Chopin and 'La Note Bleue': An Interpretation of the Prelude Op.

45
Author(s): Jean-Jacques Eigeldinger
Source: Music & Letters , May, 1997, Vol. 78, No. 2 (May, 1997), pp. 233-253
Published by: Oxford University Press

Stable URL: https://www.jstor.org/stable/737392

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 CHOPIN AND 'LA NOTE BLEUVE': AN INTERPRETATION
OF THE PRELUDE OP. 45

BY JEAN-JACQUES EIGELDINGER

BY THE END of September 1841, Chopin had finished the Prelude Op. 45 and was
negotiating its release with Maurice Schlesinger in Paris and Pietro Mechetti in
Viending it latter wanted a work for an album of 'morceaux brillants' destined to
raise funds for the Beethoven monument in Bonn,1 and although Chopin had
initially offered his new Polonaise Op. 44, Mechetti thought this too grandiose for
the collection. Instead, he opted for the mazurka from La France musicale (4July
1841); but Chopin, deeming it 'already old',2 proposed the Prelude, which he had
just completed for inclusion in the Keepsake despianistes, an anthology for subscribers
to the Revue etgazette musicale de Paris (12 December 1841).3 The work appeared more
or less simultaneously in Schlesinger's and Mechetti's separate editions. In his letter
to Fontana, Chopin contemplated its eventual publication in the Album-Beethoven:
'It is well modulated ['dobrze modulowany'], and I have no hesitation in sending it'.4
An earlier version of this article was read at the International Conference on Nineteenth-Century Music held at the
University of Surrey in July 1994. I gratefully acknowledge the assistance of the British Academy in making this
possible. I should also like to express my thanks to DrJohn Rink and Mr Anthony-Richard Cole for their valuable
help in translating this essay. Unless indicated otherwise, translations of the quotations are theirs.
I The title-page reads: Album-Beethoven. Dix Morceaux brillants pour le piano composis par Messieurs Chopin, Czerny,
Dohler, Henselt, Kalkbrenner, Liszt, Mendelssohn Bartholdy, Moscheles, Taubert et Thalberg, et publiis par l'iditeur P. Mechetti
pour contribuer aux Frais du Monument Louis van Beethoven a Bonn. A copy is held by the Stiftung Preussischer Kultur-
besitz, Berlin. The title-page is reproduced (with commentary) in Christa Jost, 'Aspects of the Variations sirieuses',
Mendelssohn Studies, ed. R. Larry Todd, Cambridge, 1992, p. 36.
2 Letter of 30 September 1841 to his friend and copyist Julian Fontana; Selected Correspondence of Fryderyk Chopin,
trans. & ed. Arthur Hedley, London, 1962, p. 207.
3 A copy of the Album can be found in Paris, Bibliotheque Nationale, Music Department, Vm7 3008. From three
pages in Schlesinger's Keepsake (reproduced as P1. III, below), the printing of the separate plate-number edition runs
to seven pages (M. S. 3518) and contains mistakes corrected eventually by Liszt in a reprint by Brandus & Dufour.
Significant differences exist between the two first editions of 1841: the appoggiatura in small characters in bar 2 does
not appear in the Mechetti edition; moreover, it was Chopin who instructed Fontana to write the cadenza in small
characters for Mechetti and in ordinary characters for Schlesinger. Schlesinger's Keepsake edition contains textual
errors in bar 18 (where the D's should be natural), 22 (where the third and fourth quavers were printed in reverse
order) and 58 (where the D's in the right hand should be natural). See also n. 26, below.
4 Selected Correspondence of Fryderyk Chopin, trans. Hedley, p. 207. For an account of Chopin's dealings with
Mechetti and Schlesinger concerning Op. 45, see Korespondencja Fryderyka Chopina, ed. Bronistaw Ed. Sydow,
Warsaw, 1955, ii, letters 333 (p. 31), 337 (p. 34), 338 (p. 36), 339 (p. 37), 341 (pp. 37-8), 343 (pp. 39-40), 344 (p. 42),
350 (p. 48), 334 (p. 341), 342 (p. 342) and 353 (p. 343). Two letters are not included in this compilation: one, sent to
Mechetti by Chopin (28 October 1841), is reproduced in facsimile by Hanna Wr6blewska-Straus, 'Autografy
Fryderyka Chopina ze zbior6w Muzeum TiFC w Warszawie', Rocznik chopinowski, xiv (1982), Pll. 24-7; the other,
unpublished until now, was sold at auction by Sotheby's in New York on 11 November 1990:

Cher Monsieur Mechetti,

Je vous envoye la Polonaise avec son titre.-J'ai charge en meme temps la maison Leo de Paris de tirer sur Vous
la somme convenue. Quant a la mazourka dont Vous me parlez dans votre lettre, elle n'a pas encore &e cedee en
Allemagne-mais je ne voudraispas qu'elle se trouvat dans Votre charmant recueil de Beethoven,-etje Vous envoye
pour cette destination,-si toute fois cela Vous convient,-un prilude queje viens de faire.-Je ne peux pas Vous en
ceder la propriete de l'Allemagne a moins de quinze louis-en Vous donnant la propriete de la mazourka de la
France musicale par dessus le marche,-(mazourka que Vous pourriez graver separement ou dans un autre
recueil).-Si vous ne voulez pas-ayez la bonte cher Monsieur Mechetti de me renvoyer le manuscrit du Prilude

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Given the Album's importance, he evidently took his decision with care, and the
expression 'well modulated' may contain more than a hint of typically ironic,
Chopinesque understatement.
The Prelude Op. 45 has always struck me as a sort of enigma waiting to be, if not
decoded, at least examined. How does it relate to the 24 Preludes Op. 28?5 To what
genre(s) does it belong? What is its structural and semantic signification? Apart from
three harmonic analyses by Hugo Leichtentritt, Jozef M. Chominski and Gunner
Rischel6 and a few scattered sentences in the general literature on Chopin, there is,
as far as I know, no critical literature specifically devoted to this piece. It is as if the
habit of most publishers to relegate it as an appendix to -Op. 28, as a kind of 25th
Prelude, has precluded critical attention to it.7 Yet it is noteworthy that no less a
figure than Liszt was responsible for this piece in 1880 in Breitkopf & Hdrtel's
collected Chopin edition.8 As for the genre title of Op. 45, the views of musicologists
and commentators have differed for more than a century. While Frederick Niecks
finds the term 'prelude' more appropriate for this work than for Op. 28, Arthur
Hedley and Jim Samson are inclined to group it with the Nocturnes.9' In contrast,
Tadeusz A. Zielin'ski claims: 'Not only does this new work have nothing stylistically
in common with the Preludes [Op. 28], but it suggests none of the genres previously
used by Chopin, not even the nocturne, despite its slow tempo and intimate,
meditative air'.10
Although a systematic survey of Op. 45's reception is neither possible nor desir-
able here, certain salient assessments are nevertheless worth citing. Niecks
emphasizes the work's improvisatory character and evocation -of dusk: 'I would
rather call it an improvisata. It seems unpremeditated, a heedless outpouring when

par le retour du courrier, afin quej'en dispose pour Leipzic. Si Vous le gardez, envoyez m'en ou le montant ou un
billet a ordre par la meme maison qui est chargee de tirer sur Vous les 25 louis.
Comme j'ai change d'appartement, j'attends vos nouvelles a l'adresse. Rue Pigal. N' 16, Chaussee d'Antin.
A Vous de coeur,
F. Chopin

Mes respects a la famille Malfati.

Mes souvenirs aux dames Muller.
Paris 5 Octobre 1841.
5 For proposed interpretations of the place of Op. 28 in Chopin's output, seeJean-Jacques Eigeldinger, 'Twenty-
four Preludes, Op. 28: 'Genre, Structure, Significance', Chopin Studies, ed. Jim Samson, Cambridge, 1988, pp. 167-
93; and Jeffrey Kallberg, 'Small "Forms": in Defence of the Prelude', The Cambridge Companion to Chopin, ed. Jim
Samson, Cambridge, 1992, pp. 124-44.
6 Hugo Leichtentritt, Analyse der Chopin'schen Klavierwerke, i (Berlin, 1921), 177-9; J6zef M. Chominski, Preludia
Chopina, Krak6w, 1950, pp. 333-9 (an analysis derived from the theories of Riemann and Erpf); Gunner Rischel,
'Tonal analyse', Musik & forskning, xiv (1988-9), 110-33 (the principles presented, which result from the work of
Povl Hamburger, take the opposite approach to Riemann's system: the Prelude Op. 45 serves to illustrate the argu-
ment).
7 Henri Sauguet was unusual in standing the notion of a 25th prelude on its head: 'This prelude seems to contain
within it all the others. It is a little bit like a "table of contents"' (booklet accompanying Alfred Cortot's recording of
the 24 Preludes Op. 28, the Prelude Op. 45 and the four Impromptus (Les Gravures illustres, COLH 38, October
1958), p. 15).
8 Breitkopf & Hartel entrusted Liszt with the task of editing the Preludes for Vol. 6 of their 'Erste kritisch durch-
gesehene Gesammtausgabe'. First published separately (1878), Op. 45 was subsequently added to the volume con-
taining Op. 28 (1880). Mention should also be made of a Titelauflage by Brandus & Dufour (see n. 3, above) with
handwritten corrections by Liszt, which is part of the Anthony van Hoboken collection (Osterreichische National-
bibliothek, Vienna).
' Frederick Niecks, Frederick Chopin as a Man and Musician, 3rd edn., London, [1902], ii. 256; Arthur Hedley,
Chopin, London, 1947, p. 148; Jim Samson, The Music of Chopin, London, 1985, pp. 79-80.
'1 Tadeusz A. Zielifiski, Fridiric Chopin, trans. Marie Bouvard, Laurence Dyevre, Blaise de Obaldia & Krystyna de
Obaldia, Paris, 1995, p. 621.

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sitting at the piano in a lonely, dreary hour, perhaps in the twilight.'1 Leichtentritt
perceives hints of musical impressionism in the bold harmonic progressions and the
texture of the cadenza: 'The modern, colouristic conception of the harmony and its
impressionistic tendencies are deeply ingrained here ... The glittering, shimmering
effect of the cadenza (compare the play of light through a cut-glass prism) ...
thoroughly ornamental, colouristic construction, unemotional. Improvisatory free-
dom shapes the performance of the entire piece.'12 This view is largely shared by
Ernst Kurth, Ludwik Bronarski and, finally, Alfred Cortot, who notes in his per-
forming edition that 'in the Prelude . . . can be divined all the output of the future
now contemporary with us. It is not so much the culmination of a Romantic
aesthetic as the promise of an aesthetic to come."3
Perhaps this is why Op. 45 has been regarded ever since its first publication as
inaccessible, even enigmatic. The first review, Henri Blanchard's in the Revue et
gazette musicale de Paris, reveals a certain unease in the face of 'this tightly woven,
difficult, richly modulated piece, full of that originality and eccentricity that
characterizes the music of this able pianist'.14 Though Blanchard does note the
texture 'en style lie" of Op. 45, the review (in the form of an open letter) of Opp. 44-9
by Maurice Bourges from the same year is rather more perceptive. Commenting
initially on the two Nocturnes Op. 48, Bourges compliments his fictitious addressee
for being among those who attach great importance to considerations of formal
structure ('T'intelligence du plan'). He continues:

This is the sole means of giving the performance a character of indispensable unity. With-
out this, how would one render sensible the distinction of essential and accessory ideas?
To make one's playing a kind of painting, to give it perspective, profundity, one absolutely
must master the material plan of the work, even if it is a question of a simple prelude
where the arrangement hides beneath an apparent disorder.
The Prelude in C sharp minor, Op. 45, by M. Chopin, can be included among his
better works. The basic outline is nothing much in itself, merely an arpeggio phrase
entrusted to the left hand, against which the right hand tosses here and there some
expressive notes. Nevertheless, the directness and distinction of the modulations as well as
the sustained succession of developments make this little composition a very lovely work
indeed."

Niecks, Frederick Chopin as a Man and Musician, loc. cit.

12 'Die moderne, koloristiche Auffassung der Harmonie, ihre impressionistichen Tendenzen schon hier sehr stark
ausgepragt ... Die glitzernde, schillernde Wirkung der Cadenza (zu vergleichen dem Spiel des Lichter auf geschlif-
fenen Glasprismen) ... durchaus ornamental, koloristisch aufzufassen, nicht gefiuhlsmassig. Improvisatorische Frei-
heit kommt dem Vortrag des Stiuckes im Ganzen zu.' Leichtentritt, Analyse der Chopin 'schen Klavierwerke, i. 177, 179.
1 Ernst Kurth, Romantische Harmonik und ihre Krise in Wagners 'Tristan', Berlin, 1923, pp. 515-16; Ludwik
Bronarski, Harmonika Chopina, Warsaw, 1935, pp. 320-21; the original of Cortot's observation reads: 'dans ce
Prelude. . . se laisse deviner tout le lendemain de la production qui nous est encore contemporaine. Ce n'est pas tant
l'aboutissement d'une esthetique romantique que la promesse d'une sensibilite a venir'. Chopin, Pieces diverses, 2nd
ser., Paris, 1947, p. 50.
14 'Morceau serre, difficile, module richement, plein de cette originalite, de cette excentricite qui caracterise la
musique de cet habile pianiste.' Henri Blanchard, 'Keepsake des pianistes', Revue et gazette musicale de Paris, ix
(2 January 1842), 12.
15 'C'est le seul moyen de donner a l'execution un caractere d'unite indispensable. Comment sans cela rendrait-
on sensible la distinction des idees capitales et des accessoires? Pour faire de son jeu une sorte de peinture, pour lui
donner de la perspective, de la profondeur, il faut absolument posseder le plan materiel de l'oeuvre, meme quand il
s'agit d'un simple prelude oii l'ordonnance se cache sous un desordre apparent.
Celui en ut diese en mineur, l'oeuvre quarante-cinq de M. Chopin, est une de ses bonnes productions. Le dessin
primitif est peu de chose en lui-meme: c'est une phrase en style d'arpege confiee a la main gauche, et sur laquelle la
main droitejette cA et la quelques notes expressives. La franchise et la distinction des modulations, l'enchainement
soutenu des developpements font de cette petite composition une tres jolie chose.' Maurice Bourges, 'Lettres a Mme
la baronne de *** sur quelques morceaux de piano modernes. Quatrieme lettre', Revue et gazette musicale de Paris, ix
(17 April 1842), 171 (trans. of the first paragraph from Kallberg, 'Small "Forms"', p. 130).

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The writer therefore implicitly poses the question of the logic behind Chopin's
modulations, a logic hidden 'beneath an apparent disorder'."6 In so doing, he twice
refers to concepts taken from painting. Such references have a direct bearing on what
I would like to investigate in this article, before concluding with considerations
about links between Beethoven's 'Moonlight' Sonata and Chopin's Op. 45.

In a key text probably prepared in 1871, George Sand tells of a conversation with
Eugene Delacroix in January 1841 (some eight months before the Prelude's com-
pletion) about a recent painting by Ingres entitled Stratonice (reproduced as P1. J).17
Ingres had lavished particular care on this work-the result of a commission by the
Duke of Orleans in 1834-since it presented the opportunity for a comeback after a
long absence from the public eye. Artists, critics and writers flocked to see the paint-
ing at the Tuileries, where it was exhibited for the first time from 20 August 1840. It
is there that Delacroix had the opportunity to examine it, and most likely George
Sand and Chopin did as well.18 Although literary in style, Sand's text can be
regarded as a close transcription (her term) of the conversation with Delacroix
(P1. II). It seems reliably to convey the tenor of the artist's remarks (which are corrob-
orated by his own writings), and its comments on the colour scheme of Stratonice are
entirely correct. The conversation deals essentially with Delacroix's opposition to the
Ingres school with respect to line and colour. Point by point Delacroix attacks the
work of his fellow artist, who, as if to prove his colouristic expertise, shaded in out-
lined forms with more or less arbitrary colours. Delacroix takes the opportunity to
explain his own theory of colour and line, which he was formulating at the same time
as the pioneering research by the chemist Michel-Eugene Chevreul (1786-1889) on
complementary colours and simultaneous contrasts."9 Chevreul showed that, in
painting, it is the optical or chemical reaction produced by one colour on a neigh-
bouring colour-and not the contour of the line-which serves to enhance the out-
line of the object represented. This reaction also establishes the colour scheme of the
painting and safeguards its unity. In his journal and his theoretical writings,
Delacroix is very explicit on what he calls reflections (reflets) and shapes (reliefs).20 In
the journal we read:

16 Compare these comments of Carl Czerny, '[A] fantasy well done is akin to a beautiful English garden,
seemingly irregular, but full of surprising variety, and executed rationally, meaningfully, and according to plan'.
Czerny, A Systematic Introduction to Improvisation on the Pianoforte Op. 200, trans. & ed. Alice L. Mitchell, New York,
1983, p. 2.
17 Sand's text was first published as an article in Le Temps (17 October 1871) before appearing in the book Impres-
sions et souvenirs, Paris, 1873, pp. 72-90. An autograph of the first eleven pages is held by the Bibliotheque Historique
de la Ville de Paris (Fonds Sand M. 093). The corrections to this manuscript, which was intended for use in
preparing the 1873 impression, allow us to deduce the existence of a manuscript from 30 years before which would
be contemporary with the conversation recounted; moreover, in a letter of 9 September 1871 to Charles-Edmond,
George Sand stated that her text was originally written on the evening of the conversation (Correspondance, ed.
Georges Lubin, xxii (Paris, 1987), 539). However, M. Lubin has kindly informed me that he knows of no such
manuscript.
18 In a letter to Delacroix of 23(?) September 1840, George Sand alludes to Stratonice without explicitly mentioning
whether she has seen it; but it would be rather surprising had she not. As for Delacroix, he made an appointment
with his friend Pierret in a letter of 22 August 1840 for the following day 'to go and see the painting by Ingres'.
Correspondance ginirale d'Eugine Delacroix, ed. Andre Joubin, ii (Paris, 1936), 56.
19 See Michel-Eugene Chevreul, De la loi .du contraste simultani des couleurs (Paris, 1839), the preface of which is
dated 1835. Given George Sand's text and the date when she claims it was originally written (January 1841), it is
interesting to note the chronological proximity of an article signed 'Dr. E.V.', entitled 'Cours sur le contraste des
couleurs par M. Chevreul', in L'Artiste, ix (1842), 148-50, 162-5.
20 Eugene Delacroix, Journal 1822-1863, ed. Andre Joubin, rev. Regis Labourdette, Paris, 1931-2 and 1981;
Oeuvres littiraires, Paris, 1923; see in particular 'De la couleur, de l'ombre et des reflets', i. 71-4.

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 PLATE II

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 Binding-together. When we cast our eyes on the objects about us, whether in a landscape or
an interior, we observe a kind of binding-together of the objects which meet our sight; it is
produced by the atmosphere which envelops them and by the reflections of all kinds
which cause each object to participate to a certain extent in a sort of general harmony ...
and yet the majority of painters, including great masters indeed, have not always paid
proper attention to it. The greater number do not even seem to have observed in nature
that essential harmony which establishes in a painting a type of unity which line alone
does not suffice to create, despite the most ingenious arrangement.21

The conversation recorded by George Sand consists of several parts. After the
initial dialogue between her and Delacroix in the artist's studio, the topic was again
taken up in Sand's home, this time in the presence of Chopin, her son Maurice (a
pupil of Delacroix) and, at the end, Mickiewicz as a silent observer. This is Sand's
only text containing the expression 'la note bleue', the celebrity of which seems to
have overshadowed the rest of the passage. I quote the excerpts which concern us in
particular:

[Maurice] ... wants Delacroix to explain to him the mystery of reflection, and Chopin
listens, his eyes wide with fascination. The master makes a comparison between colour in
painting and sound in music. Harmony in music, he says, concerns not only the make-up
of the chords, but also how they are related, their logical succession, their progression-
what I would call, if I had to, their auditory reflections. And painting is no different! Here,
let me have that blue cushion and that red cloth. We'll put them side by side. You see that
where the two colours touch, they take something away from each other. The red
becomes tinged with blue; the blue is washed with red and, in the middle, purple is
produced. You can fill a canvas with the most violent shades; if you give them the reflec-
tion that binds them together, you will never be garish. Is this because nature is lacking in
colour, because it does not overflow with fierce oppositions that destroy any sense of
harmony? It's because everything is linked to reflection. One claims to suppress that in
painting, and indeed one can-but there's one small problem: the painting is suppressed
at the same time.
Maurice observes that the science of reflection is the most difficult of all.
'Not so!', exclaims the master, 'it's as easy as saying hello. I can show you that just as
two and two make four. That the reflection of one colour on another invariably produces
yet another colour, I have explained and proved to you on twenty occasions.'
'Very well', says the student; 'but the reflection of a reflection?'
'What a nuisance you are! You're asking too much for one day.'
Maurice is right; the reflection of a reflection leads us into infinity, and Delacroix knows
this only too well. But he will never be able to prove it, for he has looked for an answer
incessantly and has freely confessed to me that it can more often be attributed to inspira-
tion than to science . . .
Chopin grows restless in his chair. 'Let me catch my breath', he says, 'before we move
on to shape. Reflection is enough for the time being. It is ingenious, and new to me-but
surely it involves alchemy.'
'No', says Delacroix, 'it is chemistry pure and simple. Colours continually break down
and recompose, and the reflection does not break away from the shape, just as the line
does not separate from the contour. They [Ingres and his followers] claim that they
invented, or at least discovered, line, in other words that they defined contour. But they

21 The Journal of Eugene Delacroix, ed. & trans. Walter Pach, 2nd edn., New York, 1980, p. 558. The original text
reads: 'Liaison. Quand nousjetons les yeux sur les objets qui nous entourent, que ce soit un paysage ou un interieur,
nous remarquons entre les objets qui s'offrent a nos regards une sorte de liaison produite par l'atmosphere qui les
enveloppe et par les reflets de toutes sortes qui font en quelque sorte participer chaque objet a une sorte d'harmonie
generale . .. Le plus grand nombre semble meme n'avoir pas remarque dans la nature cette harmonie necessaire qui
etablit dans un ouvrage de peinture une unite que les lignes elles-memes ne suffisent pas a creer, malgre l'arrange-
ment le plus ingenieux.' Delacroix, journal 1822-1863, p. 626 (25 January 1857). For related texts, see also pp. 268-9
(3 November 1850), 456 (25 August 1854), 610 (13January 1857) & 837 (supplement to the journal).

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 did nothing of the kind! Contour mocks them and turns its back on them. But wait,
Chopin! I know what you are going to say: that contour is what keeps objects from getting
mixed up with other objects, but nature is lacking in fixed contours. The light that is its
life, its mode of existence, destroys silhouette at every instant, and, instead of drawing in
two dimensions, gives everything a rounded shape . . .'
Chopin is no longer listening. He is at the piano and does not observe that we are listen-
ing to him. He improvises as if haphazardly. He stops. 'What's this, what's this?', exclaims
Delacroix, 'you haven't finished it!'
'It hasn't begun. Nothing's coming to me ... nothing but reflections, shadows, shapes
that won't settle. I'm looking for the colour, but I can't even find the outline.'
'You won't find one without the other', replies Delacroix. 'And you're going to find
them both.'
'But if I find only the moonlight?'
'You'll have found the reflection of a reflection', answers Maurice.
This idea pleases the divine artist. He resumes playing without seeming to recom-
mence, so vague and hesitant is his musical outline. Little by little our eyes have become
filled with those soft colours corresponding to the suave modulations taken in by our
auditory senses. And then the 'note bleue' resonates and there we are, in the azure of the
transparent night. Light clouds take on all the forms of fantasy; they fill the sky; they
crowd round the moon which casts upon them large opal discs, awakening their dormant
colours. We dream of a summer night: we await the nightingale.
A sublime melody arises.22

22 '[Maurice Sand] ... veut que Delacroix lui explique le mystere des reflets, et Chopin ecoute, les yeux arrondis
par la surprise. Le maltre etablit une comparaison entre les tons de la peinture et les sons de la musique. L'harmonie
en musique, dit-il, ne consiste pas seulement dans la constitution des accords, mais encore dans leurs relations, dans
leur succession logique, dans leur enchainement, dans ce quej'appellerais, au besoin, leurs reflets auditifs. Eh bien,
la peinture ne peut pas proc6der autrement! Tiens! donne-moi ce coussin bleu et ce tapis rouge. PlaSons-les c6te a
c6te. Tu vois que la oui les deux tons se touchent, ils se volent l'un l'autre. Le rouge devient teinte de bleu; le bleu
devient lave de rouge et, au milieu, le violet se produit. Tu peux fourrer dans un tableau les tons les plus violents;
donne-leur le reflet qui les relie, tu ne seras jamais criard. Est-ce que la nature est sobre de tons? Est-ce qu'elle ne
deborde pas d'oppositions feroces qui ne detruisent en rien son harmonie? C'est que tout s'enchaIne par le reflet. On
pretend supprimer cela en peinture, on le peut, mais alors il y a un petit inconvenient, c'est que la peinture est sup-
prim6e du coup.
Maurice observe que la science des reflets est la plus difficile qu'il y ait au monde.
- Non! dit le maitre, c'est simple comme bonjour. Je peux te demontrer cela comme deux et deux font quatre. Le
reflet de telle couleur sur telle autre donne invariablement telle autre couleur que je t'ai vingt fois expliquee et
prouvee.
- Fort bien, dit l'eleve; mais le reflet du reflet?
- Diable! Comme tu y vas, toi! tu en demandes trop pour un jour!
Maurice a raison; le reflet du reflet nous lance dans l'infini, et Delacroix le sait bien; mais il ne pourra jamais le
demontrer, car il le cherche sans cesse et il m'a bien avoue qu'il le devait plus souvent a l'inspiration qu'a la
science ...
Chopin s'agite sur son siege. Permettez-moi de respirer, dit-il, avant de passer au relief. Le reflet, c'e
pour le moment. C'est ingenieux, c'est nouveau pour moi; mais c'est un peu de l'alchimie.
- Non, dit Delacroix, c'est de la chimie toute pure. Les tons se decomposent et se recomposent a toute
reflet ne se separe pas du relief, comme la ligne ne se separe pas du model. Ils [les Ingristes] croient
invente, ou tout au moins decouvert la ligne! C'est-a-dire qu'ils croient tenir le contour. Eh bien, ils ne
pas du tout! Le contour se moque d'eux et leur tourne le dos. Attendez! Chopin, je sais ce que vous al
contour est ce qui empeche les objets de se confondre les uns avec les autres, mais la nature est sobre
arretes. La lumiere qui est sa vie, son mode d'existence, brise a chaque instant les silhouettes et, au lieu de
plat, elle enleve tout en ronde bosse . . .
Chopin n'ecoute plus. II est au piano et il ne s'aperSoit pas qu'on l'ecoute. II improvise comme au
s'arrete. Eh bien, eh bien, s'ecrie Delacroix, ce n'est pas fini!
- Ce n'est pas commence. Rien ne me vient ... rien que des reflets, des ombres, des reliefs qui ne veu
fixer. Je cherche la couleur, je ne trouve meme pas le dessin.
- Vous ne trouverez pas l'un sans l'autre, reprend Delacroix, et vous allez les trouver tous deux.
- Mais si je ne trouve que le clair lune?
- Vous aurez trouve le reflet d'un reflet, repond Maurice.
L'idee plait au divin artiste. I1 reprend, sans avoir l'air de recommencer, tant son dessin est vague et comme in-
certain. Nos yeux se remplissent peu at peu des teintes douces qui correspondent aux suaves modulations saisies par

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 The question that we must now ask is this: are there aesthetic parallels between
the Prelude Op. 45 and George Sand's text, given that both date from 1841? In other
words, can the Prelude be viewed as representing-if only metaphorically-a com-
positional stylization of Chopin's improvisation in response to the notions Sand
attributes to Delacroix and which indeed find ample confirmation in the artist's writ-
ings? The text from Impressions et souvenirs poses the problem of whether two appar-
ently separate artistic domains-painting and music-can in fact be related to one
another.23 The primary obstacle to a critical interpretation lies in the extent to which
this comparison can legitimately be drawn.
To help Chopin understand his theory, Delacroix (as reported by Sand) translates
the problem into musical terms: 'Harmony in music', he says, 'concerns not only the
make-up of the chords, but also how they are related, their logical succession, their
progression-what I would call, if I had to, their auditory reflections'. In the light of
these analogies, let us consider the supremacy of harmony and modulation over
melodic line in Op. 45 (P1. III). The Prelude, with its arpeggio textures, is entirely
based on a harmonic conception: following Debussy, we might even speak of the
work in terms of 'harmonic chemistry' ('chimie harmonique').24 The piece is
virtually athematic: any melodic element that appears results from the harmony at
the peak of an arpeggio wave. The triadic element of the arpeggio is understated to
the point of blending with the wave (bars 6-7) or breaking away from it at the start of
a new wave (bars 8-9). We also note the momentary overlapping of each new
dominant function (at the peak of the right-hand part) and its respective tonic (in the
bass), a sort of sfumato which creates an unendliche Harmonie. Those few occasions
when the semblance of a melodic idea arises constitute precisely the nerve centres of
the overall harmonic concept (bars 13-16, 26-31, 31-5, 50-55 and 55-9), as if the
melodic outline were serving to reinforce the harmonic colour. 'Contour. It should
come last, contrary to custom', notes Delacroix succinctly in his journal.25 In the
Prelude, what comes first is the arpeggio texture (bars 5-6), as Maurice Bourges
correctly perceived as early as 1842. This harmonic formula is in fact the only
'theme' of the piece.
The components of this formula make ample use of the phenomenon of reson-
ance, whether 'natural' or in the parallel minor mode, by using in succession the
first, second, third and fifth harmonics, echoed twice in the upper octaves, with an
appoggiatura (D#) to the tonic creating a kind of shading in the pedalled sonority.26

le sens auditif. Et puis la note bleue resonne et nous voila dans l'azur de la nuit transparente. Des nuages legers pren-
nent toutes les formes de la fantaisie; ils remplissent le ciel; ils viennent se presser autour de la lune qui leurjette de
grands disques d'opale et reveille la couleur endormie. Nous revons d'une nuit d'ete; nous attendons le rossignol.
Un chant sublime s'eleve.'
Sand, Impressions et souvenirs, pp. 81-2, 83-4, 85-6.
23 See in particular Philippe junod, 'De I-audition coloree ou du bon usage d'un mythe', in the proceedings of the
colloquium La Couleur: regards croisis sur la couleur du Moyen Age au XXe siecle, Paris, 1994, pp. 63-76. I should like t
express my appreciation to M. Junod, Professor of Art History at the University of Lausanne, for his advice on and
interest in my research, and especially for drawing my attention to the work of Johannes Itten, in particular L'Etoil
des couleurs, Paris, 1985.
24 See Debussy's description of a new and definitive version of Reflets dans 1'eau, the first piece in Images I for piano
in Lettres de Claude Debussy a son iditeur, ed. Jacques Durand, Paris, 1927, p. 31 (letter of 19 August 1905).
25 The journal of Eugene Delacroix, p. 531 (adapted). The original text reads: 'Contour. Doit venir le dernier, au
contraire de la coutume', journal 1822-1863, p. 607 (11 January 1857).
26 It goes without saying that the pedal plays an all-important role throughout the Prelude. The Mechetti an
Schlesinger editions differ on an important point: in the arpeggiations found for instance in bars 5-6, Mechett
systematically indicates removal of the pedal at the end of bar 5, while Schlesinger extends it to the middle of bar 6
and the arrival of the octave in the right hand. Did Chopin modify his pedal writing in the French proofs? For lack o
an autograph or a Stichvorlage, we can only speculate as to why this divergence occurs.

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Chopin had previously used this type of euphonic, blended colouring in the first
Etude of Op. 10 and the first Prelude of Op. 28, but a more pertinent comparison is
with two works bearing the word 'fantaisie' in their titles: the Fantaisie Op. 49 and
the Polonaise-fantaisie Op. 61.27 In contrast to the single appoggiaturas found in the
Prelude, the figuration in the latter pieces is distinguished by double auxiliary notes
around the mediant. This figuration occurs in strategic passages having the charac-
ter of a prelude: a prelude to the instrumental drama in Op. 49, with the ensuing
progressive acceleration poco a poco doppio movimento (Ex. la); and a prelude to the
lyrical 'epic' in Op. 61, a stylization of the gesture of a mythical bard taking hold of
his harp (Ex. lb).28 These two comparisons make possible an initial justification for
the title 'Prelude' for Op. 45, which is bathed in the atmosphere of an otherworldly
meditation. The difference lies in the utilization of these similar textures: they per-
form the function of a prelude in Opp. 49 and 61, while Op. 45 serves as a prelude
only to itself. The arpeggios that make up the core of Op. 45 are thus an improv-
visando element which can be viewed in the light of the extemporized music
described by George Sand. To this may be added the cadenza, marked a piacere in
Mechetti's edition only, as well as the (quasi recitativo) declamation which follows in
bars 81-5.

Ex. 1
(a) Chopin, Fantaisie Op. 49, bars 43-6

r3

.* v. *

(b) Chopin, Polonaise-fantaisie Op. 61, opening

Allegro maestoso

(b' ;1i X i ;d , r *

27 On these two wo
Society, xxxviii (19
provisation', journal
28 The layout and g
see The Work Sheet
p. 84. See also Anth
John Rink &Jim Samson, Cambridge, 1994, pp. 84-101.

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 The main key of Op. 45-at least, its tonal frame-is C sharp minor, but it is
radically undermined by the discursive harmonic progression, and is palpably func-
tional in fewer than twenty of 92 bars including the cadenza (bar 80). Specifically, C
sharp minor colours the opening phrases, the reprise (from bar 67) and the closing
cadenza, thereby contributing to the definition of structure.
The four initial bars, with their two descending tetrachords (C#-G# and F#-C#)29
and fauxbourdon texture, at once create a C sharp minor/A major dichotomy by
means of the Phrygian second Dh (bars 1 and 3), which recurs in the G# of the modu-
lation to the subdominant F sharp minor (bar 2). This dichotomy appears in bar 4
with the two successive suspensions, the first of which looks to A major and the
second to C sharp minor. The powerful D# appoggiatura (bar 5) at the start of the
series of arpeggios eliminates the modal colour of the initial D~. D major, the key of
the Neapolitan sixth, appears as a final colouring of the tonic in the coda (bars 86-7),
announced by an accented A (bar 85). Note that two important sections in the
work's overall structure are in A major: first, the passage which precedes the start o
the cadenza (bar 75 ff.), and second, a section flanked on either side by passages in F
major (bars 47-50 and 55-63), just before the reprise of bars 5 ff. at bar 67. Thus,
these three keys-C sharp minor, F major and A major-prove to be the poles
around which the piece's harmony is constructed. The C# octave is therefore sy
metrically divided into three enharmonic thirds (in a foretaste of Wagner). Furthe
more, the Neapolitan sixths of these three poles are also heard at certain stages
within the Prelude: D major, as already mentioned (bars 15-18 and 86-7), B flat
major and G flat major (bars 27-35)-these latter two in symmetry with the sections
in A major and F major (which include a near-exact transposition of bars 27-35).
Just as the three primary colours-red, yellow and blue-divide the colour wheel
into an equilateral triangle, so the tonics of the three main keys-C sharp, F and
A-divide equally the circle of twelve semitones within the octave. The analogy ends
there, however: it would be extravagant to interpret -the Neapolitan sixths as
counterparts to binary colours (orange, green and violet).
Concerning the synaesthetic expression 'auditory reflections' used by Delacroix to
describe harmonic progression, bars 13 and 20 in particular merit a closer look. The
Neapolitan colour of D major, confirmed by a plagal cadence (bars 17-18), is estab-
lished without any functional raison d'etre. The same is true of bar 19, where the
series of arpeggios from the beginning returns, transposed to F sharp minor, and
thus referring back to bar 14. F sharp minor, initially presented in bar 2 as the
tonicized subdominant, subsequently reappears overshadowed by its relative A
major (bars 13-14); its fleeting cadential establishment is the first interruption of the
arpeggios, replacing them by only the sketchiest melodic outline. The major triad
D-F#-A is as much a part of A major as it is of F sharp minor or the Phrygian mode
on F#. Resulting from the ambiguity of the first four bars, the mixed colours in this
chord are used here as an 'auditory reflection', calling to mind Debussy's expression
'noyer le ton'.30
The 'logical succession' of the harmonic progressions throughout the Prelude fol-
lows three principles (Ex. 2): first, a descending progression in fifths (bars 4-23);
second, interrupted cadences (marked x) which introduce a dramatic foreshortening
29 Note their recurrence in the summing up of bars 81-2, as well as the descent by seconds of the lowest note in
the arpeggios from bars 5 to 24: C,, B, A, G4, F# and E. I should like to express my gratitude to M. Georges
Starobinski, lecturer in the Music Department of the University of Geneva, for suggestions regarding my harmonic
analysis of Op. 45.
3 Edward Lockspeiser, Debussy: his Life and Mind, London, 1962-5 (repr. Cambridge, 1978), i. 206. The expres-
sion 'noyer le ton' appears in the context of 'Conversations with Ernest Guiraud'.

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upon the appearance (bars 27 and 30-31) and then disappearance (bars 54-5) of flat
keys; and last, the chromatic progressions in the intervening bars (37-51), which
recur in the retransition to C sharp minor in bars 64-7.

Ex. 2 Modulatory schemes in the Prelude Op. 45

Bars: 4 5 9 11 13 15 19 23 25 27 31

A D B6 G

) ffli L b '' N ? N ?- X h o o "xo

x

37 39 41 43 45 47 51 54 55-63 64 65 66 67

I i I b Reprise
.9 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~TV
F A F

b T 1)04L [/0 a's I Ti T

the'cte esbeos somc so that the Paderwk edto nieyertsbr

x

Until this reprise, the Prelude is characterized by a polarity of-tonal sections, in

what seems a free interpretation of Rameau's notion of the 'c6ote des di'eses' versus
the 'c6ote des be'mols'-so much so that the Paderewski edition entirely rewrites bars
27-63 with no sharps in the key-signature.31 Bars 1-26 are conceived solely in terms
of sharps and systematically alternate between the minor and major modes, which is
particularly noticeable in this vague shading that consists of taking a major third and
making it minor, moving through C sharp minor, B major, B minor, A major, F
sharp minor, D major, F sharp minor, E major and E minor-that is, primarily
neighbouring keys. Conversely, bars 27-50 are exclusively in flat keys, all major and
distant from each other.32 The melodic outline is established at the start of this
section, reinforcing the strategic modulations to B flat major and G flat major, up to
and including the isolated section of A major with F major. In other words (to invoke
Delacroix), the element of line is inseparable from the bold colours that flank each
end of the section. This dichotomy between sharps and flats could perhaps be seen
as deriving from the tradition of the modulating prelude, as used for example in
Beethoven's Zwei Praludien durch alle Tonarten Op. 39. That would make sense doubly
with respect to the title of Chopin's Op. 45 and its inclusion in Mechetti's Album.33 It
3' Chopin, Complete Works, ed. I. J. Paderewski, L. Bronarski & J. Turczynski, Warsaw & Krak6w, 1949, i. 63-4,
85-6.

32 Observe in particular the boldness of bars 37-8 and 45-6, where the ninth chords do not lead to new tonics but,
rather, constitute an appreciable broadening of the consonance of the perfect triad, reached two bars before.
33 There is no evidence that Chopin knew these two preludes, which were, however, circulating in a Titelaufgab
(Vienna: Cappi & Czerny) at the time of his stay in Vienna. Op. 39 is not included in the Collection complete des oeuvres
pour piano published in Paris by Schlesinger. The tradition of the modulating prelude during the period in which
equal temperament was becoming generalized in keyboard music is attested to notably by the following, in a letter of
20 July 1778 from Mozart to his father: 'I wanted to present my sister with a little Preambulum ... This is not th
kind of Prelude which passes from one key into another, but only a sort of Capriccio, with which to test a clavie
(Letters of Mozart and his Family, trans. & ed. Emily Anderson, 3rd edn., rev. Stanley Sadie & Fiona Smart, London,

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might also account for the work's underlying theoretical-even demonstrable-
premiss,34 based in part on the modal-tonal ambiguities offered by the use of the
Phrygian second, the art of which would be 'cache par l'art meme', to use
Rameau's words once again.35 This aspect is all the more striking if we consider
the piece in relation to the theories of Delacroix, proposing metaphorically that the
cadenza is the composer's chromatic palette, sweeping though the sound spectrum
in a double trajectory, descending and ascending by turns.36 In the downward
motion, there is a systematic alternation between dominant and subdominant
functions: 'cote des dieses' and 'cote des bemols'. In the upward motion, the
elusive diminished seventh chord appears in various positions and configurations
on all twelve semitones. While listeners may enjoy the cadenza simply for its
kaleidoscopic tonal colour, upon analysis we see that it contains the essence of the
process used for the entire Prelude, closed upon itself like Chevreul's chromatic
circle.37
With respect to Beethoven and Mechetti's Album, it is surely logical to discern
analogies between the Prelude and the Sonata 'quasi una fantasia' Op. 27 No. 2. We
have ample evidence that the latter was part of Chopin's repertory and used in his
teaching,38 and there are many indications that he had this sonata in mind when
conceiving his Prelude.39 There is first of all the key of C sharp minor, which, in
Chopin's output, encapsulates the dual connotation of the first and last movements
in Beethoven's work: meditative and melancholy on the one hand, passionate and
dramatic on the other.40 Then there are direct links between the Prelude's Phrygian

1985, p. 573). This text is invaluable for its terminology on genres and functions. In this respect, the articles on
'Prelude' in French music dictionaries of Chopin's day (Castil-Blaze, 3rd edn., 1828; Lichtenthal-Mondo, 1839;
Escudier, 1844) are all plagiarized from Jean-Jacques Rousseau's Dictionnaire de musique of 1767. By contrast, it is
interesting to note that in 1842 Richault published the second edition of Le Jeu des priludes harmoniques, ou Compas et
boussole des deux ichelles de la gamme musicale by Henri-M. Berton. This work follows in the footsteps of the Mithode
simple pour apprendre a priluder (1803) by Gretry.
Formulas for modulating through all the keys, starting with C major, can be found in Bemetzrieder (The Art of
Modulating Illustrated in One Grand Lesson, and Two Preludes of 1796), Antoine Reicha (Etude des transitions Op. 31)
and Kalkbrenner (Traiti d'harmonie du pianiste Op. 185). Czerny offers formulas for cadenzas and harmonic
outlines in his Systematic Introduction Op. 200 (see n. 16, above), which are also illustrated in his L'Art de priluder
Op. 300.
The didactic pieces by Clementi in Etude journaliere des gammes dans tous les tons majeurs et mineurs and by Field in
Exercice module dans les tons majeurs et mineurs are designed to help pianists build endurance. By contrast, Reicha is
interested primarily in modulating progressions in two pieces of his Etudes ou exercices Op. 30 ('Les douze gammes
majeures', 'Les douze gammes mineures'), somewhere between a piano exercise and the gebundener Stil of the Zwei
Praludien by Beethoven.
34 One might expect such a piece to be in E minor, with the Phrygian second as a central premiss, but this would
ignore the character of C sharp minor in Chopin's oeuvre (see n. 40, below).
35 Jean-Philippe Rameau, letter of 25 October 1727 to Houdar de La Motte, reproduced in J.-G. Prod'honrme,
Ecrits de musiciens, Paris, 1912, p. 326.
36 This argument is reinforced by a later passage in Sand's text, which alludes to the analytical capabilities of both
Chopin and Delacroix and which mentions, without any illusions as to their likely realization, a planned keyboard
method by Chopin and treatise on drawing and colour by Delacroix (Impressions et souvenirs, p. 88).
37 Chevreul, De la loi du contraste simultani des couleurs. Atlas [Vol. 2], P1. 4.
38 See Jean-Jacques Eigeldinger, Chopin Pianist and Teacher as Seen by his Pupils, Cambridge, 1986, pp. 62, 115
n. 83. See also Chopin vu parses ilives, 3rd edn., Neuchatel, 1988, P1. 16. Wilhelm von Lenz confirms that the 'Moon-
light' Sonata was in Chopin's repertory. See his Beethoven. Eine Kunststudie, i/2 (Kassel & Hamburg, 1855), 237.
39 In a well-known article indebted to Schenker's theories, Ernst Oster has demonstrated the impact of Beet-
hoven's Op. 27 No. 2 on Op. 66. See 'The Fantaisie-Impromptu: a Tribute to Beethoven', Musicology, i (1947),
407-29.
40 For the first category, see in particular the 'Lento con gran espressione', the Etude Op. 25 No. 7, Nocturn
Op. 27 No. 1, Mazurka Op. 41 No. 4, Scherzo Op. 54 (bars 393 ff.) and Valse Op. 64 No. 2; for the second, see t
Scherzo Op. 39 and Impromptu Op. posth. 66. The Appassionato in the Polonaise Op. 26 No. 1 has a semi-heroic
character tinged with melancholy and even gallantry, which distantly recalls the polonaises of Michat Ogifiski.

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seconds, found in various contexts, and the Neapolitan sixths which the Sonata
celebrates. Just before the recapitulation, Beethoven's finale features, in two success-
ive forms (bars 87-94), the fauxbourdon heard during the opening four bars of
Chopin's work (Ex. 3a), while his two tetrachords emerge at the start of the
Allegretto (Ex. 3b). Last but not least, Beethoven's Adagio-marked 'sostenuto', as
in Chopin's Op. 45-alternates between transforming a major into a minor third
(bars 9-10) and vice versa (bar 15), using the same process of shading as practised by
Chopin for the same key of E major/E minor (bars 23-6) and B major/B minor (bars
9-12). To all that may be added the re-exposition in the subdominant, F sharp
minor, of the initial motif in both works (Beethoven, Op. 27 No. 2, bars 23 ff.;
Chopin, Op. 45, bars 19 ff.).

Ex. 3 Beethoven, Piano Sonata Op. 27 No. 2

(a) Presto agitato, bars 87-96

ip

_ L & #^ --*1** __ _~~~~~~~~ 4LWJ

lY0 'U I I m - _ _

t 4 t 41 cresc.

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(b) Allegretto, bars 1-8

Allegretto
La prima parte solamente una volta

-~~~~~~~~~~~~~~o

Before concluding, I would like to propose a connection between George Sand's

account of Chopin's improvisation and the popular name for Op. 27 No. 2: the
'Moonlight' Sonata. This appellation, which can be traced to the critic and poet
Ludwig Rellstab,41 was commonly used in Vienna and elsewhere even during Beet-
hoven's lifetime. Czerny defined the first movement as a Nachtszene in his essay on
the performance of Beethoven's piano music (1842).42 In Sand's text, the expression
'la note bleue' is part of a semantic network which refers to the idea of a moonlit
summer night: 'azure of the transparent night', 'summer night', 'starry night',
'moon' 'large opal discs'. It is interesting to recall here a singular passage from the
young Chopin's correspondence, describing to his friend Tytus Woyciechowski the
second movement of the Concerto Op. 11:

The Adagio of my new concerto is in E major. It is not meant to create a powerful effect, it
is rather a romance, calm and melancholy, giving the impression of someone looking
gently towards a spot which calls to mind a thousand happy memories. It is a kind of
revene in the moonlight [my italics] on a beautiful spring evening.43

Is there any better definition of the nocturne or romance (as the slow movement is
called in the first editions of Op. 11) than this paraphrase, which also resonates with
Sand's text in several respects? This romance also shares common features with the
Prelude, not least a key-signature of four sharps. It begins with five bars in E major in
the orchestra, immediately followed by their transposition to the relative, C sharp
minor-almost like light on the same subject from two different angles. In the
middle of the movement, a brief ritornello takes on a sinuous fauxbourdon texture
(Ex. 4). Finally, the magical cadenza, leggierissimo, foreshadows that of Op. 45, and
the orchestra ushers in the coda, passing through C sharp minor to arrive at E
major-the reverse of the path followed at the beginning.

41 This information is given in Lenz's Beethoven et ses trois styles, new edn., Paris, 1909, p. 199.
42 Carl Czerny, Uber den richtigen Vortrag der samtlichen Beethoven 'schen Klavienwerke, ed. Paul Badura-Skoda, Vienna,
1963, p. 51.
43 Selected Correspondence of Fryderyk Chopin, trans. Hedley, p. 45, letter of 15 May 1830. The original text reads:
'Adagio od nowego Koncertu jest E-dur. Nie ma to byc mocne, jest ono wiVcej romansowe, spokojne, melancholiczne,
powinno czyni6 wrazenie milego spojrzenia w miejsce, gdzie stawa tysi;c lubych przypomniefi na my?li.-Jest to
jakie? dumanie w piVkny czas wiosnowy, ale przy ksiVzycu. Dlatego tez akompaniujV go sordinami', Korespondencja
Fryderyka Chopina, i. 125.

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Ex. 4 Chopin, Piano Concerto Op. 1 1, Romance, bars 51-2

Tutti Solo

a tempo

2 ? ### S r r n: T

These are indeed meaningful analogies between two 'reveries in the moonl
sharp minor is one of Chopin's favourite keys, and it often appears as the p
twin of an ecstatic E major.44 To this may be added the fact that his German con-
temporaries liked to use E major in Lieder inspired by moonlight, beginning with
Schumann in his celebrated 'Mondnacht' Op. 39 No. 5 (Eichendorff) and continu-
ing with, among others, Mendelssohn in 'Der Mond' Op. 86 No. 5 (Geibel).
Generally speaking, nineteenth-century composers after Schubert used key-
signatures with several sharps or flats for songs on texts about the moon.45 For
instance, Brahms's 'Mondnacht' (without opus number, setting the same Eichen-
dorff poem as Schumann) is in A flat major; 'Wie des Mondes Abbild' Op. 6 No. 2
by Robert Franz is in D flat major; Faure's 'Clair de lune' Op. 46 No. 2, after Ver-
laine, is in B flat minor, while Debussy's second version of the same text (Fetes
galantes, No. 3) is, symmetrically, in G sharp minor. Similar tendencies can be
observed in many piano pieces with an epigraph or title, such as the Andante of
Brahms's Sonata Op. 5 ('. . . das Mondlicht scheint . . .'), which begins in A flat and
ends in D flat. In Debussy's music, the middle part of Et la lune descend sur le temple qui
fut (Images II, No. 2) unfolds in a G sharp minor mode, while La terrasse des audiences
du clair de lune (Priludes II, No. 7) centres on F sharp major.46 Chopin had already
explored this dual orientation towards sharps and flats in his diptych, the two
Nocturnes Op. 27, the first of which is in C sharp minor and the second D flat
major.47 The lyrical fullness of D flat complements the elegiac nature of C sharp
minor, which in the coda of No. 1 becomes C sharp major and reinforces the union
of the two pieces.48 Thanks to this enharmonic equivalence, this coda establishes an

44 For the varying connotations of the character of 'ecstasy' in E major in Chopin's oeuvre, see the Etudes Op. 10
No. 3 and Op. 25 No. 5 (bars 45-97), Sonata Op. 58 (third movement, bars 28 ff.) and Nocturne Op. 62 No. 2.
Another connotation of E major in Chopin is heroism; see the Prelude Op. 28 No. 9 and the Trio in the Polonaise
Op. 53 (bars 81 ff.).
45 Within Schumann's output, another facet of this bipolarity is illustrated by 'Die Lotosblume' Op. 25 No. 7 (in
F), which modulates into A flat when arriving at the words 'der Mond' ('the moon') (bars 9 ff.). By contrast, 'Friih-
lingsnacht' Op. 39 No. 12 (in F sharp), progresses towards C sharp at the words 'mit dem Mondesglanz' ('with the
moonshine'-bars 16 ff.).
46 Also in F sharp are the first version of 'Clair de lune' (Verlaine) by Debussy and 'La lune blanche' (Verlaine) in
Faure's La Bonne Chanson. Reynaldo Hahn's 'La Lune blanche' (Chansons grises, No. 5) is in B.
47 The first nocturne is similar to the Prelude Op. 45 through its use of resonance in the left-hand arpeggios and,
above all, its insistence on the Neapolitan sixth in the key of C sharp minor (bars 5, 9, 13, 17, 21, 25-8). This only
makes the return of D sharp in the coda (bars 94-8) all the more indicative of the link established with the key of the
nocturne that follows. Use of the Neapolitan sixth in C sharp minor is a feature of other works by Chopin: the
Mazurka Op. 30 No. 4 (bars 21-7 and similar passages) and Scherzo Op. 54 (bars 413-16, 533-40). At the start of the
Mazurka Op. 40 No. 4, the D4 is, of course, of a modal nature, that is, the second degree of the transposed Phrygian
mode, as at the beginning of Op. 45.
48 The enharmonic relation C sharp minor/D flat major is relatively frequent in Chopin's output: the Polonaise
Op. 26 No. 1, Scherzo Op. 39, Valse Op. 64 No. 2 and Impromptu Op. posth. 66. See also the succession of Etudes

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immediate link with 'Clair de lune' from Debussy's Suite bergamasque.9 It is almost
as if Debussy had the sound of the Nocturne in his inner ear and under his fingers,
simply 'omitting' the bass at the start but introducing it later (bars 29-30), at which
point it becomes a true nocturne, uncannily similar to Chopin's Op. 27 No. 2 in D
flat. Moreover, Debussy's Nocturne for piano is in this same key.
If the colour of C sharp minor in Chopin's Op. 45 refers to Beethoven, the key of D
flat major has just as many connotations of moonlight for Chopin's contemporaries
and the generation immediately following. Thus, a critic for the Examiner describes
Chopin's 1848 London performance of the Berceuse as 'a mysterious soothing, like
moonlight'.50 Alexandre Dumas fils has a young girl in his novel Affaire Clemenceau
(1866) play this same Berceuse, saying that one of its effects on her listeners is that of
'the soul seeing all the gates of its prison open wide and then roaming wherever it
likes, but always towards the azure, in the land of dreams'.51 (Oddly enough, at that
time George Sand had not yet published her text on 'la note bleue' resonating in a
night of dreams.) It should be noted that, for Marcel Proust, moonlight was
associated with the flat keys: in his first mention of the Vinteuil sonata heard by
Swann, the narrator describes the piano part centring on 'the little phrase' as being
'multiform but indivisible, smooth yet restless, like the deep blue tumult of the sea,
silvered and charmed into a flat key by the moonlight'.52 As can be seen, the musical
evocation of moonlight in the nineteenth century is as distant from C major as
midnight from noon.

Unjustly neglected,53 the Prelude Op. 45 is not a marginal piece by Chopin but,
rather, one of his major works from the early 1840s (Opp. 44-9)-more recondite
than the Berceuse, perhaps, but no less unique. This was recognized at least by
Ravel, who succeeded in raising the status of the work by framing it between two
other prestigious compositions when he wrote of Chopin's 'splendid blossoming
["epanouissement splendide"]: Polonaise-fantaisie, posthumous Prelude (Op. 46
[sic]), Barcarolle Op. 60'.54 The Prelude thus suggests a kind of stylized improvisa-
tion-against a possible background of the tradition of modulating preludes
exemplified by Beethoven. Moreover, it is part and parcel of the archetype of the
'Moonlight' Sonata, while also linked to Delacroix's ideas on reflection and shape.
When seen from the standpoint of art and music history, the analogies between

Op. 25 Nos. 7-8 and Nocturnes Op. 27 Nos. 1-2. For the opposite (D flat major/C sharp minor), see the Prelude
Op. 26 No. 15 and the succession of Mazurkas Op. 30 Nos. 3-4.
49 SeeJean-Jacques Eigeldinger, 'Placing Chopin: Reflections on a Compositional Aesthetic', Chopin Studies 2, ed.
Rink & Samson, p. 136.
50 The text of this article (8 July 1848) is reproduced in William G. Atwood, Fryderyk Chopin: Pianist from Warsaw
New York & Guildford, 1987, pp. 247-8.
5 'lame voyant toutes les portes de sa prison ouvertes, s'en va oii bon lui semble, mais toujours vers le Bleu, dans
le pays du rve'; Alexandre Dumas fils, Affaire Clemenceau: mimoire de l'accusi, Paris, 1866, p. 111.
52 Marcel Proust, Remembrance of Things Past, trans. C. K. Scott Moncrieff & Terence Kilmartin (adapted),
Harmondsworth, 1983, i. 227. The original reads: 'multiforme, indivise, plane et entrechoquee comme la mauve
agitation des flots que charme et bemolise le clair de lune' (A la recherche du temps perdu, ed. Jean-Yves Tadie, Paris,
1987, i. 205). Proust must have heard Reynaldo Hahn sing Faure's 'Clair de lune' many times: see Gabriel Faure,
Correspondance, ed. Jean-Michel Nectoux, Paris, 1980, p. 205. In 'Clair de lune', which is in B flat minor, G flat
becomes established with the words 'au calme clair de lune'. Whether Proust was aware of the key is, of course,
another question.
5 Alfred Cortot, who is certainly Op. 45's most sensitive commentator, remarked upon this neglect 50 years ag
in his performing edition (Chopin, Pieces diverses, 2nd ser., p. 50).
5 Maurice Ravel, 'Les Polonaises, les Nocturnes, les Impromptus, la Barcarolle. Impressions', Le Courrier musica
xiii (1 January 1910), 32.

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Delacroix and Chopin in their aesthetic position appear particularly salient.55 In the
late nineteenth century, the painter Paul Signac singled out Delacroix as the fore-
runner par excellence of the impressionists.56 After assessing the debt owed to Chopin
by Liszt and Wagner, the twentieth century has recognized in Chopin a precursor of
Debussy;57 it is precisely at the origins of these tendencies that we find the Prelude
Op. 45.

5 See in particularJuliusz Starzyniski, Delacroix et Chopin, Warsaw, 1962; Edward Lockspeiser, Music and Painting:
a Study in Comparative Ideas from Turner to Schoenberg, London, 1973; Karl Schawelka, Eugene Delacroix. Sieben Studien
zu seiner Kunsttheorie, Mittenwald, 1979; Jean-Jacques Eigeldinger, 'Placing Chopin', pp. 102-39.
56 Paul Signac, D'Eugene Delacroix au nio-impressionnisme, ed. Franqoise Cachin, Paris, 1978. The text itself dates
from 1899.
57 For bibliographical information on this issue, see Eigeldinger, 'Placing Chopin', p. 135 n. 104. It should be
added that had Chopin been Debussy, he might have entitled his Op. 45 'Reverie'. Debussy's piece is in F, like
Schumann's 'Traumerei', but its texture calls Chopin to mind.

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