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

Grace Dear Grace, Thank you so much for participating in this challenge and sharing your terrific work! Excellent job identifying the form and also notating the chord analysis. Just a few feedback:

You are correct that measures 17-32 has some differing material so hints a bit of a new section. But to correct the form of the entire work: I would identify this as a ternary form: section "A" being m. 1-33, section "B" being m. 34-52 (A Major section), and again section "A" going back to m. 1-33 until "Fine."

The main reason for this is because m. 16-32 is not too much of a drastic contrast in the rhythmic and melodic motifs from m. 1-15, nor is there a huge harmonic change from the original key. But measure 34 gives an obvious change to the ear because of 1) key change to A Major (which is the parallel key to a minor) and 2) a more contrasting rhythmic/melodic material in the RH melody from what we heard in m. 1-16.  However, I will add that analyzing forms can sometimes be subjective, so how our ears react to it can be a new 'correct' answer individually :)

I have added my analysis on the Chopin Mazurka and attached it here. Once again, terrific work on the chord identification. Most of the chords you have circled in red are what we call, secondary dominants. These chords are chromatic harmony. For example, when we have a B Dominant 7th chord (by the way: I notated dominant 7th chords as either "Dom 7" or i.e.: "B7; they both mean the same thing). B Dominant 7th involves notes B-D#-F#-A. We do not have a D# or F# in the key of a minor, so this is a 'chromatic' harmony. Therefore, if you see how the chord resolves in the next measure, it resolves to E Major--which is the V of both a minor and A Major. Therefore, we label this as a V7/V: called a secondary dominant. In case this is new to you, I have attached a few pages from a Theory textbook that explains about Secondary dominant chords. We have another secondary dominant chord G#7 in m. 40-41 which is the V7 of c# minor. Therefore, in roman numeral analysis, we would notate this as the V7 of iii because c# minor is the iii chord of A Major.

In addition: in romantic repertoire, it is not necessary that we have to identify every chord for each beat. For example, the second beat of m. 45 involves an E-A-D in the LH which is really essentially just an E7 chord with sus 4 ("A" is the 4th scale degree above E, and that 4th scale degree "A" resolving to the "G#" in the next beat).

I hope this explanation comes in helpful and gives further ideas for future studying, but if you would like any clarification, please feel free to ask me anytime. Thank you so much again!

Conrad Winn 😂😂

Conrad Winn Hi Conrad! This is a really wonderful analysis, and I am very impressed! I want to also note that the purpose of this exercise + first assignment was exactly getting to this style of description. And it is no problem at all if you are not at the stage to feel comfortable doing a chord-by-chord harmonic analysis or understanding roman numerals. In the end, that type of work eventually leads us to the same conclusion/goal: deciding on performance interpretations--which exactly what you are doing already now with your description.

I was able to see your first page photo in the attachment. I liked how you marked the phrase groups, and circled the notes that give a reaction to your ears. The imagery of a person drowning--whether physically or mentally (or both,) is certainly the emotional aspect of this piece and a very poetic interpretation. I love how you are feeling the colors of certain chords and pitches in the Prelude to help make decisions on where the building and releasing of tensions are happening, and how this can affect timings. Bravo!

Thank you so much for sharing your insights in this challenge! You may have seen this video on our Tonebase YouTube channel, but Seymour Bernstein has an excellent video on this very same prelude that I think you might enjoy watching in your free time. And in case it helps for future learning, here attached is the chordal/roman numeral analysis of the Chopin Prelude in e minor that is available online. Hope to see you join in our next week's assignment (which started live yesterday)!

Andrew Smith Hi Andrew! Thank you so much for joining this challenge! Thrilled to hear this was a positive learning experience for you, and I was very impressed with your written analysis that you shared. Bravo. The details are great, and I certainly agree with you that understanding form is beneficial for lesson in songwriting (if that is an area of your interest). Songwriting is often in a similar form: A B A or A A B A, etc. except most of the time, lot less complex than Chopin Etudes ;)

To answer your question regarding measures 43 and 45: there is no need to label these chords for the purpose of 'harmonic analysis' as they are mainly 'passing' into the B Major arrival on measures 44 and m. 46. If we want to be specific though, these measures (43 and 45) are outlinin f# diminished chords and B Dominant with added 4. But there is not a need to add in a 'roman numeral' to measures like this since they are helping us transition into the Dominant. I hope that makes sense. For measures 57-59, this is also the same idea in that the RH is applying more chromaticism for coloring use, and the LH is tonicizing our E Major with the back and forth E to B LH bass line.

Thank you again for sharing your very detailed and wonderful analysis. As a general advice: how you can utilize this analysis for performance interpretation is that this type of work enables us to 'listen' to the piece differently at a more deeper level. For example, how do these harmony changes relate to another, and what can I do as a performer to entail that? Dynamics, timing, etc. can all be decided based on what we analyzed. The structure of the form: what is happening in the B section VS the outer A's, and how can I create a new character?

I hope this gives some ideas for your performance of this piece. I love this Chopin Etude, and it is certainly a challenging yet gorgeous work to perform. If you are planning to perform this piece next week, I look forward to seeing your performance!

Vanessa Ellermann Hi Vanessa! Thank you for joining this challenge! Certainly happy to help with this. There is nothing wrong with voicing the way you described, if that is more comfortable. It is awkward indeed to play with the current way it is written on the sheet music. But if you were to try the way it is written: what would help is, for example in the first chord: to take that C in the RH thumb as written and play the A-flat Major chord with the top E-flat in the LH thumb. As for the choreography, the thumbs will form a 'X' shape: you would need to have the LH thumb above the RH thumb for this first measure. In general, the LH will be slightly above/inside keys than the RH, in order for them to less collide.

The reasoning behind playing this as written (voicing wise) is to entail that the RH melody sings (because the thumb is a heavy finger). The slight danger in taking the LH playing the C while the RH plays the E-flat is that the C tone will not be heard as strongly. The same would apply for anytime we have this similar moments.

I encourage you to try it out and see if that works for you. And if you need me to clarify anything, please feel free to ask. However, if this method does not work: it is absolutely fine to do what you are doing as long as we are grabbing all the voices :)

My thought on why Chopin did this is to keep the hands closer together to create a more warmer atmosphere in that register and also emotionally: create a 'closed' feeling that later opens up in the Prelude when the hands get more spread apart. Thank you again for joining this challenge, and all the best to your learning of this piece!

Marc M Hi Marc! So great to see you, and thank you for joining this Chopin intensive! It's fantastic to see you working on a great repertoire list every time, and this Chopin Etude is definitely a technical and musical challenge! Thank you very much for sharing your analysis.

Impressive work on the chord recognitions: I am glad you annotated them as this will come in helpful for detail practice work and eventual memorization in the long run too. I would not worry too much about being fully trained in music theory, at least for the purpose of our assignment here. Applying what you can with your knowledge is great--and also understanding the phrase groups, overall form of this etude, and paying attention to the dynamic and articulation details is fantastic. I am happy to hear this analysis work helped you discover new ideas of interpretation!

Regarding the hairpins, I agree with you that it could be an indication of some timing suggestions; however, I do also want to add that this type of timings (push and pull) should be applied with a 'grain of salt.' Ultimately, this is still an etude, so we want to keep our general rhythmic pulse/the heartbeat of the music as steady as possible with the same energy we would apply if we did the 'push and pull.' With that said, whenever we have those 'arrivals' such as cadences, those can be applied with a slight time at the end to indicate a strong arrival or new beginning. I hope this makes sense, but happy to clarify if you have any questions.

The idea of our performance for this particular etude, is to maintain the energy, character, and stamina while keeping structure--that is indeed challenging to do. But makes the performance a lot more engaging and effective. As a challenge practice: I suggest you to try playing this piece from beginning to end--at a very slow speed and try to keep the pulse as rigid as possible. This is actually a BIG challenge to do, but somehow makes it easier when it is time to start adding velocity.

Thank you again for joining this challenge Marc! Happy to see you here again :)

chuck levinHi Chuck! This is a really fantastic and thorough analysis you have done. I am very impressed. Thank you so much for sharing this! I am sure that your analysis here will come in helpful for anyone else learning this Chopin Fantasie Op. 49. This is the beauty of our platform that we can all share our individual knowledges and ideas with one another. :) Bravo.

Great work on notating the secondary dominant and secondary leading tones. All of your details on the harmonic content are superbly done too.. These observations help see how the chromaticism works in this piece, making it even more interesting at another level. Excellent analysis about the B Dominant 7 chord at measure 16. Indeed this is involving the flat fifth of the original key: f minor, using B as the enharmonic of C-flat. And this B Dominant 7 resolves to E Major.

This work is unique in the sense that it is really a musical narrative, a "fantasy," almost like a story-telling. The title of a "fantasy" symbolizes that we are not quite following a typical musical structure, but entering a journey of several destinations.

The first 42 measures (before the first double bar line) starts with a march theme as indicated. Then at measure 43, the music becomes more agitated with a more frequent change of harmony, and the rhythmic content of the eighth note triplets certainly give more direction and excitement. When we get into the two against three poly-rhythms, octaves, etc. this creates an atmosphere that is much more tumultuous. But should still be performed with good control to make it even more effective. Of course, as you already marked above: The lento sostenuto is a chorale and creates a dreamy quality in the mood. Using the key of B Major which is a very remote key from the original f minor. This seems completely irrelevant in every way to f minor, but unique in the sense that Lento sostenuto section ends with the F# Dominant 7 chord (V7 of B), which Chopin shortly changes to a G-flat, the Neapolitan of f minor, creating a swift change back to the home key.

And indeed, how unique and unexpected is it that the piece ends in the relative Major of A-Flat Major. Many pieces end in the parallel Major but it is quite rare to end at the relative. So once again, Chopin is breaking the typical 'structure' of how other music is typically done. Perhaps that choice of Major key ending symbolizes a hope for a new beginning despite this being the final statement of the piece.

You already did such great work, so my comments here are really only just re-iterating everything you already mentioned and hopefully giving some insights into how you can apply the interpretations into your performance.

Thank you so much again, Chuck! This was fantastic work, and I hope you get to share your performance of it with our Tonebase community someday :)

chuck levin Great to hear, Chuck! And impressive work to you again. I look forward to watching your recording for the performance party here at Tonebase :) All the best to your continuous learning experience, and thank you for joining this intensive!

Roy James-Pike Thank you so much, Roy! Welcome and happy to have you join us :). What a delight that it worked out that the Preludes I mentioned in my video were Chopin works you studied this week. And yes, the Theory classes on Tonebase are very informative + wonderful. Feel free to check out some of the attachments I added to the responses here in this week that might come in useful for supplement studying too. My pleasure to be of help in any way I can.

If you are planning to join the Chopin performance next week, I look forward to hearing your performance!