Week 2: Applying Harmony and Form to Performance Interpretation on Chopin Preludes (Part 1)

Alexander Weymann Absolutely fine! This can be applied to any other work you chose/are currently studying :)  

rebecca LAM Welcome, Rebecca! Thrilled to have you here :) I look forward to hearing about what you discovered, and feel free to ask me anything here 👍

rebecca LAM Hi Rebecca! Thank you for sharing your work! This nocturne is definitely a challenging one to identify harmony analysis on, especially because of the many chromaticism in the RH. Lot of romantic repertoire involves this type of writing, so it is totally understandable and completely normal to feel that you might not comprehend at the moment.

In this particular nocturne, I would suggest to concentrate more on the LH to identify which chords are being formed harmonically. And yes, to answer your question: we are labeling chords based on:

1) The key signature (to apply the flats/sharps involved)

2 The contents of the chord for the 'quality' (major, minor, diminished, seventh chord, etc.)

3) The root of the chord

For example, if we see a LH arpeggiating the notes Bb-Db-F (even if it is not in that exact order), then we are outlining a b-flat minor chord. And when we have F-A-C-E-flat at the end of m. 1, that is outlining an F Dominant 7 chord, even though those particular notes are happening at the end of the measure. Therefore, I am not counting that first b-flat in the 4th beat of m. 1 as part of the F dominant 7 chord. I have attached my annotations for m. 1-8 here for reference-hopefully it is legible as I scanned it through 😂

I want to note that the RH is 'decorating' in this nocturne a lot with some wonderful chromaticism so that could make the identification of harmonic analysis certainly quite confusing. And also, not every single note in the LH is part of the chord. So doing this type of work requires some 'educated guesses' and our ear instinct. Some very unique chords appear towards measures 6 and 7 when we have B double flats. I have identified those chords as g-flat minor (m. 6) and c fully diminished 7th (m. 7) respectively. However, if this language is foreign to you at the moment, feel free to 'circle' chords that you react to--that adds tension or a color change--as this after all, is the main point of the exercise :). 

I hope this input and attachment comes in helpful. I would also encourage you to mark in your score some 'phrase groups' (I annotated a few parentheses on this Chopin myself). And maybe try to identify what 'form' this piece is in too. Types of forms in music (but not limited) to are: binary form, ternary form, sonata-allegro form, etc. This can also be added as part of our 'analysis' factor for this week, and can help decide some performance interpretations for Week 2 :).

Thank you!

Victoria Macdonald Fantastic description, Victoria! This is a very impressive analysis of the Chopin Nocturne, Op. Posthumous, and you are spot on about the form and descriptive details. Thank you so much for sharing your insight!

I also love how you are already incorporating this analysis into emotional interpretation: where is this harmony taking us, what is this phrase foreshadowing or is something unexpected going to happen, etc. The opening introduction is definitely rare, ending with the G# Major chord (half cadence)--sort of giving a hint that we are going "somewhere" indeed--and I like the observation of how the A section starts with the 5th in the melody, which makes it continuous from the introduction last chord.

And that is true, many of the cadences at the ends of phrases in this nocturne do not sound too finalized most of ht etime--which is a common trait in the romantic era period of giving this emotional feeling of longing and 'searching.' The use of chromaticism and melodies also create this dream-like quality as you have shared.

Bravo, and I hope this study part of Week 1 helps give you further insight into your the physical application when you get to perform this work! :)

Victoria Macdonald Wow that is fantastic! No wonder you could describe your analysis so well :) I agree that analyzing/studying a piece this way is certainly a really exciting journey--I feel the same way👍. Thank you again for sharing your input and analysis!

Alexander Weymann That is great! Chopin Preludes and several romantic repertoire for that matter--are challenging to do a harmonic analysis of-so wonderful to hear you had experience with this back in highschool :). But since you have done it before, I am sure it will come back to you once you get back into the practice of it again. Totally understand this takes patience and also most importantly-time. I hope you are taking care of yourself during a busy work week!

In the meantime, I suggest a great textbook to look into is Tonal Harmony (Sixth Edition) by Stefan Kostka and Dorothy Payne. The sixth edition is not as available anymore in stock online, but I think the newer editions will be fine too. This textbook is often used in many conservatories. I have attached some pages here for reference (google drive link below) that you can take a look at when you have some free time. These chapters I attached explain about modulations, altered chords, and some insight into roman numeral analysis.

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1qnlX-vSOtja16VRi_mvkdvvr439brmr4/view?usp=drive_link

Vidhya Bashyam Hi Vidhya! Thank you so much for sharing your analysis. Impressive work, and wonderfully done. I appreciate how you completed both a chord and roman numeral analysis-bravo. Generally, excellent job! I have attached my analysis of the same excerpt noting just a few corrections. I will also explain a few with written feedback below. If any of this music theory language might be new for you (or anyone joining this challenge currently), please ask away!

1. When we have E-flat Dominant 7 chords (which occurs frequently in this excerpt, such as m. 1, m. 3, 5, etc.): these are 'secondary dominant' chords. Although certainly an E-flat Major chord can be diatonic in the key of f minor (if we are analyzing in the f natural minor scale). But for most traditional classical repertoire, our diatonic harmonies in the minor key, will be analyzed from the harmonic minor scale. Therefore in this nocturne's key of f minor, diatonic harmonies would need to involve the E-natural (raised 7th of the f harmonic minor scale). So when we are in minor key works, the seventh scale degree roman numeral is typically a 'diminished' chord quality. Coming back to the Op. 55 no. 1 nocturne, these particular E-flat dominant 7 chords spell out Eb-G-Bb-Db (including the note in the RH melody), and that is a Dominant 7th quality. Also, if you look at the next proceeding chord, it resolves to an A-flat Major. So we would label this as V7/III meaning: Eb7 is the dominant of Ab Major (III of f minor), in the key of f minor (original key). For reference, I have attached some pages about secondary dominants from a Theory book here.

2. Next, when we have G-flat Major chords (i.e.: measures 6 and 14): This is noted as Flat II, also known as Neapolitan Chords. Neapolitan chords are part of the 'chromatic harmony' family, and flat II's are used to create a special color. If we used a normal ii chord in the minor key, we would need to have a g diminished chord (in the key of f minor); but that G-flat Major creates a very colorful reaction (perhaps also give some ideas for interpretation).

3. There are a few chords in romantic repertoire that do not necessarily 'need' a roman numeral analysis each time because they are often just chromatically passing through in between chords. For example, these occur in the last beats of m. 16, 18, and 22. What is interesting to note though is the C pedal point in measures 20-24 that keeps recurring in the bass: this creates an emphasis and also perhaps foreshadowing a direction back to the original theme in f minor.

I hope all of this analysis above and what you already have done can be useful for interpretation of how to 'color' the performance interpretation. Understanding harmony also gives some ideas on phrasing directions too. If you need any clarification of the above, I am happy to explain or send you resources that can help with some extra practice :) Thank you so much again for joining this challenge!

Vidhya Bashyam You're very welcome! Certainly feel free to ask me anytime if you have questions. Happy to be of help🤗

Judy Kuan Thank you so much for joining this two week intensive! Excellent work on your analysis. I like your idea of doing the 'big picture' studying first, and then going into more in-depth analysis in sections that you want to polish the memorization of or deep dive into. That's a great tactic, and I am in full agreement with you on this :)

Also, fantastic job doing the analysis away from the piano. This is a great challenge to do, but you learn a lot from the experience. And yes, we can always re-check our work at the piano ;). But the 'study away from the instrument' gives us insight into how to better practice and approach the work--plus when we do return back to the piano, it does wonders to the physical act of practicing.

This Polonaise is a very unique form in the sense that 1) it starts with quite a long introduction and 2) the form is sort of a hybrid between a very large A B A' ternary form with hints of rondo form because of the repeating A section themes (as you had marked in your score).

As a next step: I advise you to use your analysis to help interpret into our following next week assignment here: which would be applying our mental practice work into physical and performance interpretation. One general question you can apply is: how do these key areas relate to each other? For example, moving from the original key of A-flat Major into E Major (at the key change), is a very 'distant' key, not related to each other (diatonic) in any way. This is a common 'romantic era' tactic, using the thirds relationship. Although at glance, it looks like A-flat to E natural is an interval of an augmented 5th. If you flip the interval, it could also be visually seen as G# (en-harmonic of A-flat) down to E, which is a third apart. You may already know this, but we call this a 'chromatic mediant,' and this is a compositional device Schubert and Chopin used often in their works. This is something that was influenced from Beethoven into some Schubert (i.e.: Impromptu Op. 90 No. 2: which moves from E-flat to B Major). And knowing this should lead us into deciding how does that impact the color and character of the key change. What different types of 'motifs' are used here VS before?

Another interesting aspect of this particular polonaise is how the Introduction (m. 1-16) is just essentially a big V chord elaborated, and the arrival to the actual tonic of A-flat Major does not happen until m. 17. So as an interpretation suggestion: Measures 1-16 is constantly 'searching' and m. 17 should feel like that 'heroic arrival' before we continue to take off even more :).

Of course, this above is the one of many different types of interpretations you could apply. But you did fantastic work already on the analysis part--now have fun with applying your study notes into finding a new approach to the performance!

Judy Kuan So happy to hear! Thank you for sharing your insights with us again, and all the best to the next steps! 👋