Chopin's 24 Préludes, Opus 28 (Boelcke)

UNIVERSITY OF CINCINNATI
November 21, 2008

Date:___________________
Andreas M. Boelcke
I, _________________________________________________________,
hereby submit this work as part of the requirements for the degree of:
Doctor of Musical Arts

in:
Piano Performance
It is entitled:
Chopins 24 Prludes, Opus 28:
A Cycle Unified by Motion between the
Fifth and Sixth Scale Degrees
This work and its defense approved by:

bruce d. mcclung, Ph. D.
Chair: _______________________________
Frank Weinstock, M. M.
_______________________________
Elizabeth Pridonoff, M. M.
_______________________________
_______________________________
_______________________________
Chopins 24 Prludes, 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
by
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
Chopins twenty-four Prludes, 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 Chopins 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 Chopins Prludes, including those by Jsef 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
Copyright 2008 by Andreas M. Boelcke

All rights reserved
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 mewith his many
correctionsmore 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 Weinstockmy
piano teacher and mentor throughout my time at CCM who has always helped me in all matters
throughout the yearsand 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
Chopins Op. 28 as musical examples in this document, as well as Cambridge University Press for
the permission to include Eigeldingers list of examples.
To
Ursula Kolb,
Armin Boelcke,
and Adrian
vi
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 ...
LIST OF MUSICAL EXAMPLES ....
LIST OF TABLES .
xii
INTRODUCTION............................
Chopin as a Revolutionary
Document Organization
Literature on The Prludes....
1
2
3
4
CHAPTER 1: ORIGINS OF THE PRLUDES, OP. 28.....

Dates of Composition.. ...........................
Majorca: October 1838January 1839.....
9
9
10
CHAPTER 2: HISTORY OF PRELUDES PRIOR TO CHOPIN.

Origins and Early Development.
Preludes during the Baroque..
Preludes during the Classical Era...
Revival of Preludes in the Nineteenth Century..
15
15
18
21
24
CHAPTER 3: BAROQUE TRENDS AND THE CREATION OF THE

ROMANTIC PRELUDE TRADITION..
Chopin and the Baroque.
Contemporaneous Sets of Preludes
Chopins Prludes in Comparison to Contemporaneous Sets of Preludes... .
27
27
32
36
CHAPTER 4: NOTION OF COHERENCE IN OPUS 28.

General Coherence Elements..
Chominskis Large-Scale Plan...
Eigeldingers Motivic Recurrences
Anselm Gerhards Philosophical Idea.....
Summary.
39
39
43
46
54
58
CHAPTER 5: MOTIONS BETWEEN THE FIFTH AND SIXTH SCALE DEGREES IN THE
THE PRLUDES .............................................................................................................. 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.

Alternation between the Two Scale Degrees to form an Underlying Structure.
Motion of Fifth and Sixth Scale Degrees Highlighted by Marcato Accents.
Motion Between the Two Scale Degrees at Climactic Moments ..
Summary.
65
67
69
71
73
CONCLUSION..
75
BIBLIOGRAPHY..........
77
ix
MUSICAL EXAMPLES
Fig. 3.1 Prelude No. 20 in C minor, mm. 58................................................................................... 28
Fig. 3.2 Prelude No. 18 in F minor, mm. 913. ................................................................................ 29
Fig. 3.3 Prelude No. 1 in C Major, mm. 16. ................................................................................... 31
Fig. 4.1 Prelude No. 1 in C Major, mm.2833. The soprano ends on E4......................................... 40
Fig. 4.2 Prelude No. 2 in A minor, mm. 14. E4 resounds in the right hand. .................................. 40
Fig. 4.3. Chominskis list of motives................................................................................................ 45
Fig. 4.4 Eigeldingers X motive. ....................................................................................................... 47
Fig. 4.5 Eigeldingers Y motive. ....................................................................................................... 47
Fig. 4.6 Eigeldingers list of X and Y motives in the Prludes. ........................................................ 48
Fig. 4.7 Prelude No. 15 in Db Major, mm. 59. The dominant pedal Ab3 in the left hand creates
harmonic instability. ......................................................................................................................... 55
Fig. 4.8 Prelude No. 1 in C Major, mm 13. Opening movement from G3 to A3. .......................... 56
Fig. 4.9 Prelude No. 1 in C Major, mm. 2834. Closing Statement from A3 to G3. ....................... 56
Fig. 4.10 Prelude No. 20 in C minor, m. 1. Beginning (G4Ab4) and ending (Ab4G4) takes place
in the same measure. ......................................................................................................................... 56
Fig. 4.11 Prelude No. 7 in A Major, mm. 14. ................................................................................. 57
Fig. 5.1 Prelude No. 4 in E minor, mm. 13..................................................................................... 59
Fig. 5.2 Prelude No. 9 in E Major, mm. 12..................................................................................... 60
Fig. 5.3 Prelude No. 11 in B Major, mm. 15. ................................................................................. 60
Fig. 5.4 Prelude No. 20 in C Minor, m.1. ......................................................................................... 61
Fig. 5.5 Prelude No. 1 in C Major, mm. 13. ................................................................................... 61
Fig. 5.6 Prelude No. 1 in C Major, mm. 2834. ............................................................................... 62
Fig. 5.7 Prelude No. 3 in G Major, mm. 12. ................................................................................... 62

Fig. 5.8 Prelude No. 3 in G Major, mm. 35. ................................................................................... 62
Fig. 5.9 Prelude No. 8 in F# minor, mm. 12.................................................................................... 63
Fig. 5.10 Prelude No. 10 in C# minor, mm. 12. .............................................................................. 63
Fig. 5.11 Prelude No. 14 in Eb minor, mm. 13. .............................................................................. 64
Fig. 5.12 Prelude No. 18 in F minor, mm. 12. ................................................................................ 64
Fig. 5.13 Prelude No. 22 in G minor, mm. 14. ............................................................................... 64
Fig. 5.14 Prelude No. 23 in F Major, mm. 12................................................................................. 65
Fig. 5.15 Prelude No. 2 in A minor, mm. 56 and mm. 201. ......................................................... 65
Fig. 5.16 Prelude No. 5 in D Major, mm. 14. ................................................................................. 66
Fig. 5.17 Prelude No. 5 in D Major, mm. 329. ............................................................................... 66
Fig. 5.18 Prelude No. 19 in Eb Major, mm. 4861. .......................................................................... 66
Fig. 5.20 Prelude No. 15 in Db Major, mm. 12............................................................................... 68
Fig. 5.21 Prelude No. 7 in A Major, mm. 110. ............................................................................... 69
Fig. 5.22 Prelude No. 17 in Ab Major, mm. 67............................................................................... 70
Fig. 5.23 Prelude No. 21 in F Major, mm 3940.............................................................................. 70
Fig. 5.24 Prelude No. 6 in B minor, mm. 18. ................................................................................. 71
Fig. 5.25 Prelude No. 13 in F# Major, mm. 1823. .......................................................................... 71
Fig. 5.26 Prelude No. 12 in G# minor, mm. 7081. .......................................................................... 72
Fig. 5.27 Prelude No. 24 in D minor, mm. 7277. ........................................................................... 73
xi
TABLES
Table
1.1 Compositional dates of Chopins Prludes. 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 Chominskis large-scale outline of the Prludes...
43
4.3 Central core of Op. 28...
44
^ ^
5.1 Type of 56 Motion...
xii
74
INTRODUCTION
The 24 Prludes, 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 Prludes,2 and in 1888,
James Huneker wrote, The Prludes alone would make Chopins claim to immortality.3 The
Prludes 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 Chopins
matchless set of 24 Prludesof 18369. [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 Martin.4 The Prludes 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 Chopins set of preludes that ends in the
same manner.
Chopin published his set of twenty-four preludes as 24 Prludes 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 fr Musik (November 1839): 163, quoted in Jean-Jaques Eigeldinger,
Chopin Prludes, Op. 28, Op. 45 (London: C. F. Peters, 2003), 91.
3
James Huneker, Mezzotints in Modern Music, 2d ed. (New York: n.p. 1899), 1712, quoted in ibid., 93.
Howard Ferguson, Prelude, in The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians, 2d ed., ed. Stanley
Sadie and John Tyrell, 20: 293.
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 Chopins 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:
Chopins 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 Chopins works, the Prludes, Op. 28 are particularly innovative and
revolutionary. Although there have been preludes for keyboard for centuries, Chopins
contribution to this genre is distinct from both previous and contemporaneous preludes. His
Prludes 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, Chopins 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
Eugene Narmour, Melodic Structuring of Harmonic Dissonance: A Method for Analyzing Chopins
Contribution to the Development of Harmony, in Chopin Studies, ed. Jim Samson (Cambridge: Cambridge
University Press, 1988), 77.
6
Jean-Jacques Eigeldinger, preface to Prludes Op. 28 by Frdric Chopin (London: Edition Peters, 2000),
vi.
Chopins Prludes 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 Chopins set is the first instance of preludes that stand out as a set of character
pieces. Because the Prludes 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 composers 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 Prludes. To appreciate that Chopins set of preludes was
unique and new, it is necessary to briefly trace the history of the prelude genre. Only if one
places Chopins set into its historical context can the newness and revolutionary aspects of his
Prludes become clear. Thus, the second chapter consists of a concise summary of the history of
the prelude genre. Those preludes contemporaneous to Chopins 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
Chopins Op. 28 as theorized by Jeffrey Kresky, Jean-Jacques Eigeldinger, Anselm Gerhard, and
Jsef M. Chominski. All four scholars have identified features within the Prludes that
contribute to an overall coherence. Finally, the fifth chapter proposes my own theory about the
unifying principle of Chopins Prludes. 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 Prludes

There are several doctoral documents on Chopins Prludes. In her thesis Non-Harmonic Tones
as Aesthetic Elements in Chopins Preludes, Op. 28, Yangkyung Lee has grouped the nonharmonic tones of the Prludes 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 Chopins 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 Prludes
based their non-harmonic tones.
7
Yangkyung Lee, Non-Harmonic Tones as Aesthetic Elements in Chopins Preludes, Op. 28 (D.M.A.
thesis, University of Cincinnati, 2002).
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 Chopins 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.
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
Chopins Preludes, Opus 28 (Ph.D. diss., The University of Texas, Austin, 1987).
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, Chopins Musical Style by Gerald Abraham, and
Chopin Studies edited by Jim Samson, there are, of course, Chopins 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
Prludes de Chopin (Concerning the Chopin preludes),14 Chopin et lhritage baroque
(Chopin and the heritage of the Baroque),15 Le prlude de la goutte deau 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: dition dfinitive (The correspondence of Frdric Chopin: The
definitive edition), Vol. IIII, ed. and trans. Bronislav douard Sydow, Suzanne, and Denise Chainaye (Paris: La
Revue Musicale, 1981).
12
Fryderick Chopin, Chopins Letters, coll. and ed. by Henryk Opieski (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 Prludes de Chopin (Concerning the Chopin Preludes), Revue
Musicale de Suisse Romande 25 (1972): 37.
15
Jean-Jacques Eigeldinger, Chopin et lhritage baroque (Chopin and the heritage of the Baroque),
Schweizer Beitrge zur Musikwissenschaft 2 (1974): 5174.
raindrop prelude by Chopin)16 by the renowned Swiss musicologist Jean-Jaques Eigeldinger,

and Chopins Preludes und Etudes und Bachs Wohltemperiertes Klavier (Chopins preludes
and etudes and Bachs Well-Tempered Clavier) by Walter Wiora,17 who proposes that Chopin
had originally intended the Prludes as introductory pieces to his twenty-four etudes, resembling
the traditional prelude and fugue couplingan 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 Jsef M. Chominski.21 All four authors believe that the
Prludes 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 Prludes has led me
to the conclusion that Chopins 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 prlude de la goutte deau de Chopin (The Raindrop Prelude by

Chopin), Revue de Musicologie Socit Franaise de Musicologie 61 (1975): 7090.
17
Walter Wiora, Chopins Preludes und Etudes und Bachs Wohltemperiertes Klavier (Chopins preludes
and etudes and Bachs Well-Tempered Clavier), Historische und Systematische Musikwissenschaft, ed. Hellmut
Khn and Christoph-Hellmut Mahling (Mnchen: Hans Schneider Tutzing, 1972), 32335.
18
Jeffrey Kresky, A Readers 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), 16793.
20
Anselm Gerhard, Reflexionen ber den Beginn der Musik. Eine neue Deutung von Frdric Chopins
Prludes op. 28 (Reflections on the beginning of music: A new interpretation of Frdric Chopins Prludes 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),
99112.
21
Jsef M. Chominski, Preludia Chopina (Chopins preludes) (Krakw: 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).
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 Schumanns 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 Prludes are a milestone in piano literature.
CHAPTER 1
ORIGINS OF THE PRLUDES, 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 18389, there is little evidence to support this idea. The composers 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 Prludes, 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 1836after the publication
of the Nocturnes, Op. 27and had spent a long time writing the preludes, most likely from
183539. 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 Prludes 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 Prludes. 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 Chopins Preludes, Musical Times 98 (1957): 424.
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 Chopins Prludes.
Autumn
1836
1837
1835
October 1838
Preludes
Nos.
7*
17*, 20
October
1838
January 1839
at Majorca
3, 5, 6, 8, 9,
11, 12, 13, 14,
15, 16, 18, 19,
22, 23, 24
1, 2*, 4*, 10*,

21*
.
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 Chopins 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 Prludes than on his
other worksfour years at the leastand that some of them were composed during his stay in
Majorca. Everything else about the Prludes origins remains speculative.
Majorca: October 1838January 1839

Chopins 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 Sands two children, partly to escape the difficulties
posed by her former lover Flicien Mallefille.27 It was not only Chopins intention to finish the
remaining preludes during this stay but he even paid for this vacation by selling his Prludes 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 Prludes. 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
Prludes 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 cant send you the manuscript [of the Prludes], 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 Chopins 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, Chopins 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 Prludes 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 cant 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 II think I shall soon send you my Prludes 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 cant send you the Prludes, for they are not
finished: I feel better and will hurry up.32
After the move to the Carthusian monastery in Valldemosainto which Chopin had put
so much hopethings deteriorated, however, and the entire stay in Majorcaoriginally intended
as a recreational vacationturned into an extremely difficult time. In The New Grove Dictionary
of Music and Musicians Kornel Michaowski and Jim Samson write:
[The stay in Majorca] was an ill-considered venture, during which Chopins 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 Chopins illness had
reached a shocking state, and the party was obliged to leave the island.33
31
Ibid., 1878.
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 Chopins stay
in Majorca (see Table 1.1).34 Even the famous anecdote about Chopin composing the socalled 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 instanceof the aetiological legend. The repeated pedal note Ab (=G# later)
in the fifteenth Prelude inspired a nicknameit 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 Sands 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 Prludes are insufficient andas the
Raindrop Prelude anecdote showsexist often only behind the veil of Romanticized allusions,
Chopin finished composing the Prludes 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 Prludes. Copy them out, you and Wolff. I dont
think there are any mistakes. You should give the copy to Probst and my manuscript to
PleyelIn 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 Prludes.Hand over my
letter and the Prludes to Pleyel yourself.36
In his letters from November and December Chopin had implied his intentions and worries in
finishing the Prludes, while on January 22, he mentions the completion of the set. Therefore,
his stay on the island is directly linked to the Prludes. 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 Prludes. 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 Prludes. 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 Prludes first in Paris, in June 1839, for Pleyel by Adolphe Catelin
Co.without opus number37and entitled simply 24 Prludes pour le piano.38 In this
publication, the preludes were split for purely commercial reasons into two volumes: nos. 112
and 1324.39 Breitkopf & Hrtel published the Prludes in Germany in the same month as one
set, under the opus number 28.40 The omission of the opus number in the first publicationdue
to the fact that Chopin had forgotten which number had been reserved for the
setcontinued 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 Prludes of Chopin, Journal of the Society of
Musicology in Ireland 3 (20078): 25.
39
Jean-Jaques Eigeldinger, Twenty-Four Preludes Op. 28: Genre, Structure, Significance, in Chopin
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 listeners 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: 2912.
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 Ileborghs
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 Ilebourghs 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, Prludium, 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
waysseeking inspiration from the ancient Classics and providing music for an increasing
bourgeoisfor his preludes bear Greek and Latin titles such as Anabol, Harmonia, and
Prooemium, and are intended for use at home on a clavichord.50 Kotters 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 Paumans 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. 16371707) who worked as organist and Werckmeister in Lbeck
from 16681707. 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, IFIFI, but IFIF, and even IFF
I preludes can be found. Generally, a distinction can be made between the pieces ending in a
fugal section (IFF), and the ones ending with the improvisatory one (IFI).
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
Musicks 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
Chambonires, Denis Gaultier, Louis Couperin, Nicolas Antoine Lebegue, and Jean Henri
DAnglebert.
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 Lebgue mentions in the introduction to his Les pices de
clavicin: la grande difficult 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, Prlude non mesur, 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 Couperins Pices de clavecin.
57
Edler, 1797.
58
Graham Sadler, Rameau, JeanPhilippe, 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.
Rameaus Premier Livre, a collection of dance pieces for harpsichord.
59
The first example of a prelude preceding a solo instrumental dance suite is Chancys 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 Bachs 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 Bachs 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 Bachs Well-tempered Clavier. Ledbetter writes
that particularly Bachs 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 preludes
60
Ibid.
61
Ibid., 293.
62
Edler, 1800, trans. Andreas Boelcke. Hier bildete Bach neue Typen des Prludiums aus, die als
synthetische Bildungen aus unterschiedlichen Gattungstraditionen zu erklren sind und der Sammlung als ganzer
einen enzyklopdischen 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 eraF. J. Haydn, W. A. Mozart, and
Beethoventhe last genre coming to ones mind would be preludes. The few examples by
Mozart include the 4 Preludes in C (K395/300g, also catalogued as KV6:284a) from 1777all
of which have been lostand the Prelude and Fugue in C, composed after he had been exposed
to Bachs 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 Prludien durch alle Dur-Tonarten fr 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 exercisesallowing the student to become
familiar with all key-signatures within one pieceforeshadow the exercise-like preludes of
Chopins 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 Kchel 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 genressonatas, rondos, sets
of theme and variations, occasionally fantasias, and piano concertosis, 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 symphoniesa 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 centurys 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 Mendelssohns Six Preludes
and Fugues for piano, Op. 35 (18327), Liszts Prelude and Fugue on B-A-C-H (1855),
Brahmss two preludes and fugues for organ (18567), Francks Prlude, choral et fugue for
piano (1884), and Regers 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 nineteenthcentury 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 (181415), 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
pianistsClementi, Beethoven, the Mendelssohns, the Schumanns, Liszt, Brahms, and
otherswould 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 audiencein contrast
to todays 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 Trk, 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 Chopins Opus 28. Those preludes published at the time are merely
technical exercises or notated examples for the instruction on how introduce other pieces. Thus,
Chopins 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 Chopins Prludes, 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.
26
CHAPTER 3
BAROQUE TRENDS AND THE CREATION OF THE ROMANTIC PRELUDE TRADITION
Chopins 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, Chopins 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, Bachs two books of the Well-tempered Clavier, Chopins 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. 28especially those from the Well-tempered Clavier,
Chopins 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 Hndel 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 choralelike 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. 58.
In his article Autour de Preludes de Chopin (Concerning the Chopin preludes), Eigeldinger
points at the similarities between Chopins 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 Bminor 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 eight72
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 hrit de Monteverdi et des Madrigalists la ligne
chromatique descendante comme symbole de tristesse, daffliction. Chopin fait usage de se mme symbolisme dans
les Prludes 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 handreminiscent of funeral march rhythmcombined 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. 910, 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. 913.
29
Of all the Baroque composers, it was J. S. Bach, in particular, that occupied Chopins
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 Bachs 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 Bachnot that I have any pretensions to a deeper understanding, but
I am convinced that I sometimes hit on the right answer.75 Chopin appreciated Bachs works
also as exercises for pianists. On 31 October 1844 he closes his letter to Mlle de Rozires simply
with the salutation, Practice a little Bach for me.76
Considering Chopins admiration for Bach it is not surprising that the Prludes were
greatly influenced by the two books of the Well-tempered Clavier. Jean-Jacques Eigeldinger
writes, Bachs influence on the Prludes, as on Chopins music in general, is infinitely more
powerful and subtle than that of any of the post-classical composers.77 Comparing the first
prelude of Bachs WTC and Chopins Opus 28, he writes:
Through a succession of what strikes the listener as waves of sound, Chopins complex
notation, with the help of the sustaining pedal, may be taken as an instinctive, stylized
development of the bris lute writing of which Bachs piece is an obvious example.
This detail is enough on its own to substantiate Chopins debt to Bach.78
74
Chopin, Selected Correspondence, 165.
75
Ibid., 1812.
76
Ibid., 241.
77
78
Ibid., 175.
30
Fig. 3.3 Prelude No. 1 in C Major, mm. 16.
The example shows the waves of sound sustained by the damper pedal. The harmonic rhythm
here is reminiscent of Bachs 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 Chopins 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 Bachs influence on Chopins 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 Chopins 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 Bachs 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
Bachs Well-tempered Clavier (WTC) on Chopins work. After all, he even took a copy of the
WTC with him to Majorca where he composed at least some of his Prludes.83 Chopins 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

Chopins set was not only the first major contribution to the prelude genre in all twentyfour keys since Bach, but also a revolutionary change in the history of preludes. To understand
Chopins 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 Chopins 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), 1921.
82
Edgar Stillman Kelley, Chopin: The Composer (New York: G. Schirmer, 1913), 1278.
83
Anselm Gerhard, Reflexionen ber den Beginn der Musik: Eine neue Deutung von Frdric Chopins
100.
32
Table 3.1 Publications of preludes in the early nineteenth century.
Composer
Title
Publication Date
Bernard Viguerie
(c. 17611819)
12 Preludes
1804
Daniel Steibelt
(17651823)
Trois preludes ou caprices

pour le forte-piano
1806
Muzio Clementi
(17521832)
Preludes and Exercises
1811, rev. 1820
Johann Nepomuk
Hummel
(17781837)
24 Preludes Op. 67
181415
Johan Baptist Cramer

(17711858)
Twenty six preludes or

short introductions in the
principal major & minor
keys for the piano forte
Friedrich Kalkbrenner
(17851849)
24 prludes dans tous les

tons
1818
1827
A closer look at these publications shows that they are not concert pieces but exercises for
pedagogical use. Clementis 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 chromaticallyas Bach did in the
Well-tempered Claviernor according to the ascending circle of fifths. Although every major
key is followed by its relative minorjust as in Chopins setthe 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: Ca, Fd, Ge, Bbg, Db,
Ebc,. 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.
Kalkbrenners 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 Czernys 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.
Hummels 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. Hummels purpose for this group of exercises is made
clear by its title: Vorspiele fr das PianoForte: Vor dem Anfange eines Stckes aus allen 24
Dur und mol Tonarten zum ntzlichen Gebrauch fr Schler (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 Chopins set of twenty-four preludes is the tonal organization, according to the
ascending circle of fifths, each major key followed by its relative minor. Hummels 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
Chopins Prludes 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, Chopins 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 Chopins 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, Chopins Op. 28 has not lost its provocative qualities. In 2007 James William Sobaskie
wrote, Brief as they may be, the Prludes of Frdric 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 fr Musik 41 (November 1839): 163, quoted in Jean-Jaques
Eigeldinger, Chopin Prludes, Op. 28, Op. 45 (London: C. F. Peters, 2003), 91.
87
Franz Liszt, Frdric Chopin, trans. Edward N. Waters (New York: Macmillan, 1963), 14.
88
James William Sobaskie, Precursive Prolongation in the Prludes of Chopin, in Journal of the Society
of Musicology in Ireland 3, (20078): 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 Chopins 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 Chopins Op. 28 as poetic Prludes, he [Franz Liszt] acknowledged
their capacity to engage the imagination, to stimulate expectation, to convey more than their
surfaces connotein 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 Chopins Op. 28.
Sobaskie explains the relationship between Chopins preludes and poetry as follows:
Chopin may have been inspired by the example of poetry when composing his Prludes,
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
Chopins music, as well as a certain vocality, that is reminiscent of poetry. This may
begin to explain why we have found the Prludes so provocativeand endlessly
intriguing.93
Analyzing half of the Prludes, 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 Readers 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 Bachs works and the Baroque tradition, Chopins Prludes 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,
Chopins Op. 28 stands out in one more way. The Prludes 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 Prludes 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
Readers Guide to the Chopin Preludes, Jeffrey Kresky writes, The question of the organic
unity and status of the collectionare 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 Prludes 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 melodiesin 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 Prludes, however, stand out
within Chopins oeuvre. They follow a succession of keys that bonds them together, more than
the chromatically ascending preludes and fugues of Bachs WTC. Kresky writes, The move of
95
Jeffrey Kresky, A Readers 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 Prludes 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.2833. The soprano ends on E4.
Fig. 4.2 Prelude No. 2 in A minor, mm. 14. 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
preludeemphasized by the fermataresounds, 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 resoundings 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 organizationthere are no compelling balances or flow as the pieces progress
99
Ibid.
41
the preludes in Chopins set seem to fit together, one being a consequence of the other. Kresky
points out, In the Chopin Prludes 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 Chopins Prludes 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. xviixviii.
42
Chominskis Large-Scale Plan

In 1950 the Polish Chopin specialist Jsef M. Chominski compared the Prludes to
Robert Schumanns 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 largescale three part form, in which the slow group, consisting of the Preludes Nos. 1315, forms the
central core.104
Table 4.2 Chominskis large-scale outline of the Prludes.
Preludes Nos. 112
Preludes Nos. 1315
Preludes Nos. 1624
The first part of Chominskis three part form contains twelve preludes, Nos. 112, the core only
three, Nos. 1315, and the third section nine, from Nos. 1624. 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
Prludes 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
Chopins Prludes 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
Jsef M. Chominski, Preludia Chopina (Chopins preludes) (Krakw: 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 Chominskis work has not been translated from Polish into English, my
discussion of his ideas are based on Lopinskis 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
long, lyrical, slow
Prelude No. 14
short, agitated, fast
Prelude No. 15
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, Chominskis 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 Schumanns 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 Chominskis
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. Chominskis 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 Chominksis 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, Chominskis work in the field is important, for he was the first
scholar to investigate and discuss the cyclic elements in the Prludes. More recent scholars,
especially Jean-Jacques Eigeldinger, have acknowledged his work but expressed reservations as
well.
Eigeldingers Motivic Recurrences
The Swiss musicologist Jean-Jacques Eigeldinger believes that Chominskis three-partform idea is not a satisfying solution to the coherence question in Chopins 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
Chominskis idea of a thematic recurrence does not convince Eigeldinger either. He writes,
107
108
Ibid.
46
Chominski comes close to it [a unifying principle] when he proposes a Substanzgemeinschaft [a

common substance] common to twelveof 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 Prludes 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 Eigeldingers 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 Eigeldingers 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 Eigeldingers list of X and Y motives in the Prludes.
48
49
50
51
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: 165; Y version: 1654

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: 532; Y version: 5321

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 5321, but
instead, 5123. 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
Chopins 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 CG is thus highlighted. In
bars 57 the second fifth GD 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 CG, GD, 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
Eigeldingers 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 Gerhards Philosophical Ideas

Anselm Gerhard found in the Prludes 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 Gerhardfor steps can occur in
most pieces of musicunless, as she writes, they are considered with respect to their harmonic
background. In her article Reflexionen ber den Beginn der Musik: Eine neue Deutung von
Frdric Chopins Prludes Op. 28 (Reflections on the beginning of music: A new interpretation
of Frdric Chopins Prludes, Op. 28), she points out that in many instances the Prludes 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
IIV 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 ber den Beginn der Musik: Eine neue Deutung von Frdric Chopins
105.
54
Fig. 4.7 Prelude No. 15 in Db Major, mm. 59. 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 Prludes, which for her provides the unifying factor of Op. 28. She
continues, A common feature of all Prludes 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 Prludes. 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 Prludes wre also in dem merkwrdig 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 13. Opening movement from G3 to A3.
Fig. 4.9 Prelude No. 1 in C Major, mm. 2834. 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 (G4Ab4) and ending (Ab4G4)
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 preludethe only musical example in her essayconsists 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 65
suspension (C#5B5) 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. 14.
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 Prludes 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 Prludes could have been intended as a systematic reflection on
compositional problems as well as a confrontation with the impermanence of any existence.
117
Ibid., 1089.
57
Summary
All four authors discussed here, Kresky, Chominski, Eigeldinger, and Gerhard, have tried
to explain why the Prludes 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.
Chomisnkis has provided a large-scale plan. Even though purely speculative, it is, at the least,
possible to group the Prludes 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. Gerhards 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 Prludes. 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 PRLUDES
Inspired by the articles discussed in the previous chapter, I have examined the Prludes
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 twentyfourth 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. 13.
^
^
56
^
^
56
^
^
56
^ ^
In Prelude No. 9 in E Major, the 56 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. 12.
^
555566
^ ^
In Prelude No. 11 in B Minor, the 565 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 565 motion is stated twice before the melody
continues (see Fig. 5.3).
Fig. 5.3 Prelude No. 11 in B Major, mm. 15.
^
^ ^ ^
5655
^ ^
^ ^
5655
^ ^
Prelude No. 20 in C minor is distinguished by a lamenting 565 motion in the

^
^ ^
Melody (see Fig. 5.4). This opening 565 motion determines the compositional material
for the entire prelude.
60
Fig. 5.4 Prelude No. 20 in C Minor, m.1.

^
^
^
565
Motion Between Fifth and Sixth Scale Degree as Motivic Seed

^
There are many preludes in which the 56 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.
^
^
56
^
^
56
^
^
56
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

^ ^
65
^ ^
65
^ ^
65
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 65 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. 12.
^ ^
65
^ ^
65
Fig. 5.8 Prelude No. 3 in G Major, mm. 35.

^ ^
65
^
^
65
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. 12.
^
^ ^
565
^
^ ^
565
The playful rapid descending motions in sextuplets and quintuplets in Prelude No. 10 are
^ ^ ^
^ ^
all based on the opening 56565 group in the first measure (see Fig. 5.10).
Fig. 5.10 Prelude No. 10 in C# minor, mm. 12.
^ ^ ^ ^ ^
56565
In Prelude No. 14 in Eb minor, the entire right-hand figuration is, again, derived from the
^
^ ^
^ ^
opening 56655 movement, stated twice (see Fig. 5.11).
63
Fig. 5.11 Prelude No. 14 in Eb minor, mm. 13.

^
^ ^
^ ^
^
566655
^
^ ^
^
^
^
566655
^
^
56
^ ^
The recitative-like Prelude No. 18 opens with a repeated phrase beginning on 56 (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. 12.
^ ^
56
^ ^
56
In Prelude No. 22 in G minor, the short 65 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. 14.
^
^
65
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 65 motions (see Fig. 5.14).
64
Fig. 5.14 Prelude No. 23 in F Major, mm. 12.

^
^ ^
565
^ ^
65
^ ^
65
^
^
65
^ ^
65
^ ^
65
^ ^
65
Alternation between Major and Minor Sixth Scale Degrees

^ ^
Chopin emphasizes the deceptive qualities of the 56 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. 56 and mm. 201.
^ ^
#6-5
^^
6-5
Prelude No. 5 begins with an obvious alternation between the sixth and the lowered sixth scale
b
degrees, both resolving to the fifth. After the hesitant sounding alternations from 6 and 6 to 5 the
music moves on.
65
Fig. 5.16 Prelude No. 5 in D Major, mm. 14.

^
^
65
^
^
65
^
^
65
^
^
65
^
^
65
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. 329.
^ ^
65
^
^
65
^ ^
65
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. 4861.
^
^
^
5b65
^
^
^
565
66
^
^
5-b6
^
5
^
^
^
565
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 eighthnote motive in the left hand serves as the central driving force under the rapid moving sixteenthnote 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. 24 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. 19.
^
5
^
5
^
5
^
^
56
^
6
^
6
^
5
^
6
^
6
^
5
^
6
^
6
^
^
65
The second example in this category is the famous Raindrop Prelude with its almost everpresent 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. 12.
^ ^^
565
68
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. 110.
^
^
56
^
^
56
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 Frdric Chopin: Prludes, Op. 28, Op.
45, ed. Jean-Jaques Eigeldinger (London: C. F. Peters, 2003), 513.
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 composers
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. 67.
^
^
56
The second instance of such articulation highlighting can be found in Prelude No. 21., where, in
mm. 3940, 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 3940.
^ ^ ^
^
65 b65
^ ^ ^ ^
65 b65
^ ^
65
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. 18.
^
^
13
^
^
1---5
^
^
^
655
Prelude No. 13 in F# Major stands out as the longest in the set. There is neither an
^ ^
obvious 56 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 Pi Lento, begins with the sixth degree, moving back to the fifth. In other words,
^
the only 56 motion taking place in this piece is the shift from the first section to the Pi Lento
section, a significant moment in the piece (see Fig. 5.25).
Fig. 5.25 Prelude No. 13 in F# Major, mm. 1823.
^
^
^
155
71
^
6
^
At the end of Prelude No, 12, in G# minor, the 65 motion is stated three
times, the phrase beginning a step higher each time. This results in the unexpected
^ ^
fortissimo 51 close in octaves in mm. 801 (see Fig. 5.26).

Fig. 5.26 Prelude No. 12 in G# minor, mm. 7081.
^
^
56
^
^
^
^
^
^
^
^
57658765
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. 7277.
^
^
^
6b65
^^
6-5
^^
6-5
^^
6-5 .
Summary
As I have shown, the movements between the fifth and sixth scale degrees are significant
in Chopins Prludes. 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 56 Motion

^ ^
Types of 56 Motion
Preludes Nos.
^ ^
56 Motion as Melodic Idea
Nos. 4, 8, 9, 11, and 20
^ ^
56 Motion as Motivic Seed
Nos. 1, 3, 4, 8, 10, 14,

18, 20, 22, and 23
56 Motions Alternating
between Major and Minor
Sixth
^
Nos. 2, 5, and 19
56 Motion as Underlying
Structure
Nos. 2, 7, 15, and 16
^ ^
56 Motions Highlighted by
Marcato Accents
^
Nos. 17 and 21
56 Motion at Climactic
Moments
Nos. 6, 13, 21, and 24
74
CONCLUSION
Chopins preludes are compositions of an order entirely apart. They are not merely, as the
title would indicate, introductions to other morceauxthey 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
Chopins twenty-four Prludes, 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. Chopins 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 situationin 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 Chopins Prludes 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. Chopins Prludes do nothing but thatestablishing 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
Frdric Chopinforms 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 Readers 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 ber den Beginn der Musik: Eine
neue Deutung von Frdric Chopins Prludes op. 28 (Reflections on the beginning of music. A new interpretation
75
There are many aspects of the Prludes that hint at Chopins intention to create a set
unified as a large-scale composition. First, the Prludes 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 Chominskis 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 56
^ ^
motion in the C-Major Prelude, repeated three times, and it closes, just a bold, with a 65 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 Frdric Chopins Prludes 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 Prlude des 19. und frhen 20. Jahrhunderts aber, wie wir es vor allem im
Schaffen von Frdric Chopin und Claude Debussy finden, stellt eine Gattung dar, die mit dem Praeludium alten
Typs nichts mehr gemeinsam hat auer dem Faktum, fr Klavier geschrieben zu sein. Es handelt sich hier
vielmehr um die franzsische Version des romantischen (bzw. impressionistischen) Charakterstcks. My
translation.
76
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81

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UNIVERSITY OF CINCINNATI

November 21, 2008

Doctor of Musical Arts

A Cycle Unified by Motion between the

Fifth and Sixth Scale Degrees

This work and its defense approved by:

Chopins 24 Prludes, Opus 28:

A document submitted to the

The Graduate School

DOCTOR OF MUSICAL ARTS

in the Keyboard Studies Division

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

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

Copyright 2008 by Andreas M. Boelcke

LIST OF MUSICAL EXAMPLES ....

CHAPTER 1: ORIGINS OF THE PRLUDES, OP. 28.....

CHAPTER 2: HISTORY OF PRELUDES PRIOR TO CHOPIN.

CHAPTER 3: BAROQUE TRENDS AND THE CREATION OF THE

CHAPTER 4: NOTION OF COHERENCE IN OPUS 28.

Alternation Between Major and Minor Sixth Scale Degrees.

Fig. 5.7 Prelude No. 3 in G Major, mm. 12. ................................................................................... 62

4.2 Chominskis large-scale outline of the Prludes...

4.3 Central core of Op. 28...

5.1 Type of 56 Motion...

Literature on The Prludes

raindrop prelude by Chopin)16 by the renowned Swiss musicologist Jean-Jaques Eigeldinger,

Jean-Jacques Eigeldinger, Le prlude de la goutte deau de Chopin (The Raindrop Prelude by

1, 2*, 4*, 10*,

Majorca: October 1838January 1839

Michalowski and Samson, 709.

Chopin, Selected Correspondence of Frederic Chopin, 167.

Origins and Early Development

Ibid., 20: 2912.

Preludes during the Baroque

Preludes during the Classical Era

Revival of Preludes in the Nineteenth Century

Shane Levesque, Functions and Performance Practice of Improvised Nineteenth-Century Preludes,

Chopin and the Baroque

notes in the right handreminiscent of funeral march rhythmcombined with a descending

Chopin, Selected Correspondence, 165.

Fig. 3.3 Prelude No. 1 in C Major, mm. 16.

Contemporaneous Sets of Preludes

Table 3.1 Publications of preludes in the early nineteenth century.

Trois preludes ou caprices

Preludes and Exercises

1811, rev. 1820

Johan Baptist Cramer

Twenty six preludes or

24 prludes dans tous les

Chopins Prludes in Comparison to Contemporaneous Sets of Preludes

General Coherence Elements

Chominskis Large-Scale Plan

Preludes Nos. 1315

Preludes Nos. 1624

Fig. 4.3. Chominskis list of motives.106

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

Fig. 4.6 Eigeldingers list of X and Y motives in the Prludes.

X version: 165; Y version: 1654

X version: 532; Y version: 5321

Anselm Gerhards Philosophical Ideas

Scalar Motion as a Melodic Idea

In Prelude No. 9 in E Major, the 56 motion appears in the melody as a passing-tone

motion (see Fig. 5.2).

1, 2, 4, 10*,