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Topic: Bernhard on Chopin's prelude op. 28 no. 4  (Read 6899 times)

Offline geschema

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Bernhard on Chopin's prelude op. 28 no. 4
on: May 21, 2007, 07:15:10 PM
hi,
I just came across this post, where a user called Bernhard gives some very interesting explanations on how to analyze this piece:
https://www.pianostreet.com/smf/index.php/topic,10402.msg107105.html#msg107105
he also state that harmonic analysis is a dead end, but unfortunately the thread stops before he gives us the "real" way of analyzing it. Anyone knows if this thread is continued elsewhere? What was it, that he was about to reveal?
Many thanks,
Guy.
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Offline appoggiatura

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Re: Bernhard on Chopin's prelude op. 28 no. 4
Reply #1 on: June 20, 2007, 10:19:54 PM
I just came across this post, where a user called Bernhard gives some very interesting explanations on how to analyze this piece:
https://www.pianostreet.com/smf/index.php/topic,10402.msg107105.html#msg107105

I've been working on that Prelude recently and enjoyed reading that thread.  Too bad it seems to have died out.

I found the following analysis by José Rodríguez Alvira at his website:

https://www.teoria.com/articulos/analysis/chopin4/index.htm

I suspect that Alvira's analysis is similar to what Bernhard was leading up to.  He argues that it is a mistake to try to label every chord in this piece since many of them are the result of voice leading, that is, they can be understood as passing chords without any structural significance.  He manages to distill a fairly simple chord progression out of the piece by explaining the chromaticism as the passing use of non-harmonic tones (appoggiaturas, etc.)
 
Also, in his book <The Piece as a Whole: Studies in Holistic Musical Analysis>, Hugh Aitken does a very detailed analysis of this piece which involves more elaborate chord analysis:
 
https://tinyurl.com/2yydcd

Does anyone have any other observations on the structure of the E Minor Prelude?
 

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