Chopin Prelude Op.

28
No. 4
Yuheng Zhao
One part, in the key of E minor, broadside, in 2/2 time. The prelude was
composed during the period when Chopin and his girlfriend were on the
small island of Mallorca, Chopin was suffering from a serious lung disease,
the weather on the island was harsh and his health was deteriorating, and the
use of a large number of colorful harmonies allows us to see a different sound
world.
On October 30, 1849, during Chopin's funeral in the Magdalene Church in
Paris, the French composer Louis Lefebvre Verri played this piece on the
organ, and the music made people sob so hard that the music critic Karasov
said, "This is a real jewel that immortalizes Chopin's name as a poet of the
piano."
Segment A.
After a jump up an octave from the genitive, the a-phrase
proceeds around the upper second of the genitive, forming the
central motif of the theme. This thematic construction proceeds
on the harmonic basis of t6-sll7, emphasizing the tonic. The
composition has a linear harmonic mindset, with a columnar
chordal backing weave in the left hand, with dark, heavy tones
showing undoubtedly, and a right hand melodic repetition on
the second half of the beat, with moans and sighs of anguish
pervading the long melody. the overall melodic undulation in the
a phrase is not great, with frequent changes in tonality, and with
the use of a-D-G-e-G-a-e, tonal excursions, colorful harmonies,
and altered chords, a different world of harmonies is seen .. The
internal phrases show a lot of harmonic delays and end openly
on the D7 chord.
Chopin Prelude
The a1 phrase is a variant repetition of the a phrase, in the key from e-a-b-e, and in the third measure
appears the altered chord that simultaneously lowers the tonic IV and II, presumably a new chord that
appeared in Chopin's later minor works. Through the intensity of the stretto, f, the appearance of the
D9 chord, the great jump of the seventh to the highest note of the whole piece, pushes the music to
the climax of the whole piece. This is also the position of the greatest melodic ups and downs in the
whole piece, ending the piece with b3DVII7/ D-K46-D-t. A normal analysis of this chord would be
D2/bSII, going off key towards the Neapolitan chord. Since there is no resolution here, the harmony is
not logical, so we put b7=#6 and here we have a b3DVII7/ D. This chord can be used before K46, and
the harmony here is logical. One of the biggest features of this piece is that there are four downward
melodies in the low register, and the high register is also dominated by downward melodies, with
melancholic moods advancing layer by layer, pushing people's thoughts and emotions into the abyss
of pain, which has to make us marvel at Chopin as a poet of the piano, the greatest composer of the
Romantic period for the subtlety of the writing of the melody, the harmonic color of the dream,
letting us immerse in the sadness of his music in the difficult to repress, unable to extricate
themselves! The music of Chopin is so sad that we can't stop ourselves.
Thank you for watching