro level. Table 4.2 shows that Chominski regarded Op. 28 as a large-

scale three part form, in which the slow group, consisting of the Preludes Nos. 13–15, forms the

central core.104

Table 4.2 Chominski’s large-scale outline of the Préludes.

Preludes Nos. 1–12 Preludes Nos. 13–15 Preludes Nos. 16–24

The first part of Chominski’s three part form contains twelve preludes, Nos. 1–12, the core only

three, Nos. 13–15, and the third section nine, from Nos. 16–24. This central core is shown in

more detail in Table 4.3. The nocturne-like Preludes Nos. 13 and 15 are the longest in the set,

lasting almost four minutes each. Chominski linked this large-scale design of the Chopin

Préludes to that of a nocturne with the exception that the sections are reversed: in a typical

nocturne there would be two slow outer sections framing a faster middle section, whereas in

Chopin’s Préludes the core of the entire set is distinguished by the two slowest and longest

Preludes: Nos. 13 and 15. These two core preludes frame the short and agitated prelude No. 14 in

103 Jósef M. Chominski, Preludia Chopina (Chopin’s preludes) (Kraków: PWM, 1950) quoted in Janet Marie Lopinski, “The Preludes Opus 28 by Fryderyk Chopin with Emphasis on Polish Sources” (D.M.A. thesis, University of Cincinnati, 1990), 109. Since Chominski’s work has not been translated from Polish into English, my discussion of his ideas are based on Lopinski’s thesis in which she explains and summarizes his ideas.

104 Ibid.

43 Eb minor, so that the core itself is reminiscent of a Nocturne as well, this time with two slow

outer preludes and a fast middle prelude.105

Table 4.3 Central core of Op. 28.

Prelude No. 13 Prelude No. 14 Prelude No. 15 long, lyrical, slow short, agitated, fast long, lyrical, slow

Table 4.3 shows that the two outer preludes are in sharp contrast to the middle prelude, for they

differ in length, character, and tempo. Therefore, Chominski’s large-scale design is based on an

easily recognizable contrast.

In an attempt to identify further coherence elements in Op. 28, he has looked for motivic

recurrences. According to him, symbolic unity is created, as in Schumann’s cycles, through the

reappearance of a motive. Chominski has identified motives that reoccur in various preludes

throughout the cycle. His list of recurring motives (see Fig. 4.3) includes the following preludes:

C Major, E minor, D Major, B minor, F# minor, B Major, G# minor, F# Major, Eb minor, C minor,

G minor, F Major. However, looking at this list, one finds inconsistencies in Chominski’s argument. First, he was only able to find recurring motives in twelve out of the twenty-four preludes, not in all. But even within those twelve, his list shows some questionable elements.

Chominski attempted to show the recurrence of stepwise motions throughout the set, in both

form of ascending and descending major or minor seconds. However, stepwise motions,

descending and ascending, appear in most pieces of Western music and might be not intended as

a cyclic element.

105 Ibid.

44 Fig. 4.3. Chominski’s list of motives.106

Fig. 4.3 shows that Chominski nevertheless points at some repeated minor and major

seconds and labels them as motives. These motives can be repeated on the same pitch, such as in

106 The list was originally published in Chominsky, Preludia Chopina (Krakow: PWM, 1950). This is a hand-written copy based the original list.

45 the first prelude where he points at the G-A, G-A, G-A repetition, or moving as in the G# minor prelude where he identifies the following motion: D#-E, E-E#, E#-F#, and so on. While his overall identification of the stepwise motives seems plausible, his identification of those in the

B-minor and F-Major Preludes are, however, questionable. The former one B-B, B-B, B-B does not include a motion by step, but a repeated statement of the tone B, while the latter shows neither stepwise motives but instead broken F-major triads.

While Chominksi’s large-scale three-part form is easy to recognize to the listener and does, indeed, work well for a performance of Op. 28, his attempt to identify recurring motives is not as convincing. Nevertheless, Chominski’s work in the field is important, for he was the first scholar to investigate and discuss the cyclic elements in the Préludes. More recent scholars, especially Jean-Jacques Eigeldinger, have acknowledged his work but expressed reservations as well.

Eigeldinger’s Motivic Recurrences

The Swiss musicologist Jean-Jacques Eigeldinger believes that Chominski’s three-part- form idea is not a satisfying solution to the coherence question in Chopin’s Op. 28. He writes,

“Considerations along these lines [He refers to the idea that groups of monothematic etude-like pieces and bithematic nocturne-like pieces form blocks within the set] have led Chominski to see in Op. 28 sonata structures fitted into an ensemble of miniatures. Such an interpretation cannot be other than purely speculative.”107 He continues, “Taken all in all, the parameters outlined above are a stumbling block to any serious attempt at an internal grouping of these pieces.”108

Chominski’s idea of a thematic recurrence does not convince Eigeldinger either. He writes,

107 Jean-Jaques Eigeldinger, “Twenty-Four Preludes Op. 28: Genre, Structure, Significance,” in Chopin Studies, ed. Jim Samson (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1988), 181.

108 Ibid.

46 “Chominski comes close to it [a unifying principle] when he proposes a Substanzgemeinschaft [a

common substance] common to twelve…of the twenty-four pieces, in the form of progressions

of seconds. But any explanation must take account to the volume as a whole.”109 To Eigeldinger,

all twenty-four preludes are unified by the recurrence of a “rhythmical ostinato,” both, melodic

and harmonic. He believes that the Préludes are distinguished by “an omnipresent motivic cell

which assures its unity through a variety of textures.”110 Eigeldinger found that in all preludes

there is one of the following two variants of the motivic cell.111 In the first variant, there is a

motion up by a sixth, followed by a stepwise motion downwards. He calls that X.

Fig. 4.4 Eigeldinger’s X motive.

The second version is almost identical with the exception that it is followed by another

descending stepwise motion. He calls this variant Y.

Fig. 4.5 Eigeldinger’s Y motive.

In a detailed list of musical examples, Eigeldinger demonstrates that either X or Y are present in

each of the twenty-four preludes. The following is a reproduction of his extensive list of musical

examples.

109 Ibid.

110 Ibid.

111 In case of modulations, both versions can appear on different scale degrees within one prelude. For instance, in the fifth prelude X is heard in D, then in A Major.

47 Fig. 4.6 Eigeldinger’s list of X and Y motives in the Préludes.

The examples demonstrate that all twenty-four preludes contain X, Y, or both motives.

Eigeldinger has indicated the X and Y motives with brackets and circled the individual notes within each motive. His examples show that in all preludes there is an upwards motion by a sixth followed by one (in the case of X) or two successive (in the case of Y) stepwise descents. The chart makes clear that the X or Y motives begin on the Tonic in Preludes Nos. 3, 4, 10, 12, 13, 14,

22, and 23. In these instances there is the following scale degree movement:

^ ^ ^ ^ ^ ^ ^ X version: 1–6–5; Y version: 1–6–5–4

In Preludes Nos. 1, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 15, 16, 19, 20, 21, and 24, the X or Y motives begin on

52 the dominant. In this case, the scale degree motion is the following: ^ ^ ^ ^ ^ ^ ^ X version: 5–3–2; Y version: 5–3–2–1

In Preludes Nos. 17 and 18, the motives begin neither on the tonic nor on the dominant but instead on the fourth scale degree, thus on the subdominant. His examples further show that there are also permutations of the motive. In Prelude No. 21 the Y motive does not move 5–3–2–1, but instead, 5–1–2–3. When the motive occurs neither on the tonic, subdominant, or dominant,

Eigeldinger has included the key on which it is based in parentheses. This is the case in Preludes

Nos. 5, 9, 12, 17, and 24. This demonstrates that his motives are not based on the key of each prelude but can occur on different tonal levels. For instance, in the twenty-fourth prelude the X motive appears on “F,” the third scale degree in the key of D minor. His chart is comprehensive and includes all preludes. He clearly shows that X or Y does appear in all pieces.

Based on his findings, Eigeldinger concludes that Op. 28 is a type of manual for tuning the instrument. He explains that X and Y derive from the tuning practice of the time:

The shape of this melodic cell is generated by the dictates of the temperament of Chopin’s piano; the rising sequence of fifths together with their thirds indicates step by step the way in which his instrument was tuned. In the first bar of Prelude No. 1 the major triad is laid out according to its natural resonance, the fundamental being doubled at two octaves’ distance, the fifth throughout three octaves and the third at the octave. The relationship C–G is thus highlighted. In bars 5–7 the second fifth G–D is introduced with an insistent E appoggiatura–– following the practice of the tuner who plays the perfect triad with a six-four appoggiatura. The tuning therefore begins with the superimposition of the two fifths C–G, G–D, with their respective thirds E and B; this is where the motivic cell derives from and explains why in Preludes nos. 1, 2 and 3 it appears on identical notes…, going on to be transposed from Prelude no. 4 onwards.112

Eigeldinger’s theory seems plausible, for it is based on the facts he provides. It will always remain speculative, however, if Chopin included the X and Y motives intentionally. Even if he did, it is more likely that he did so in an attempt to unify the work than to imitate the tuning

112 Ibid., 182.

53 practice of the time. It seems unlikely that he would have intended to write a tuning manual in the form of a musical work as serious and dramatic as Op. 28.

Anselm Gerhard’s Philosophical Ideas

Anselm Gerhard found in the Préludes hints to nineteenth-century philosophical ideas.

Referring to Chominski, just as Eigeldinger had done, she portrays his theory as further questionable when she mentions that Chominski had later called his large-scale theory “a speculation.”113 Neither are his stepwise motives convincing to Gerhard––for steps can occur in most pieces of music––unless, as she writes, they are considered with respect to their harmonic background. In her article “Reflexionen über den Beginn der Musik: Eine neue Deutung von

Frédéric Chopins Préludes Op. 28” (Reflections on the beginning of music: A new interpretation

of Frédéric Chopin’s Préludes, Op. 28), she points out that in many instances the Préludes are

distinguished by deceptive movements, from V to vi or to IV in form of a melodic gesture of

hesitant quality. She finds deceptive movements or harmonic instabilities in nineteen preludes,

including scalar movements from the fifth to the sixth scale degrees, dominant pedal points, and

I–IV progressions. Her examples include the permanently repeated fifth Eb2 throughout the last

page of Prelude No. 17 and the repeated Ab3 pedalpoint throughout the “Raindrop” Prelude (see

Fig. 4.6). She writes that these dominant pedalpoints contribute to a certain harmonic instability.

The following example shows the repetition of Ab3 in the “Raindrop” Prelude.

113 Anselm Gerhard, “Reflexionen über den Beginn der Musik: Eine neue Deutung von Frédéric Chopins Préludes op. 28” (Reflections on the beginning of music: A new interpretation of Frédéric Chopin’s Préludes op. 28), in Deutsche Musik im Wegkreuz zwischen Polen und Frankreich (German music as an intersection between Poland and France), ed. Christoph-Hellmut Mahling and Kristina Pfarr (Eurasburg: Hans Schneider Tutzing, 1996), 105.

54 Fig. 4.7 Prelude No. 15 in Db Major, mm. 5–9. The dominant pedal Ab3 in the left hand creates harmonic instability.

To Gerhard, the frequent deceptive movement and dominant pedals give a somewhat indecisive quality to the Préludes, which for her provides the unifying factor of Op. 28. She continues, “A common feature of all Préludes could be found in the strangely indecisive opening of the music.”114 She explains, “In a time, in which the slow introduction to the first movement

of sonatas had become the norm, and in which no cycle of variations and almost no rondo could

exist without its own prologue, the beginning of pieces had apparently become a compositional

problem.”115 According to her, there is no other work with such a systematic connection between

opening and end as the Préludes. She believes that the different character of each prelude is not

the result of a vaguely poetic content of character pieces, but rather the consequence of different

solutions to the precisely same compositional question. An indecisive opening often poses the

same question or compositional problem that is solved in different ways for each piece. Gerhard

points out that the first prelude starts with a repeated movement from the fifth to the sixth scale

degree (from G3 to A3), and that this deceptive problem is not solved until the end of the piece

where the motion is reversed for the first time (from A3 down to G3).

114 Gerhard, 107. “Eine Gemeinsamkeit aller Préludes wäre also in dem merkwürdig unentschiedenen Umgang mit dem Beginn des musikalischen Verlaufs zu suchen.” My translation.

115 Ibid. “In einer Zeit, wo die langsame Einleitung zum ersten Sonatensatz bereits die Regel geworden war, in der kein Variationszyklus und kaum ein Rondo ohne eigene Introduktion auskam, war der Beginn einer musikalischen Komposition offenbar zum kompositorischen Problem geworden.” My translation.

55 Fig. 4.8 Prelude No. 1 in C Major, mm 1–3. Opening movement from G3 to A3.

Fig. 4.9 Prelude No. 1 in C Major, mm. 28–34. Closing Statement from A3 to G3.

Gerhard remarks that in other preludes (the ones in C minor and Eb minor), the ascending motion from the fifth to sixth scale degree is reversed right away, at the beginning of the piece.

In the opening of the C-minor prelude, the fifth scale degree, G4, moves up to the sixth scale degree, Ab4, to resolve immediately back to G4.

Fig. 4.10 Prelude No. 20 in C minor, m. 1. Beginning (G4–Ab4) and ending (Ab4–G4) takes place in the same measure.

According to Gerhard, the immediate and direct connection between the beginning and ending is reversed. She concludes that the “central quality off all the preludes” lies in the idea on how to solve the problem posed at the beginning.116 She points out that the opening of the A–

116 Ibid., 108.

56 Major prelude––the only musical example in her essay––“consists of a phrase that could as well

be the ending of a piece.” Fig. 4.11 shows that the first phrase begins on the dominant with a 6–5

suspension (C#5–B5) ending on a dominant seventh chord. According to Gerhard, this could very

well be the beginning of a closing section. She suggests that in that case, the second phrase

would have been the same, with the exception that it would have moved from the dominant back

to the tonic.

Fig. 4.11 Prelude No. 7 in A Major, mm. 1–4.

This example supports her theory that there is a strange intermingling between beginnings and endings throughout Op. 28. She concludes that the common element of all pieces within the set can be found in the strangely different continuation of the opening. This inspired Gerhard to propose a philosophical interpretation: this feature of the Préludes can be seen as a musical statement of the Romantic notion that life is the beginning of death, and that every beginning of an organic existence is already directly related to its coming end.117 She concludes her essay with

the hypothesis that the Préludes could have been intended as a systematic reflection on compositional problems as well as a confrontation with the impermanence of any existence.

117 Ibid., 108–9.

57 Summary

All four authors discussed here, Kresky, Chominski, Eigeldinger, and Gerhard, have tried to explain why the Préludes sound as a unified, coherent composition, and all have given plausible explanations. Kresky points at the most obvious features, the tonal organization and the resounding of common tones, in six instances, at the end and beginning of consecutive preludes.

Chomisnki’s has provided a large-scale plan. Even though purely speculative, it is, at the least, possible to group the Préludes according to his three-part form during a performance and easy to recognize for the audience. It becomes clear that the three middle preludes do, indeed, form a group contrasting with the two large outer groups. In contrast, Eigeldinger has proven that his X and Y motives appear in all twenty-four preludes. However, these imbedded motives are difficult, if not at times impossible, to hear. They do unify the set on paper, but much less so in a performance. Gerhard’s idea of the deceptive motions and connection between beginning and end, realized in many instances on the fifth and sixth scale degree has led me to a detailed analysis of the Préludes. While practicing Op. 28, I found that the distinct sound of the deceptive motion from the fifth and sixth scale degree is omnipresent in all pieces, not just in some. In the following chapter, I will show that there are motions between these two scale degrees, which unify the set as a whole. This can be observed in the score and becomes clear to the listener as well, for it sounds like a recurrent theme continuing throughout the set.

58 CHAPTER 5

MOTION BETWEEN THE FIFTH AND SIXTH SCALE DEGREES IN THE PRÉLUDES

Inspired by the articles discussed in the previous chapter, I have examined the Préludes in detail. I found that the fifth and sixth scale degrees are significant in all preludes and represent a unifying element for the entire set. In some preludes this motion from the fifth to sixth scale degree is obvious, while in others it is embedded in the texture. The movement between the two scale degrees strikes the careful listener as a common element in all preludes. To avoid what

Jonathan Bellman calls a play-by-play analysis,118 going in order from the first to the twenty- fourth prelude, I have grouped the pieces by the type of motion.

Scalar Motion as a Melodic Idea

The motion between the fifth and sixth scale degrees is most obvious when it appears in the melody. This is the case in Prelude No. 4 in E minor were the long-breathed melody is moving between the fifth and sixth scale degrees, repeated three times before it descends (see Fig.

5.1).

Fig. 5.1 Prelude No. 4 in E minor, mm. 1–3. ^ ^ ^ ^ ^ ^ 5––––––––––––––––––6 5––––––––––––––––––6 5–––––––––––––––––6

^ ^ In Prelude No. 9 in E Major, the 5–6 motion appears in the melody as a passing-tone

118 Jonathan Bellman, A Short Guide to Writing About Music, 2nd ed. (New York: Pearson Longman, 2002), 43.

59 motion (see Fig. 5.2).

Fig. 5.2 Prelude No. 9 in E Major, mm. 1–2. ^ ^ ^ ^ ^ ^

5––––––––––5–––––––5––5––––––––––6––––––––––––6

^ ^ ^ In Prelude No. 11 in B Minor, the 5–6–5 motion in the melody is most obvious.

Here, the sixth scale degree appears in form of a neighbor tone and is even emphasized ^ ^ ^ by the descending grace note. This 5–6–5 motion is stated twice before the melody continues (see Fig. 5.3).

Fig. 5.3 Prelude No. 11 in B Major, mm. 1–5. ^ ^ ^ ^ ^ ^ ^ ^ 5–––6––5––5 5––6–––5––5

^ ^ ^ Prelude No. 20 in C minor is distinguished by a lamenting 5–6–5 motion in the ^ ^ ^ Melody (see Fig. 5.4). This opening 5–6–5 motion determines the compositional material for the entire prelude.

60 Fig. 5.4 Prelude No. 20 in C Minor, m.1. ^ ^ ^ 5–––6––––5

Motion Between Fifth and Sixth Scale Degree as Motivic Seed ^ ^ There are many preludes in which the 5–6 motion is not only heard at the

beginning but also becomes the building block for the entire piece. In other words, the

compositional material on which the prelude is built is derived from the opening statement between the two scale degrees.119 This is most obvious in the first Prelude, in C Major, (see Fig.

5.5). The movement between the fifth and sixth scale degrees is additionally doubled at the

octave.

Fig. 5.5 Prelude No. 1 in C Major, mm. 1–3.

^ ^ ^ ^ ^ ^ 5–––––––6 5––––––––6 5–––––––6

The pieces closes with the reverse motion from the sixth to the fifth scale degree, again, repeated three times (see Fig. 5.6).

119 Preludes Nos. 4 and 20 belong clearly into this category. However, because the motion between the fifths and sixth scale degrees also occurs in the melody, I have included these three preludes in the first category.

61 Fig. 5.6 Prelude No. 1 in C Major, mm. 28–34. ^ ^ ^ ^ ^ ^ 6––5 6––5 6––5

Prelude No. 3 in G Major is striking, for the motion between the fifth and sixth scale degrees appears not only in succession in both hands, the right hand echoing the left, but ^ ^ it is also the cell from which the material for each hand is derived. The 6–5 descent appears in the left hand at the apex of the first six phrases. In the right hand, this is echoed in augmented form (see Figs. 5.7 and 5.8).

Fig. 5.7 Prelude No. 3 in G Major, mm. 1–2. ^ ^ ^ ^ 6–5 6–5

Fig. 5.8 Prelude No. 3 in G Major, mm. 3–5. ^ ^ ^ ^ 6––5 6–––5

62 In Prelude No. 8 in F# minor, the sixth scale degree appears as a neighbor tone to the fifth at the

beginning of the phrase. This is repeated before the wild groups of agitated sixteenth notes

continue to ascend (see Fig. 5.9).

Fig. 5.9 Prelude No. 8 in F# minor, mm. 1–2.

^ ^ ^ ^ ^ ^ 5––––––6–––5 5––––––6––5

The playful rapid descending motions in sextuplets and quintuplets in Prelude No. 10 are ^ ^ ^ ^ ^ all based on the opening 5–6–5–6–5 group in the first measure (see Fig. 5.10).

Fig. 5.10 Prelude No. 10 in C# minor, mm. 1–2.

^ ^ ^ ^ ^ 5–6––5––6–5

In Prelude No. 14 in Eb minor, the entire right-hand figuration is, again, derived from the ^ ^ ^ ^ ^ opening 5–6–6–5–5 movement, stated twice (see Fig. 5.11).

63 Fig. 5.11 Prelude No. 14 in Eb minor, mm. 1–3.

^ ^ ^ ^ ^ ^ ^ ^ ^ ^ ^ ^ ^ ^ 5––––6–––6––––6–––5––––5 5––––6–––6––––6––––5––––5 5––––6

^ ^ The recitative-like Prelude No. 18 opens with a repeated phrase beginning on 5–6 (see Fig. 5.12).

The same two scale degrees appear as a compound minor second in the left hand as well.

Fig. 5.12 Prelude No. 18 in F minor, mm. 1–2. ^ ^ ^ ^ 5––6 5––6

^ ^ In Prelude No. 22 in G minor, the short 6–5 motion in the first measure becomes, again, the building block for the entire right-hand motive (see Fig. 5.13).

Fig. 5.13 Prelude No. 22 in G minor, mm. 1–4. ^ ^ 6–––––––5

Similar to Prelude No. 3, there is, in Prelude No. 23, in F Major a perpetuum mobile throughout the entire piece, this time in the right hand. In the two opening ^ ^ measures this is distinguished by repeated 6–5 motions (see Fig. 5.14).

Fig. 5.14 Prelude No. 23 in F Major, mm. 1–2. ^ ^ ^ ^ ^ ^ ^ ^ ^ ^ ^ ^ ^ ^ ^ 5–––––––6––5 6––5 6––5 6––––5 6––5 6––5 6––5

Alternation between Major and Minor Sixth Scale Degrees ^ ^ Chopin emphasizes the deceptive qualities of the 5–6 motion in the following

preludes by an alternation between the major and minor sixth. In the famous Prelude No. 2, in A

minor, this happens at the most subtle level. When listening to this prelude, there seems to be no

significant movement between the fifth to the sixth scale degree. However, there is, within the

grace-note figure of measure 5, a resolution from the major sixth to the fifth degree. At the end

of the piece, in m. 20, there is again a resolution, this time from the minor sixth to the fifth scale

degree. When isolated from the context of the piece, it strikes the listener as an opening and a

closing statement (see Fig. 5.15).

Fig. 5.15 Prelude No. 2 in A minor, mm. 5–6 and mm. 20–1. ^ ^ ^ ^ #6-5 6-5

Prelude No. 5 begins with an obvious alternation between the sixth and the lowered sixth scale ^ ^ ^ degrees, both resolving to the fifth. After the hesitant sounding alternations from b6 and 6 to 5 the

music moves on.

Fig. 5.16 Prelude No. 5 in D Major, mm. 1–4. ^ ^ ^ ^ ^ ^ ^ ^ ^ ^ 6––––5 b6––––5 6––––––5 b6––––5 6––––5

The piece closes with three resolutions, this time, all from the lowered sixth to the fifth

scale degree (see Fig. 5.17).

Fig. 5.17 Prelude No. 5 in D Major, mm. 32–9. ^ ^ ^ ^ ^ ^ b6––5 b6––––5 b6––5

In the end of the nineteenth prelude, there is an alternation between major and minor sixths, C and Cb (see Fig. 5.18).

Fig. 5.18 Prelude No. 19 in Eb Major, mm. 48–61. ^ ^ ^ ^ ^ ^ 5––––b6–––––5 5––––6–––––5

66 ^ ^ 5–-––b6–––

^ ^ ^ ^ –––––––5 5––––––6––––––5

Alternation between the Two Scale Degrees to Form an Underlying Structure

The most striking example of an underlying structure in form of motion between the fifth and sixth scale degrees can be found in Prelude No. 16 in Bb minor, where the repeated eighth-

note motive in the left hand serves as the central driving force under the rapid moving sixteenth-

note runs in the right hand. Although its monotonous ostinato-like repetition strikes the listener

immediately, it is apparent only to a careful listener that even here, there is a motion from the fifth to sixth scale degree taking place on a much larger scale. Embedded into the overall texture under the scalar motion in the right hand, the left hand is pondering the fifth scale degree F3 throughout mm. 2–4 and changes to the 6th scale degree Gb3, in the following four measures to

resolve back to F3 in m. 9 (see Fig. 5.19).

67 Fig. 5.19 Prelude No. 16 in Bb minor, mm. 1–9.

^ ^ ^ ^ 5 5 5 5

^ ^ ^ ^ ^ ^ 5 5–––––––––––––6 6 6 6

^ ^ ^ ^ ^ 6 6 6 6––––––––––––5

The second example in this category is the famous “Raindrop Prelude” with its almost ever- present underlying repetition of the fifth scale degree, escaping occasionally to the sixth in form of a neighboring tone (see Fig. 5.20).

Fig. 5.20 Prelude No. 15 in Db Major, mm. 1–2.

^ ^ ^ 5–6–5

The Mazurka-like Prelude No. 7 in A Major reveals at first glance no significant move between

the two scale degrees. A closer look however shows that the fifth and sixth scale degrees are

embedded into the texture on a deeper structural level. The first phrase opens with the fifth,

while the second phrase begins with the sixth scale degree. After the two middle phrases, the

material returns and again, the two phrases open with the fifth and sixth scale degrees,

respectively (see Fig. 5.21).

Fig. 5.21 Prelude No. 7 in A Major, mm. 1–10.

^ ^ 5––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––6

^ ^ 5––––––––––––––––––––––––––––6

Motion of Fifth and Sixth Scale Degrees Highlighted by Marcato Accents

In two instances Chopin highlights the five-six motion with marcato accents. In Prelude

No. 17 in Ab Major, there are two unexpected accents on the fifth and sixth scale degree. The

accents are placed on two notes that would ordinarily not be of particular importance to the

overall melodic context. In the early version of this prelude the accents are not there.120 Chopin

120 The early version of this prelude is published as an appendix in Frédéric Chopin: Préludes, Op. 28, Op. 45, ed. Jean-Jaques Eigeldinger (London: C. F. Peters, 2003), 51–3.

69 evidently added them later for the final version. This is one of the very few preludes that had originally no significant movement between the two scale degrees before the composer’s additions. It appears that Chopin may have added the two accents to remind the listener of the deceptive quality that had occurred so many times up to that point in the set (see Fig. 5.22).

Fig. 5.22 Prelude No. 17 in Ab Major, mm. 6–7. ^ ^ 5–––––––––6

The second instance of such articulation highlighting can be found in Prelude No. 21., where, in

mm. 39–40, the motion from the fifth to the minor sixth scale degree appears not only at the

climax of the piece, but is repeated five times, and additionally emphasized by two marcato

accents as well as the fortissimo marking (see Fig. 5.23).

Fig. 5.23 Prelude No. 21 in F Major, mm 39–40. ^ ^ ^ ^ ^ ^ ^ ^ ^ ^ b6–5 b6–––5 b6––5 b6––5 b6––5

70 Motion Between the Two Scale Degrees at Climactic Moments

In the B-minor Prelude, the opening phrase moves first up to the third, then to the fifth,

and finally up to the sixth scale degree. This is the climax of the first part of the piece (see Fig.

5.24).

Fig. 5.24 Prelude No. 6 in B minor, mm. 1–8.

^ ^ ^ ^ 1––––––––3 1––---–––––5

^ ^ ^ 6––––5––––––––5

Prelude No. 13 in F# Major stands out as the longest in the set. There is neither an ^ ^ obvious 5–6 motion in the melody, nor are any scale degrees highlighted by accents. The

bass moves, however, from the first to the fifth scale degree, and the second section,

marked Più Lento, begins with the sixth degree, moving back to the fifth. In other words, ^ ^ the only 5–6 motion taking place in this piece is the shift from the first section to the Più Lento section, a significant moment in the piece (see Fig. 5.25).

Fig. 5.25 Prelude No. 13 in F# Major, mm. 18–23.

^ ^ ^ 1–––––––––––––––––––––––––––5–––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––5––––––––––––––––

^ ––––––––––6 ^ ^ At the end of Prelude No, 12, in G# minor, the 6–5 motion is stated three

times, the phrase beginning a step higher each time. This results in the unexpected ^ ^ fortissimo 5–1 close in octaves in mm. 80–1 (see Fig. 5.26).

Fig. 5.26 Prelude No. 12 in G# minor, mm. 70–81.

^ ^ 5––––––––––––––––––––––6––––

^ ^ ^ ^ ^ ^ ^ ^ ––––5––––––––––––––––––7–––6––––5–––––––––––––––––8–––7––––6–––5

Finally, and most striking, is the ending of Op. 28. Fig. 5.27 shows that the last prelude,

closes with right-hand octaves pondering first the major sixth scale degree B4, then the minor

sixth, Bb4, to finally resolve to the fifth, A4. The following descending six-octave arpeggio is

distinguished, again, by a resolution from Bb to A. This functions as a closing frame to the

opening statement of the C-major prelude. While the set had opened with an obvious five-six

72 repetition, it closes, just as boldly, with a dramatic six-five motion, thus framing the entire set

(see Fig. 5.27).

Fig. 5.27 Prelude No. 24 in D minor, mm. 72–77. ^ ^ ^ ^ ^ ^ ^ ^ ^ 6–––––––––––––b6–––––––––––––5 b6-5 b6-5 b6-5 ….

Summary

As I have shown, the movements between the fifth and sixth scale degrees are significant in Chopin’s Préludes. When carefully listening to the set, the deceptive motion can be heard in every piece and becomes what one could call “the theme” of Op. 28. I have shown that Chopin has embedded these motions both in obvious and in subtle ways. The six categories used in this chapter to classify these deceptive movements point at the different types of five-six motions.

Some preludes, however, fit into several categories. I have, therefore created a table that shows how the preludes can be categorized. Those preludes that can be grouped into more than one, appear in the table in all categories to which they could be assigned.

73 ^ ^ Table 5.1 Type of 5–6 Motion

^ ^ Types of 5–6 Motion Preludes Nos.

^ ^ 5–6 Motion as Melodic Idea Nos. 4, 8, 9, 11, and 20

^ ^ 5–6 Motion as Motivic Seed Nos. 1, 3, 4, 8, 10, 14, 18, 20, 22, and 23

^ ^ 5–6 Motions Alternating between Major and Minor Nos. 2, 5, and 19 Sixth

^ ^ 5–6 Motion as Underlying Nos. 2, 7, 15, and 16 Structure

^ ^ 5–6 Motions Highlighted by Nos. 17 and 21 Marcato Accents

^ ^ 5–6 Motion at Climactic Nos. 6, 13, 21, and 24 Moments

74 CONCLUSION

Chopin’s preludes are compositions of an order entirely apart. They are not merely, as the title would indicate, introductions to other morceaux––they are preludes instinct with poesy, analogous to those of another great contemporary poet, who cradles the soul in golden dreams, and elevates it to the regions of the ideal. ––Franz Liszt

Chopin’s twenty-four Préludes, Op. 28 represent something new in music history.

Preludes had been a popular genre in the keyboard literature since its infancy. However, the

nature of pieces entitled preludes had always been that of an introduction. Chopin’s twenty-four

pieces are not preludes to a subsequent movement but rather autonomous pieces that stand for themselves. As Kresky writes, “This may have been a historically pivotal situation––in the sense of its heralding a change in the application of this title [prelude], such pieces soon becoming

character pieces in their own right.”121 Chopin’s Préludes are nineteenth-century character pieces

composed in all twenty-four keys, each establishing a unique mood or character. They still

resemble the traditional preludes in one way: historically it has been the purpose of a prelude to

establish a mood. Chopin’s Préludes do nothing but that––establishing a mood. Yet, they are

clearly unlike previous preludes because they do not introduce subsequent piece. Gerhard quotes

the German music dictionary Das grosse Lexicon der Musik in acht Baenden, when she writes,

“The prelude of the nineteenth and early twentieth century, as we find it especially in the work of

Frédéric Chopin…forms a genre, which has nothing in common anymore with the old prelude

type with the exception that both are written for piano….It is rather the French version of the

Romantic… character piece.”122

121 Jeffrey Kresky, A Reader’s Guide to the Chopin Preludes (London: Greenwod Press, 1994), xiv.

122 Prelude in Das grosse Lexicon der Musik in acht Baenden, ed. Marc Honegger and Gunther Massenkeil, (Freiburg: Herder-Verlag, 1981), 334. Quoted in Anselm Gerhard, “Reflexionen über den Beginn der Musik: Eine neue Deutung von Frédéric Chopins Préludes op. 28” (Reflections on the beginning of music. A new interpretation

75 There are many aspects of the Préludes that hint at Chopin’s intention to create a set

unified as a large-scale composition. First, the Préludes are organized according to the ascending

circle of fifths and published as a set under one opus number. Second, many of the preludes do

not end with a perfect cadence, and, in six instances, the last note of a prelude is the same as the

first of the subsequent one, giving the impression of a continuous flow of music (Table 4.1).

Third, there is striking contrast between one prelude and its successor, contributing to an overall

tension and release which adds to the flow of music throughout the set.

Finally, Chopin created the set with an ever present movement between the fifth and the

sixth scale degrees, which may have been intended as a unifying device. In contrast to the

speculation of Chominski’s large-scale diagrams, the ever-present movement between two scale ^ ^ degrees cannot be denied. As shown in my analysis, the set opens with a easy to recognize 5–6 ^ ^ motion in the C-Major Prelude, repeated three times, and it closes, just a bold, with a 6–5 motion,

also stated also three times, first in octaves, then in repeated octaves, and finally in the form of a

six octave descending arpeggio ending on the final D1. This opening and closing statement

functions as a frame to the entire set and further highlights the many instances of motion between

these two scale degrees.

Even though Chopin never indicated this coherence in the form of titles or descriptive

notes, he distinguished the entire set by an emphasis on the deceptive qualities between the fifth

and sixth scale degrees. Using one of the oldest keyboard genres enabled the composer to

transform the preludes into something new.

of Frédéric Chopin’s Préludes op. 28), in Deutsche Musik im Wegkreuz zwischen Polen und Frankreich (German music as an intersection between Poland and France), ed. Christoph-Hellmut Mahling and Kristina Pfarr (Eurasburg: Hans Schneider Tutzing, 1996), 104. “Das Prélude des 19. und frühen 20. Jahrhunderts aber, wie wir es vor allem im Schaffen von Frédéric Chopin und Claude Debussy finden, stellt eine Gattung dar, die mit dem Praeludium alten Typs nichts mehr gemeinsam hat außer dem Faktum, für Klavier geschrieben zu sein…. Es handelt sich hier vielmehr um die französische Version des romantischen (bzw. impressionistischen) Charakterstücks.” My translation.

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80 EDITIONS

Chopin, Fryderyk. Préludes, Opus 28. Edited by Ignatz Paderewski. Warsaw: Chopin Institute, 1949.

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Hummel, Johann Nepomuk. 24 Preludes, Op. 67. In The Complete Works for Piano. Edited by Joel Sachs. New York: Garland Publishing, 1989.