Chopin – Prelude in A Major, Op. 28 No. 7

The following concerns the collection of Opus 28 Preludes as a whole… This information is the same for any of the reference pages concerning the opus.

From “preluding” to “prelude”: Before Chopin’s Op. 28 Preludes hit the scene, a composition titled “prelude” was meant to mimic the improvisatory “preluding” that many pianists did when first sitting down to perform. If this concept is unfamiliar to you, watch the start of this video from the first Chopin Competition on Period Instruments. There’s “preluding” in the first thirty seconds of the video before the etude begins. The preludes of Chopin’s Op. 28 transcended this realm and entered the domain of compositionally-interesting, self-contained works.

Getting Organized!  Chopin wrote these preludes between 1835 and their publication in 1839. This included the 1838-39 winter where he was relaxing in Valldemosa, Majorca with George Sand and her children.  It’s still a great vacation spot and now has a “Museum of Chopin and George Sand.” Like any good traveler, Chopin remembered to take  his copy of Bach’s The Well-Tempered Clavier with him. Did this influence the structure of his preludes? An obvious point related to the first prelude specifically is that both Chopin and Bach start their collections with a prelude consisting of broken arpeggios. More importantly, many point out the obvious connection that both collections consist of pieces in each major and minor key.  (Bach organized these by rising semitone while Chopin organized them in a circle of fifths). Some argue that Chopin’s arrangement is conducive to a performance of the entire Op. 28 as a whole, which might have been Chopin’s intent (Alfred Cortot was the first to do this in 1926). Others point out (like Marilyn Meier in her dissertation) that Chopin himself never played more than four in any given sitting.

Better than Kessler! The manuscript of Chopin’s preludes shows a dedication to Joseph Christoph Kessler, which probably contradicts the dedication seen in the edition you’re using.  Kessler wrote 24 preludes of his own in 1831 (Op. 31). Maybe one shouldn’t make too much of the Bach connection above considering that Chopin may have simply been trying to one-up Kessler with a collection of his own!  Although Kessler remained the dedicatee of the first German edition, the primary dedicatee of his Op. 28 was changed to Camille Pleyel because…well…money talks!

The Man With the Cash! Camille Pleyel was a major piano entrepreneur of his time.  He could play, he published music, he ran a concert hall, he owned a firm that manufactured pianos…which explains why he could not only afford to commission Chopin’s Op. 28 preludes for 2,000 francs ^[1]Page 213 of Huneker’s Chopin Biography but also give him a piano for his writing! As the preludes were finished, a lot of historical documentation revolved around Pleyel.  Two letters exist from January 22, 1839…  The first to Julian Fontana where Chopin says that Fontana will soon be receiving the preludes and is to copy them with “Wolff,” give one of these copies to “Probst,” and send the manuscript to Pleyel.  The second letter to Pleyel himself says that Pleyel would receive the preludes from Fontana and that they were completed using Pleyel’s piano…a piano remaining undamaged during shipping, despite the sea, bad weather and the Parma customs office (some Chopin humor). And finally, a later letter to Fontana exists from March 1839 changing the Op. 28 dedicatee to Pleyel on the condition that Pleyel will “agree to leave out the Ballade.” If not, the dedication should be changed to Schumann.

What Others Thought: Schumann was surprised, initially expecting pieces “in the grand style of his studies” but finding “sketches, the beginning of studies, or, if you will, ruins, eagle’s feathers, all strangely intermingled”…but all distinctively Chopin.  Liszt said they were characterized by a youthful vigor that was lacking in some of his later works ^[2]Quotes on Pages 120-121 of Huneker’s Chopin Biography.

Trouble reaching the large chord in measure twelve?  There are a variety of editions that take liberties with this measure, either eliminating notes or adding a roll.  But Chopin himself sketched an alternate version in a pupil’s copy!  The left hand is a rolled F#, middle C# and an A# above that…in other words, a rolled three-note chord spanning a tenth.  The right hand then doesn’t have to play the A#.