No. 4 E minor

The E minor prelude has to be one of my favorite preludes of Chopin, along with a few others. If there was any way I would characterize Chopin's method of composition so far, it would be described as mass development of simplistic ideas. Chopin seems reluctant to make his work overly complex, or full of a lot of ideas. Instead, he seems content taking a simple idea, and stretching it out through development. I feel that this principle is embodied quite well by the E minor prelude, which can be boiled down to three chords (E minor, B7, and Gr+6) that are connected through linear motion, and essentially three cadences.

Chopin begins the phrase with a simple neighbor note, Sol-La-Sol, gesture in the melody, and an E minor triad down below. By the second measure, he's already moving downward, not settling on a single harmony for too long. There's little in the way of functional harmony, and while there isn't a strict rule for chords he uses, but there are some general rules for the quality of chords he uses, and for which voice to move.

Now, for moving voices, there is no set order, but as stated earlier, there are some general rules. The first being that Chopin doesn't move all three voices at once. He only moves one, sometimes two, at most. Second being that he only moves downward. Also, there are limits to the range. In the left hand, the bottom and top voice are restricted to a range of a 6th, and 7th. He does not go to an octave. Along with this, the middle and upper voice are restricted to being in intervals of 4ths and 5ths, and the middle and bottom voices are always in 3rds or 2nds. The only time Chopin breaks any of these rules is when he goes into a cadence.

 Here, in the first cadence of the piece, a half-cadence, Chopin breaks two rules: the middle and bottom voices move into intervals of a 4th, and there are voices that move upwards (the bottom two).

Another example of Chopin breaking his rules here in the final bars (which also includes the last two cadences, a deceptive cadence five bars from the end, and a cadential 6/4 into an authentic cadence) when putting the outer voices of the left hand in octaves, the bottom voices move to 4ths, and there is linear motion upward that occurs. Now, I should clarify, these are his rules for linear motion. There are another couple measures that break the rules established by the piece that I have left out, the reason being that the measures break the linear motion in general.

As you can see, there is linear motion occurring, such as the E minor moving to the A minor, but it is broken up by harmonies that do not behave in the same manner, particularly the D# diminished moving to the G augmented 7 chord (which is a fairly interesting chord choice, and will be explained why soon), which resolves to the E minor.

Now, the quality of chords that Chopin uses is interesting. Through his linear motion, he passes through minor, diminished, and dominant 7th sonorities. These are the most common chords that he uses, with a few exceptions, one of which being the G augmented 7 mentioned earlier, as well as another augmented chord that has a bit more interest due to its context.

The reason I find this chord more interesting than the other is because of how it was approached. The G+ was part of the section that broke the linear motion, and passed by my ear, whereas the C+ was approached and left by linear motion, which made it such a striking moment in the piece because how different it was from the chords beforehand. The other chords that break the mold are the B suspended chords that lead into the cadences.

No. 3 G major

The following prelude, G major, is considerably simpler than the previous two in terms of what's happening in the piece. This work seems to be tailored less towards the theorist, and more towards the performer, and is intended to show of the player's virtuosic playing ability. That's not to say that this piece is any less remarkable, it's just that there is less to say about it.

The piece begins with a run of 16th notes that is consistent throughout each measure. What I found interesting was how much activity was going on in the bass compared to how little is happening in the upper voice. The counterpoint is relatively simple. There are no extraordinary dissonances. As you can see in the third measure, the melody out lines a G major chord moving to a different inversion, followed by an appoggiatura, C-E, resolving down to B-D, and another appoggiatura at the end of measure four leading into the fifth measure, this all happening over a bass line that outlines the tonic area.

There are a couple things I find interesting in the next few measures. Chopin does not opt for a traditional IV chord, or ii for the predominant, but instead does a V7/V having only played in the tonic area. Another thing is in the melody. The harmony implies an A7, but there is a stubborn F# sounding that doesn't resolve into the chord until the last 16th note of the bar before leaping up into the fifth of a D major chord. It's an interesting gesture that compliments the previous measures quite well. There is motion going back and forth between the V7/V and V, before ending the phrase on a half cadence, starting the next with a I which soon becomes the V/IV, as shown below.

Chopin continues to play around in the predominant for several measures before landing on a cadential 6/4 leading into the I, and finishing off with the left and right hands playing the same line an octave apart. Well, mostly the same line.

At the fifth measure before the end, the bass line is doubled by the melody, except for the first note in each measure, which are in thirds. Maybe he wrote that in for the sake of the performer, or maybe he wanted just that little bit of color before doubling, but it was something that did catch my attention.