Chopin Prelude No 4 Op 28

[code19]

Hi there,
I am a complete beginner, so be nice to me

I have a question why Chopin's prelude #4 is called "Prelude in E minor", I mean what makes it "E minor"?

[m19834]

Well, I will venture a short and more literal answer to your question first, but if you have more questions, please ask !

The "E minor" refers to the scale that the majority of notes used in the piece have been pulled from.  You can tell it's in E minor (vs. G Major) because of the last chord of the piece, an e minor chord.  In most pieces you can tell what key the piece is in and what scale the key signature refers to, based on the last chord of the piece (there are exceptions, of course !).

Hope that hepls !

[code19]

Thank you!

[m19834]

You're welcome .

[communist]

or you could look what sharps or flats it has

[scottmcc]

or you could look what sharps or flats it has

you need to do both...e minor and G major both share the same number of sharps and flats (1 sharp), which can certainly be confusing.  there are many ways of telling whether something is written in a minor vs major key.  one has already been mentioned, using the last chord (since almost all songs resolve to the root).  another is to listen to the overall feel of the piece--does it "feel" melancholy or dreary?  if so, it's likely to be minor, whereas bright and cheery pieces are more likely to be written in a major key.  of course, there's always exceptions to the above, but that's a good start that will get you through the vast majority of western music.

[allthumbs]

Another way of telling is to look for accidentals associated with the relative minor scale of a given key.

In this case, the relative minor key to G major is E minor, so there should be either the raised seventh note of the E minor harmonic scale (D#) or the raised sixth and seventh notes of the E minor melodic scale (C#, D#) in the music.


allthumbs