Advanced Music Theory

Samir Obaido
28. February 2019

Chopin Op 28, A Minor Prelude

The prelude features a dense ostinato comprised of two interdependent layers. The
layers’ register along with the consistent clashing of pitches, gives the ostinato a dense a
texture that governs the mood of most of the prelude, that is in case it is played legatissimo as
Chopin indicates. This ostinato also establishes implied harmonies along the way through
neighbor tones that mostly circle the fifth degree of the relevant harmony. Exceptions are
bars number 4, 9, 11-19, where the harmonies are either 4/6 cadence chords or, as in bars
11-19, where the harmony eventually develops into an augmented 6 chord through chromatic
means. The ostinato has a big role in this prelude, developmentally and dramaturgically
speaking. The proportions between the presence of a melody as opposed to the ostinato are
not exactly equal. The melody features many long notes, giving space for the ostinato to take
the lead during most of the prelude. Chopin also indicated most of his dynamic markings
specifically for the ostinato, manipulating it in order to increase its powerful blurry and
dissonant effect.
There is a melody structure that takes form in 3 different phases. The first is in E minor,
ending in a relative G major. The second phase is in bar 8 where the melody is shortened
rather than diminuted to give space for the new implied harmony of the ostinato. The
ostinato goes a 5th above, a B minor ending in a half-diminished chord (bar 11) that
chromatizes its respective tones to reach the designated 4/6 A minor eventually through an
augmented 6th chord (FACD#). The third phase is the aftermath in bar 14 with a prepared
resolution on top of the A Minor’s 4/6 chord.
The melody is a period comprised of two phrases. For means of this analysis, we should
take that these periods have an A and a B, and that they are usually seen together, with the
exception being from bars 17 till the end. During these bars, the B part of the period is put
into a tonal sequence that leads us to the 5th degree of the Dominant of A minor. This
sequence is supported yet opposed by the 4/6 A minor chord starting in bar 15, where it
stands defiantly against the inclination of the melodic sequence. It could very well be a form
of a pedal tone, but less coercive to the ears since it comes back in what you expect to be the
resolution of the B part of the melody. The B part of the melody tries for a second time in

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 bar 20 to reach a resolution, and it finds it with an E Major chord that brings stability and
certainty to an otherwise very harmonically blurry piece.
The prelude, supposedly in A minor, starts on the minor dominant of the home key,
meaning an E minor. If we were to really search for a tonal center in this piece, we wouldn’t
find it in its conventional form until the end of the piece, which tonicizes the A minor through
establishing the E major triad Dominant in bar 21, which at first seems like a picardy 3rd
ending, but then this chord is given a 7th to bring us back to the implied reality that the piece
had carried along most of its content, resolving on a stable, profound A minor chord.

Clarification of some elements spoken about in this text.

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