Chopin - Prelude (Op 28, No. 20)

Piano Classics, Book No. 2 - Page 72

Frédéric Francis Chopin (1810 - 1849) was a Polish virtuoso pianist who composed some of the greatest piano music ever performed. He is the most important composer from Poland. Some of his music for the piano is very difficult to play, but it is admired as some of the most poetic music ever written. He planned to have a Paris concert on New Year's Day 1850, but he died before he could perform on this special day.

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Chopin's preludes, Op. 28, are a set of short pieces for the piano, one in each of the twenty-four keys, originally published in 1839 and dedicated to Joseph Christoph Kessler, a composer of piano studies during Chopin's time. Ten years earlier, Kessler had dedicated his own set of 24 Preludes, Op. 31, to Chopin. Although the term prelude is generally used to describe an introductory piece, Chopin's stand as self-contained units, each conveying a specific idea or emotion.

The Op. 28 preludes were commissioned by the piano-maker and publisher Camille Pleyel for 2,000 francs. Chopin wrote them between 1835 and 1839, partly at Valldemossa, Majorca, where he spent the winter of 1838-39 and where he had fled with George Sand and her children to escape the damp Paris weather.

Prelude No. 20 "Funeral March" is short but quite popular, with slow majestic crotchet chords in the right hand predominating, against crotchet octaves in the left. It is often called the "Chord" prelude. It was originally written in two sections of four measures, although Chopin later added a repeat of the last four measures at a softer level, with an expressive swell before the final cadence. It has been used as a theme for variations by Ferruccio Busoni, and later (without the repeated bars) by Sergei Rachmaninoff in his Variations on a Theme of Chopin, a set of 22 variations in a wide range of keys, tempos and lengths.

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[Edenhyde246]

your Eb at 0:24 sounds like it should be an E.

[MrPeterJohnston]

@Edenhyde246 That unfortunately is sort of debatable. A lot of editions do have the music written with an E natural, however some don't. Argerich, Arrau & Ashkenazy play this prelude with a E flat, and I agree with that simply because this piece was used as a sort of funeral march.

To have an E natural I think would distort the mood - although even for a second... but would still distort the mood and the macarbe sound of this prelude.

Play it both ways and see what you think.

[MrPeterJohnston]

Hey There...

You were close. It's a Yamaha C2 Grand. Glad you like the Chopin :)

[missnoelani27]

i loved it;]

[Edenhyde246]

@MrPeterJohnston hmm, I see what you mean. I think your way sounds better, after all.

[Edi7oR]

The Grand piano looks like the YAMAHA GB1K. Is that right?

OBTW you played well!