Chopin’s Prelude No. 20 is one of twenty-four preludes he wrote in each of the twenty-four keys. It was originally published in 1839 (a Romantic music piece), dedicated in response to Joseph Christoph Kessler, another composer who had done the same for Chopin ten years earlier. It was originally in two parts, ending after measure 8, but later a repeat of the second half was added, leading up to the final cadence. So primarily, the piece is binary. It was called the “Funeral March,” a name that stuck, by Hans vön Bulow, and is primarily written in cm, in measures 1, 5, 6, 7, and 8, but also makes forays into A flat major, one flat sign away from c minor and G major, which has a dominant relation to the original key.
The most fascinating thing about this piece is its simplicity. Simplicity and modified repetition are things that can become easily trite, especially when the melodic and rhythmic motions in each measure are basically the same. Chopin basically takes one idea of quarter note, quarter note, dotted eighth followed by sixteenth and then quarter note, and repeats it ad nausea. The left hand serves the function of doubling the bass note, usually the root of each chord, and makes sure the harmonies are anchored despite the great deal of movement between tonalities. Simply speaking, the whole piece is a constant sequence of “similar-similar-similar-similar-similar-similar…” and so on.
Another interesting factor was the chromatic motion in the bass line starting at beat two, measure 5 and ending at beat three, measure 6… All of the harmonic motion is quarter-note based, and this gives true meaning to the nickname of the piece, “Funeral March.” The chromatic motion gives us even more of a “slowly settling” or “sinking down” feel to the piece, as does the fact that the piece starts and returns to a minor key does.
Largely, the music can be broken down into three sections big A, big B, and big B, the latter two being repetitions. Measure 1 is a, measure 2 is a’, measure 3 is a’’, and measure 4 is a’’’.
Measure 5 is b, measure 6 is b’, measure 7 is b’’, and measure 8 is b’’’.
Measures 9 through 13 are the same, but 12 and 13 are basically a repetition of b’’’.
Every two small letters combine to form sub-sections of the big three sections, making 6 sub-sections (or two for each big section). Each big section takes up one line of music.
I just want to take this time to point out a few reasons as to why I analyzed things the way I did.. We see a lot of the five chord between measures 5 and 6, leading to thoughts of whether the piece is still hanging out in G major. But I think the first beat of the 5th measure being a one minor chord is for a specific reason—to reestablish the original key, c minor. But we do have a brief tonicization of G major in the last two beats of measure 6.
What was also interesting to me was the lack of the presence of a perfect authentic cadence, in any tonality, until the end of measure 8, which was the original end of the piece before Chopin decided to extend it.
The most fascinating thing about this piece is its simplicity. Simplicity and modified repetition are things that can become easily trite, especially when the melodic and rhythmic motions in each measure are basically the same. Chopin basically takes one idea of quarter note, quarter note, dotted eighth followed by sixteenth and then quarter note, and repeats it ad nausea. The left hand serves the function of doubling the bass note, usually the root of each chord, and makes sure the harmonies are anchored despite the great deal of movement between tonalities. Simply speaking, the whole piece is a constant sequence of “similar-similar-similar-similar-similar-similar…” and so on.
Another interesting factor was the chromatic motion in the bass line starting at beat two, measure 5 and ending at beat three, measure 6… All of the harmonic motion is quarter-note based, and this gives true meaning to the nickname of the piece, “Funeral March.” The chromatic motion gives us even more of a “slowly settling” or “sinking down” feel to the piece, as does the fact that the piece starts and returns to a minor key does.
Largely, the music can be broken down into three sections big A, big B, and big B, the latter two being repetitions. Measure 1 is a, measure 2 is a’, measure 3 is a’’, and measure 4 is a’’’.
Measure 5 is b, measure 6 is b’, measure 7 is b’’, and measure 8 is b’’’.
Measures 9 through 13 are the same, but 12 and 13 are basically a repetition of b’’’.
Every two small letters combine to form sub-sections of the big three sections, making 6 sub-sections (or two for each big section). Each big section takes up one line of music.
I just want to take this time to point out a few reasons as to why I analyzed things the way I did.. We see a lot of the five chord between measures 5 and 6, leading to thoughts of whether the piece is still hanging out in G major. But I think the first beat of the 5th measure being a one minor chord is for a specific reason—to reestablish the original key, c minor. But we do have a brief tonicization of G major in the last two beats of measure 6.
What was also interesting to me was the lack of the presence of a perfect authentic cadence, in any tonality, until the end of measure 8, which was the original end of the piece before Chopin decided to extend it.