"SUFFOCATION" - Chopin Prelude in E minor, Op. 28 no. 4 - Analysis tutorial
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- Опубліковано 4 лип 2024
- This is one of the most sad piano pieces out there. In this video, pianist Henrik Kilhamn explains how Chopin manage to capture such sadness in his music, and where the prelude fits within music history. It's all about the slow, pulsating chords - every new chromatical shift between them explores a new nuance in the dark side of our emotional spectrum.
0:00 Introduction
2:53 Analysis tutorial
12:17 Performance
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Frédéric Chopin: Prelude in E minor, Op. 28 no. 4 (1839)
Score: Schirmer edition, 1895, editor Carl Mikuli
Ludwig van Beethoven: Piano sonata no. 31, Op. 110 in Ab major: Adagio, ma non troppo
Score: Breitkopf und Härtel, 1862, editor: Johannes Brahms
📄 Scores available at: imslp.org
Emoji artwork provided by JoyPixels, joypixels.com
I just discovered this piece a few days ago. It feels like going deeper and deeper into the sea every time. Today my cousin passed away and i felt I should play it for her. Thank you for sharing your insights in this infinite sea of emotional sadness.
I'm so sorry for your loss. Music like this can be a good consolation, to connect with our own emotions.
What I love about this piece is how the final resolution to the E minor tonic has a vague sense of unease, like we spent all that time trying to come home but when we finally arrived it wasn't quite what we hoped for--- try playing the final chord as E major, and you completely change the story of the whole piece. This was a great analysis, loved the video.
The content is fantastic and this channel is very, very, very underrated.
Very underrated indeed
Extremely underrated.
This piece feels to me like it is falling through a bottomless pit, with just a few ledges to temporarily break the fall, especially the chords in the bass. I have heard Chopin get to his angsty side in some of his nocturnes and especially in his G minor Ballade(that piece really feels like it has its peaceful nocturne moments and its angsty Beethovenian moments). But this has to be the most melancholic Chopin piece I have ever heard(and that is comparing it to the Funeral March from his Bb minor sonata, and his E minor and F minor nocturnes), with that bottomless pit that is the chromatically falling bass.
Yeah, I'm playing the Funeral march right now as well, and it's also very heavy but in a slightly different way. More explicit and direct, with pangs of pain striking suddenly. This one is more of a dark void as you say.
This guy has the right balance for explaining the music in an understanding way !
agree 100%
Bravo! This is one of my very favorite pieces to listen to when I'm in a contemplative mood. I call it "Death in a Minor Key."
Classical music is a journey through the emotions, from the lively and exuberant to the serene and contemplative. Each piece is a masterpiece, inviting listeners to explore the depth of human sentiment through the magic of sound. 🚀🎵
It's a phenomenon I call sadness redeemed by beauty. The beauty of it allows us to feel the sadness and achieve a kind of catharsis. The sadness doesn't go away, but we learn to live with it somehow. Thus the ending, not the Hollywood ending in Emaj. but E minor still. Some performers play the climax explosively, which I really like because it feels like rage against the pain. But that rage quickly dissipates and we realize that the pain will not yield to anger. It must be accepted. This is such a deeply psychological piece. Much more than an exercise or romantic expression. The whole is so much more than the sum of its parts. Which is precisely what makes great art.
Great analysis of the emotional aspect of this piece. Thank you!!
Your content completely change the way that I listen to and appreciate classical music and composers. Thank you so much
I loved watching your video, amazing analysis! Thank you for uploading!
Such a wonderful video, Henrik. You’re content is amazing. Keep up the good work 🌹.
Such amazing content. Appreciate your mastery of the theory but equally your passion and emotional connection to the music. Thank you for sharing.
I haven't found a lot of channels that analyze piano pieces, so I'm very glad to have found your channel! Thank you so much for helping me deepen my appreciation for this beautiful piece. I think music analysis is important to truly understand & convey both the feelings & intent of the composer as they wrote and performed this piece. Thank you again and I can't wait for your future videos!
Came into the video with no real expectations and left with a tear due to the beautiful interpretation of yours! Really great analisis, this being one of my favourite pieces i really enjoyed the way you described it and went into deep reason to try to comprehend it, only Chopin himself knew what he had in mind when creating this piece of art. Thank you for this video, You have a new subscriber here!
What a great explanation 🙏 I really enjoyed your interpretation together with the beautiful playing. Thank you sir 👏👏👏
Thank you so much for a wonderful analysis of Chopin's prelude. I'm halfway through learning it, and now after hearing the analysis I want to learn the rest. Also thank you for bringing such light to the mood, tension and resolution side to music, it's very valuable insights. ;) Love the emoji's. ha!
Thank you very much for this wonderful explanation and this beautiful performance !
Great Video and beautiful performance. Love this piece.
Absolutely loved your analysis. Liked, Subscribed, and added to my Analysis playlist. Please keep creating these. Thank you!
Thanks Rishi, welcome to the channel!
This is fast becoming my favourite channel. Wonderful analysis, thank you. I find it strange that this is a 'prelude' because it feels so strongly like an ending rather than a beginning, you know? It's the music of a dying heartbeat, for me. Chopin died of pericarditis, I think, due to chronic TB, and I guess this is as faithful an auditory representation of what that suffering felt like as it's possible to get. Tragic to think how much beautiful music he would have composed if he'd had more time.
Awesome analysis. Thoroughly enjoyed it!
Thank you! :)
You good sir made an amazing thing here. Thank you.
Thank you for your beautiful analysis.
Thanks for this wonderful interpretation and analysis too❤❤❤
Thanks for your great and detailed explanation.
Your videos help me gain more insight and brush up on music history when I'm introducing them to my students. Thank you so much for all the work you do, and for the clear, easy to understand concepts.
Thank you!
Thank you for this video. Really enjoyed it.
Such an amazing analysis! Really enjoyed it!
Thank you Tonya! :)
Wonderful talk. Thank you. 💕
I remember getting back into piano maybe 1-2 years back as I stopped playing piano for a few years in middle school. I was unsure of whether I actually wanted to begin piano lessons again or do something else, and I was getting bored after some time of going through more easy children's books after time away. Then, my teacher decided to give me this piece to get away from those books, and at first I didn't understand the appeal... technically it was only a little more difficult than the pieces in those books, but I remember one night I was practicing it and when I got to a certain part (I believe it was the second repeat of the initial chromatic descent a few measures before the chords began changing more quickly, when the bottom F# becomes an F instead of staying an F# like the first time) I began to cry for no apparent reason! I think that that piece was what made me start to look at classical music differently and made me certain that I wanted to continue playing. I'm still relatively new to piano (the most recent piece I learned was Debussy's Doctor Gradus ad Parnassum, from Children's Corner), but I know that classical music will always have this place in my life thanks to this piece in particular. Thank you for the analysis!
Thanks for sharing, I recognize the feeling I have had in some music too. It's really amazing how the music can get under our skin (and an analysis like this can never be a substitute for that, only a complement hopefully). I've had that experience most frequently with Brahms actually, and I think there it works the same way as in this peice - some move in the music that takes on a crucial importance in some way.
@@SonataSecrets Thanks for the reply! I agree, it's only recently that I've realised that music theory is at best a way of explaining why music makes us feel the way we do, rather than all the theory I might learn itself causing me to feel some way. Do you mind sharing what piece by Brahms you've had that experience with?
@@ashwinkumar584 im glad youve found your way :)
Sorry for the late reply, but absolutely:
- 2nd piano concerto
- Piano quintet
- Intermezzo in A major op 118 no 2
- 3rd symphony
- Piano trio n o 1 in B major
For some reason I just felt the urge to search for "Chopin Prelude E minor analysis" and this came up! Very sensitive analysis (and playing!). Glad to have found your channel :)
Thank you Meccha! So the search tags worked perfectly then. Happy you're here :)
Thank you so much for this analysis. We better understand this piece now.
¡Buenísimo! aún sin entender todo lo que dices en inglés se capta lo que precuras transmitir. ¡Gracias!
Great 👍🏼 analysis - relearning it now.
He has always a special smile on his face ...
Thank you for this🙏🏻👍🏻
Excellent tutorial
Thank you sir for this great work ❤
Beautiful!
This is beautiful. I wrote an arrangement of this piece for orchestra last year for a final exam.
Beautiful rendition.
Thanks!
GREAT HENRIK !!!!!!
I love this piece. It always reminds me of a falling shepherd tone audio illusion
Thank you!
Finally a piece I can play without too much difficulty! LOL
Beautiful Thank you
Brilliant!
Awesome video!
Thank you!!! I was trying to explain this piece to someone and of course you did a much better job and of course I shared this with the person! Subscribed, too!!!
Happy to be of service :)
Amazing content, thank you very much 😊
Glad you enjoyed it!
Henrik, I love your analysis, both your understanding of the music, your passion and humour. May I ask which brand your piano is?
Thank you Stefan! It's a German Rönisch, about 100 years old.
@@SonataSecrets j
I was also to comment the amazing sound of this beautiful upright piano
Your in depth analysis is much appreciated and thank you for uploading, really helpful!
Thank you! :)
Useful❤
Splendida spiegazione dei 'colori della tristezza', sadness colours ..👍👍ogni accordo apre a una nuova sfumatura della tristezza', fino quasi a.. soffocare
Beauty is the comfort company for sadness. And how lonely sadness would be without the companionship of beauty?
Some of the chord changes in this are sublime 😍
He really had a special skill for fascinating chord progressions.
@@SeleuceI also love that he made the comparison with the sad pulsating chords of some beethoven pieces
Both composers resonate deeply with me
Thank you! This is a great analysis.
I'm interested in how the chords move throughout the piece. When I tried to work out what was going on functionally, as you said, it was messy. So what is it that makes the progressions sound so good? Is it a genius combination of expert voice leading and sensitivity to the emotional content of the piece? Is something else going on?
I love your videos/channel idea! And I love that Ted talk so much. He’s a great guy. I’ve wanted to learn for so long. I’m sticking with it this time
Thank you! Just practice one bit at a time and expect slow but steady progress you will eventually get there.
@@SonataSecrets thank you =] I shall
So yes he did write this before he died! Well he certainly couldn’t have written it after he died!
Of course, I wasn’t there, and we have rely on facts that are always open to be challenged, changed and updated. It doesn’t change the fact that this music is a wonderful piece left to us by a talented composer, and for that we are grateful. 👍🎹
Maybe it has already been written in the comments but there is yet another piece which has the same structure (at least for somebody who hasn't got a musical background). What I am talking about is Bach's prelude BWV 639, precisely speaking the transcription to piano by Ferruccio Busoni played by Alfred Brendel. Not so uneasy and not carrying that longing grief, like dying that screems for life, it also tells a story of sadness.
Thank you Henrik for this and other recordings.
(btw, to me "Suffocation" is as well suited for this piece as naming carrot an orange)
I will start to play this piece with my pianoteacher next week. And right now Im on my way from a very sad place emotionally. So listening to your word about it was surprising and very hopefull.
How did it go?
@@ethanbrownpiano slowly. But I come to love it.
@@kristinamusik7414 Nice. I learned it as well.
Thank you
Excelente explicacion!!😀
Gracias!
I've always played it at least half as slow as you are there. Largo to me means ridiculously slow, and I feel like drawing this piece out really seals it as a slow trudge towards the final breath
I love your channel
Man, this is an incredible analisys! Fucking good!!
DEAR HENRIK, I AM VERY HAPPY THAT YOU PLAY CHOPIN, I WAS BORN IN POLAND, TOO
One of my piano books has both this E minor prelude and the B minor prelude. It isn't a book of Chopin preludes, but it nevertheless has both of these preludes. I see a similarity between the 2, pulsating chords. But they seem to be mirror images of each other. In the B minor prelude, the chords keep rising(It reaches its peak at a C major chord) and then fall back to B minor. In the E minor prelude, the chords keep falling and only once in a while do they rise. In the B minor prelude, the right hand acts as a bass and the left hand plays the melody. In the E minor prelude, the left hand acts as a bass and the right hand plays the melody(a minimalistic melody, but still a melody all the same).
I wonder if Chopin intended for the B minor prelude to be the inverse of the E minor prelude with slight differences(namely, more freedom in the melody in the B minor prelude) or if it is just by coincidence that these 2 preludes are slightly different mirror images of each other. Either way, I find it remarkable how these 2 preludes are so similar, yet different, like mirror images.
That's true, it's a nice observation! As you say, the B minor prelude is much more moving and means something different than the heavy E minor, even though they share the idea of repeated chords as accompaniment.
just wow
You are fantastic
When the chords get faster its probably reflecting how the decline in life can sometimes appear out of nowhere and gets quicker and quicker, until the end where it finally rests 😢
Great analysis of my favourite prelude by Chopin. I happened to have a copy of it edited by Ignacy Paderewski and the chord in bar 23 is spelt with the A# (making it a German augmented sixth) instead of Bb (version displayed in the video).
In the future, as more and more literary artists, like myself, attempt to interpret Chopin's inspiration, classical music will become much more than just notes we hear, but rather stories that we understand... and love.
After extensive research on the life of Frederic Chopin and his famous composition, "Prelude in E minor"... from the origin of the term, "sleep tight", to the left-handed boy's lost childhood, to his request to have his heart removed from his body and returned to his native land of Poland after his death, to his request to have "Prelude in E minor" played at his funeral, to the 700-year-old Bartek tree near the Swietokrzskie Mountains near the place of his birth, and to his deathbed gift to George Sand, it becomes much easier to understand and appreciate how Chopin's troubled life and continuously declining health greatly influenced his work and, ultimately, his thoughts, and the inspiration behind "Prelude in E minor". - David Sanz ua-cam.com/video/_lWF7H8vTas/v-deo.html
"PRELUDE IN E MINOR"
Musical Composition by Frederic Chopin
"BENEATH THE GRAND OLD BARTEK TREE"
Literary Work by David Sanz
Goodnight, love; goodnight
sleep well; sleep tight
The time has come; it’s late…
goodnight, love
Dear, if you’re wondering where I’ll be
so free… my heart sings
beneath the grand old Bartek tree
Far… away
my heart will lay, my love; with every little dream
dreamt of childish ways; lost childhood days
are here to stay… goodnight, love,
goodnight… here, I’ll be
beneath the grand old, old... Bartek tree
Copyright 2022
rioxperience@aol.com
I am new to the piano, i play for 4 months and I am learning this piece. I love it. Thanks for the analysis, not only for the armony but also for the feelings that you have describe really well!
Thanks Jean :) Good luck with the piece!
Hey buddy, I just happen to be on my 4th month of this piano journey, how's it been going for you
Gostei muito.
I enjoyed that analysis!
Thanks Computer! :)
Ill try at a functional harmonic analysis. First section:
Em
B7 sus 4 > B7 (over the the 5th) (melody creates B7b9)
F7 #11 > Dm / F > Fm6
E7 > Em7 > Edim7
Am7/E > F#m7b5 /E
D#m7b5 / E > D#m7b5 (could argue these min7b5 chords are just diminished chords with a passing bass)
D7
Dm7 > Dm6 > Ddim7
E/C Am/C
B7sus4 > B7 > Am/C
B7 > Am/C
B7
See what you mean? Its kinda messy haha 😄 😅
Thank you for the great content, it really is interesting to see how Chopin might have been influenced by Beethoven's Arioso in the op110 Sonata, which is said to be influenced by Bach's St John's Passion.
Thank's
The similarity between some beethoven music I've always felt this ❤️
I would have to say the 3rd measure from the end is not a "C chord with the 7th in the bass" but is instead a "misspelling" of a German Augmented 6th chord (A#, C, G, E). That explains it leading to the V. Chopin probably spelled it the way he did for melodic reasons, due to that descending bass line.
inspiration for Tom Jobim on the song How insensitive (Insensatez).
Right at 9:40, could we also analyze that as a German 6th for the first 3 beats of this bar? So instead of a deceptive cadence, Chopin wrote it as dominant coming back into predominant (Gr⁺⁶). And then 2 bars later, that's another German 6th, this time prolonged, that leads to the final cadence.
How do I handle the sustain. Do I lift off everytime a bass note changes? Except for the climax when it specifically says to hold the pedal I lift everytime a bass note changes but by the ties in the notation it would appear I can leave the pedal down.
I don't think you should follow the ties for the pedal - with longer ties and changing harmony it usually requires more pedal changes. I think I switch pedal when the harmony changes in LH.
Thank you for the verification. That's what I was doing and it sounds really good now thank you.
one thing that has ALWAYS bugged me in this piece is how that last german augmented sixth chord is written enharmonically like a C7.... IT KILLS ME ! it's not a C7.. it's a Ger+6 chord argh !
I press buttons, buttons make me feel sad, you make me feel dumb.
❤❤❤❤❤❤❤
8:37
Can make a video for Chopin Prelude in B Minor please and C Minor
Talking about sadness, what about "Für Alina" By Arvo Pärt ?? 😪
5:04 A Cmaj7#5? Maybe it's just me but maj7#5 is quite rare, right? EDIT: Or maybe not, as there's a Gmaj7#5 at 9:06.
Does anyone else hear Albinoni's Adagio in G minor in Beethoven's Arioso dolente? Or is it the other way round? :)
Was this song written in 1849, right before Chopin’s death or early to middle 1840s?
Great analysis. I feel like you played it pretty fast though
Wait, what do you mean all the keys started to sound good? What did they sound like before?! How did they tune pianos before Bach?
Curious, do you think he chose the perfect key for this?
6:05 i figured out this fingering: 5-4-5
BTW what does "smorz" mean? Could you possibly give a practical example of it in a future video please?
It roughly means "slowing down, dying away"
Similar to a decrescendo but more dramatic
@AreEnTee hmm that's why I asked for a direct comparison because it's pretty difficult to notice the difference between smorz and decrescendo
from the title I thought this was going to be an examination of a page out of Hannibal Lecter's "cookbook with friends"...you know, page 35, Suffocation with Chopin, fava beans and a nice Chianti.
lol 😂
"Suffocation" lol, who did invent this name-giving? Pathetic... Not intended by composer, as far I know. Chianti (good one, fruity, but suspended, tensious, a bit astringent, with some viola notes from Mamollo) is always a good match to Chopin's music. ;)
Aaaa, some Hans... Alles klar;)
Is it necessary to give adjetives to music'?' for me this prelude is not sad, its something else, Its so deep, I dont think there is a word for it.
Very longing for the end is what i feel, depression... in the part where we return to B, it's like we're reconsidering our choice but then we finally get the resolve to end, but we don't know how to end. We try to end until finally we do it with that final juicy e minor chord.