Necessary cookies are absolutely essential for the website to function properly. There is also a feverishness that spreads through the piece as if in an impassioned dream or nightmare uncertain, troubled. Throughout the Étude there is pervading darkness and deep sorrow.
It is highly chromatic with inner parts that create a tonal ambiguity, and a disturbing sense of unease. The E flat minor Étude dates from 1830 and is written with a 6/8 time signature. Each of these works is an extraordinary window into Chopin’s formidable technique but also his ingenuity as a composer. The études of Chopin are notoriously challenging works but move far from the somewhat sterile study pieces that had once been made compulsory for aspiring pianists. This simple word is interpreted to mean a ‘study’, a piece of music that draws on a certain technique particular to the piano (in this case). This prelude was played at Chopin’s funeral.Īmongst Chopin’s remarkable output there are a considerable number of pieces he titles Études. Somehow one is left with the feeling that the melody never gains the energy to rise to the heights to which it strives, instead, it slowly falls to a soft cadence in the tonic key. The melody is gently accompanied by block quaver chords that support with subtle chromatic descending harmonies that support the yearning, ever-weakening theme. Chopin has composed a beautifully simple melody for the prelude that is potent with grief and even a possible reference back to the Phrygian mode, used commonly to express sadness in Renaissance music. Some are fiendishly difficult to play competently, others like the E minor Prelude are more approachable.Īt only a single page in length, this prelude is one of the shortest yet also one of the most powerful and passionate. Each of the Chopin Preludes conjures an intense variety of different moods and visions. Beyond that, any links to Bach are tenuous at best. They are in some way a homage to the Bach Preludes and Fugues in as much as they completely cover all major and minor keys.
Chopin wrote a total of 24 preludes for solo piano.
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