Preludes (Chopin)

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Chopin, portrait by Eugène Delacroix

The 24 Préludes op.28 are a piano cycle composed between 1836 and 1839 by Frédéric Chopin . Chopin dedicated the French first edition to his publisher and concert organizer friend, Camille Pleyel .

The style-defining and epoch-making collection is considered to be a pinnacle of his work. With it he followed up on The Well-Tempered Clavier by Johann Sebastian Bach , who he admired , who systematically led through all major and minor keys in both parts of 48 preludes and fugues . With the tension between gloomy melancholy, poetic melodies and powerful flaring passion, the collection documents the breadth of mood in Chopin's oeuvre as well as its forward-looking harmony .

Content and special features

The orientation towards Bach's preludes is not only shown externally in the title of the work, but also in the constructive condensation and reduction of the material, which shows Chopin's mastery of concise statements and small form, as is also expressed in the mazurkas and etudes . The French name Preludes suggests that the composer disregarded the original function of the prelude and referred to the connotation of the term by understanding prelude as fantasizing .

Unlike the Well-Tempered Clavier , the individual pieces, which Chopin only later brought into a suitable key scheme, do not follow the chromatic scale from c to b, but the circle of fifths with the following minor parallel . The first prelude in C major is followed by one in A minor , the subsequent one in G major by one in E minor to the final prelude in D minor.

Chopin's handwriting of Prelude No. 23 in F major. Moderato delicatiss. Original Valldemossa, Mallorca

The preludes each unfold from a motivic core idea that often only spans one bar or part of bar. The cyclical sequence integrates the individual pieces into a higher-level dramaturgy. The shape is proportioned, the development of the material dispenses with flowing boundaries or veiled phrases. Usually these are simple two or three-part song forms.

The piano-like demands of the cycle range from simple pieces to those of the middle grades to highly virtuoso compositions such as the dramatic B minor Prelude No. 16, which can only be mastered by outstanding pianists, with the octave jumps of the left and the frenzied sixteenth notes of the right hand or the final piece in D minor, which with its wide-reaching bass figure, ornaments, trills, scales racing into the high registers and the fortissimo downward cascade of thirds from bar 55 can be regarded as the pianistic highlight of the collection. She combines the structure of these works with the Etudes Op. 10 and Op. 25 (also 24 pieces), which - like the Preludes - develop from a thematic nucleus and in each of which a certain technical piano aspect is exhausted to the limit of what is playable . The two genres are also linked through the concise language, expressive depth, drama and emotional complexity.

Few pieces in the collection are reminiscent of nocturnes , such as the dreamy one in F sharp major (No. 13), while others (No. 7 in A major) are based on a mazurka or reminiscent of a funeral march (No. 20 in C minor ).

Some preludes are also very popular with amateurs and piano students. This includes the D-flat major Prelude No. 15 with the gloomy middle section, a work that has often been called the Raindrop Prelude since George Sand's report on the creation in Mallorca .

Background and more pieces

In addition to Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart , Chopin especially valued Johann Sebastian Bach. He mastered the Well-Tempered Clavier by heart and used to prepare for his own concerts with the interpretation of works by Bach. His affection for Bach, however, went beyond pianistic and technical aspects. During the creation of his Preludes, he dealt intensively with the great role model.

There are three other preludes outside the cycle; In addition to a work in C sharp minor op. 45 (1841) and one in A flat major ( Presto con leggierezza , 1834) there is an unfinished work in E flat minor, which Jeffrey Kallberg is nicknamed after Giuseppe Tartini's “Devil's Trill Sonata” Devil's Trill was there.

The c sharp minor prelude , dedicated to Princess Elisabeth Czernicheff , which is played quite often , is unusual in several respects. In addition to the relative length, it surprises with its improvisational introduction, which consists of a sequence of tonally apparently detached, descending sixth chords over three bars, the expressive, sometimes distant mood, which is intensified by the constant eighth note movement of the left hand, and the cadenza ( leggierissimo e legato ), which ends with daring chromatic modulations of parallel fifth and sixth movements after a dynamic increase in the fourth sixth chord forte and introduces the painful end of the piece.

Effect and reception

The density and concentration of the pieces should prove to be just as style-forming as some harmonious boldnesses, for example in the disturbingly modern-looking second piece in A minor.

The young Rachmaninoff 1901

Robert Schumann , who had said in admiration about Chopin (“Hats off, gentlemen, a genius!”), Found in his review something “sick, feverish, repulsive.” It was about “sketches, beginnings of studies, ruins, individual eagle wings ", everything is mixed" colorful and wildly mixed up ".

Theodor W. Adorno did not only deal with Chopin in his music-sociological writings, who for him was "an important composer of great originality and unmistakable tone". In addition to Robert Schumann 's children's scenes , the Preludes are remarkable because of their fragmentary character, their “questioning, infinite short form” and represent an innovation without which Anton Webern's expressionist miniatures or Arnold Schönberg's op. 19 would be difficult to imagine.

The collection inspired numerous composers to write their own preludes, in which the influence of Chopin's model can be felt to varying degrees. Among them are Alexander Scriabin , Karol Szymanowski , Sergei Rachmaninow and Claude Debussy as well as Dmitri Shostakowitsch , who after his cycle of 24 Preludes op. 34 (1932–1933) published another collection of 24 preludes and fugues for piano for the Bach year 1950 originated.

With his opus 11, Scriabin also presented a cycle with 24 preludes , after which he composed several other pieces of this genre. The history of their origins shows how he gradually overcame Chopin's model, which was almost epigonal at the beginning, and how he advanced to the limit of tonality and new music in the development of harmony .

Rachmaninoff composed a total of 24 Preludes over a long period of time, beginning with the famous C sharp minor Prelude op. 3 No. 2 (1892/93), which later became the two collections of the 10 Preludes op. 23 (1901–1903) as well as the 13 Preludes op. 32 (1910).

literature

  • Jean-Jacques Eigeldinger , 24 Préludes Opus 28: Genre, Structure, Significance , London: Cambridge University Press 1988
  • Marilyn Anne Meier, Chopin twenty-four preludes opus 28 , 1993 ( PDF )
  • Egon Voss , “Of course you first think of Bach's preludes”. Thoughts on Fryderyk Chopin's Preludes op. 28 , in: Die Musikforschung , vol. 66 (2013), pp. 120–127
  • Anatole Leikin, The Mystery of Chopin's Préludes , Burlington: Ashgate Publishing Company 2015 ( digitized version )
  • Tadeusz A. Zieliński: Chopin. His life, his work, his time. Schott, Mainz 2008, pp. 579-603

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ The presentation is partly based on: Harenberg piano music guide, 600 works from the baroque to the present , Frédéric Chopin, 24 Préludes, Meyers, Mannheim 2004, pp. 264–269
  2. ↑ For example Tadeusz A. Zieliński: Chopin. His life, his work, his time . Schott, Mainz 2008, p. 602
  3. ↑ Ulrich Möller-Arnsberg: Préludes op.28.BR -Klassik , May 19, 2015, accessed on July 15, 2016 .
  4. ↑ Chopin, Frédéric François, in: Music in Past and Present , Volume 2, Bärenreiter-Verlag, 1986. pp. 1225–1226
  5. ^ Theodor W. Adorno , Introduction to Music Sociology , 4 Classes and Layers, in: Collected Writings, Volume 14, p. 243

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