Fryderyk Franciszek Chopin,was a Polish composer and
virtuoso pianist of the Romantic era, who wrote
primarily for the solo piano. He gained and has
maintained renown worldwide as one of the leading
musicians of his era, whose "poetic genius was based on
a professional technique that was without equal in his
generation." Chopin was born in what was then the Duchy
of Warsaw, and grew up in Warsaw, which after 1815
became part of Congress Poland. A child prodigy, he
completed his musical education...(+)
Fryderyk Franciszek Chopin,was a Polish composer and
virtuoso pianist of the Romantic era, who wrote
primarily for the solo piano. He gained and has
maintained renown worldwide as one of the leading
musicians of his era, whose "poetic genius was based on
a professional technique that was without equal in his
generation." Chopin was born in what was then the Duchy
of Warsaw, and grew up in Warsaw, which after 1815
became part of Congress Poland. A child prodigy, he
completed his musical education and composed many of
his works in Warsaw before leaving Poland at the age of
20, less than a month before the outbreak of the
November 1830 Uprising.
The Prélude in C sharp minor, Op. 45 is a piano piece
by Frédéric Chopin that was written in 1841. Chopin's
former publisher Maurice Schlesinger was impressed by
the success of the 24 Preludes and the public concert
and regretted that he had not published the collection.
So he asked the composer to write another piece for
him. Since Chopin was still in debt to Schlesinger and
wanted to return to him anyway, he agreed. With the
reception of the independent Prélude, the
collaboration between the two was resumed and the
publisher accepted Chopin's conditions for the
publication of further works. However, the first
edition was published in November 1841 in Vienna, by
Pietro Mechetti, in his album - Beethoven, together
with pieces by Carl Czerny, Theodor Döhler, Adolf
Henselt, Friedrich Kalkbrenner, Franz Liszt, Felix
Mendelssohn Bartholdy, Ignaz Moscheles, Wilhelm Taubert
and Sigismund Thalberg. The proceeds were intended for
the Beethoven monument in Bonn. The first French
edition followed on December 12, 1841 in Schlesinger's
Revue et Gazette musicale de Paris.
Chopin dedicated the work, composed in 1841, to the
15-year-old Princess Elisabeth Chernyschjowa ( Russian:
????????? ????????????? ?????????, * October 11, 1826,
† February 11, 1902), who was his student. As Wilhelm
von Lenz reports, she was a daughter of the then
Russian Minister of War, Prince Alexander Chernyschjow
(1786–1857). She married Lieutenant General Vladimir
Baryatinsky (1817–1875) on October 11, 1846. In
contrast to the usually short 24 preludes in his
style-defining collection, this is a longer piece
comprising 92 bars that cannot be easily assigned.
While the mood and expressive intensity, performance
marking ( sostenuto ) and the even, legato eighth-note
accompaniment are reminiscent of a nocturne, it lacks
the rhythmic refinements, virtuoso ornaments and the
three-part song form that characterize this genre.
The piece begins with an improvisational and thoughtful
introduction of descending sixth chords. Apart from the
A sharp, all twelve notes of the chromatic scale are
presented here. After the C sharp minor has emerged as
the actual key of the work in the fourth measure over
the dominant G sharp major, the theme develops from a
constantly flowing figure that rises in the low
register, rises upwards and repeats this movement,
which connects the voices of the left and right hands.
The listener only recognizes the melody and the harmony
characterized by the accompaniment at the beginning and
end of the lines: While an ascending phrase ends at the
top, a further sound event is already developing at the
bottom, making it possible to hear two musical levels
at the same time.
Two further special features characterize this work:
the diverse modulations, in which a phrase always ends
in a different key, and the longing romantic
suspensions at the end of chordal theme chains (bars 35
and 59), which are reminiscent of the emotional depth
of late romantic music, such as the Gustav Mahler's
expressive slow movements, including the famous
Adagietto from his fifth symphony. After a short,
tonally exquisite development and the recapitulation of
the theme, the Cadenza (leggierissimo e legato)
surprises from bar 80 onwards. There are cadenzas
notated with small notes in Chopin's other works too -
such as the Nocturne in B major op. 9 and the Polonaise
in D minor; With its harmoniously finely drawn,
chromatically sophisticated color palette, it
represents a novelty. The parallel fifth and sixth
movements increase dynamically and end loudly in a dark
sixth fourth chord. The short and unanimous recitative
that follows forms a wistful contrast in which the
feeling of sudden loneliness and despair is expressed,
a resignation that is soon withdrawn and gives way to a
strange brightening in D major (dolce), which
introduces the quiet and serious end.
Source: Wikipedia
(https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pr%C3%A9lude_cis-Moll_op
._45).
Although composed for solo piano, I created this
Interpretation of the Prelude in C# Minor (Opus 45) for
String Quartet (2 Violins, Viola & Cello).
SHEET MUSIC