Schumann said: "hey are sketches, beginnings of études, or, so to speak, ruins, individual eagle pinions, all disorder and wild confusions." Liszt's opinion, however, was more positive: "Chopin's Preludes are compositions of an order entirely apart. 28 set caused some consternation among critics at the time of their publication.
The brevity and apparent lack of formal structure in the Op. 28 preludes, in contrast to many of Robert Schumann's and Franz Liszt's pieces. Alfred Cortot was the next pianist to record the complete preludes in 1926.Īs with his other works, Chopin did not himself attach names or descriptions to any of the Op.
28 preludes has become repertory fare, and many concert pianists have recorded the entire set, beginning with Ferruccio Busoni in 1915, when making piano rolls for the Duo-Art label. The first pianist to program the complete set in a recital was probably Anna Yesipova for a concert in 1876. Nor was this the practice for the 25 years after his death. This prelude, modified slightly, was used as the theme for variations in both Sergei Rachmaninoff's Variations on a Theme of Chopin and in Ferruccio Busoni's Variations on a Theme of Chopin.Ĭhopin himself never played more than four of the preludes at any single public performance. An opposing view is that the set was never intended for continuous performance, and that the individual preludes were indeed conceived as possible introductions for other works. Since this sequence of related keys is much closer to common harmonic practice, it is thought that Chopin might have conceived the cycle as a single performance entity for continuous recital. C major, A minor, G major, E minor, etc.). Whereas Bach had arranged his collection of 48 preludes and fugues according to keys separated by rising semitones, Chopin's chosen key sequence is a circle of fifths, with each major key being followed by its relative minor, and so on (i.e. In publishing the 24 preludes together as a single opus, comprising miniatures that could either be used to introduce other music or as self-standing works, Chopin challenged contemporary attitudes regarding the worth of small musical forms. He thus imparted new meaning to a genre title that at the time was often associated with improvisatory "preluding". Whereas the term "prelude" had hitherto been used to describe an introductory piece, Chopin's pieces stand as self-contained units, each conveying a specific idea or emotion.
The German edition ( Breitkopf & Härtel) was dedicated to Kessler, who ten years earlier had dedicated his own set of 24 Preludes, Op. 31, to Chopin.
The French and English editions (Catelin, Wessel) were dedicated to the piano-maker and publisher Camille Pleyel, who had commissioned the work for 2,000 francs (equivalent to nearly $30,000 in present day). The manuscript, which Chopin carefully prepared for publication, carries a dedication to the German pianist and composer Joseph Christoph Kessler. 28 set comprises a complete cycle of the major and minor keys, albeit with a different ordering. In Majorca, Chopin had a copy of Bach's The Well-Tempered Clavier, and as in each of Bach's two sets of preludes and fugues, his Op. 28, are a set of short pieces for the piano, one in each of the twenty-four keys, originally published in 1839.Ĭhopin wrote them between 18, partly at Valldemossa, Mallorca, where he spent the winter of 1838–39 and where he had fled with George Sand and her children to escape the damp Paris weather. Problems playing these files? See media help.Ĭhopin's 24 Preludes, Op.
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