Chopin is actually a French last name; his father, Nicolas, was in fact a Frenchman. So you're right with your pronunciation in every respect. I love your videos.
Ah! You just answered my question in this comment string. Having seen this I deleted it. Thank you, Laura! I did note in the Wikipedia article on Chopin that his father taught the French language in Poland. That clears up a question that I have had for many decades.
yeah chopin's father came from the region now called Alsace, Frankish Elsass, west of the Rhein/Rhin, where people spoke and speak different dialects, mixtures of deutsch, français and western frankish . in an introduction to a translation of polish and french letters of chopin we read that in Alsace the family's name was widely written both as chopin, chopen, schopen and even schoppen .
@@keescanalfp5143 The case of the French line of Fryderyk's family is interesting. More careful research says that the family originated in southwestern France, and the surname was originally spelled as follows: Chopion. Returning to Nicols, as a young boy he was employed by the Polish aristocrat Fryderyk Skarbek. At the time, Alsace was ruled by Stanislaw Leszczynski, the would-be king of Poland, and Skarbek owned an estate in Alsace. Unrest over the impending French Revolution caused Skarbek to return to Poland. Returning with his entire court, Skarbek took sixteen-year-old Nicolas with him. Nicolas' ties to his French family were completely severed. And Fryderyk Chopin never bothered to track down his French relatives, even though he spent half his life in France.
Please don’t ever stop your lectures. You are the best kept secret in the internet. Your insights and passion are inspiring. Your playing of this piece, (which I have loved since my childhood), is capricious, self indulgent, unorthodox and deeply moving because, of course, it doesn’t belong in a concert hall but is designed to support the points you made in your lecture. Music stirs the soul and your lectures are a big spoon stirring the pot.
Have you ever seen the fugue which Chopin undertook to write? As I recall, it's in the last volume of the Paderewski collection. As a Baroque composer, Chopin was a wonderful Romantic composer.
Thank you for this great tactile analysis...the way Matthew can beautifully play and comment on what's he is playing-both from the perspective of a pianist and a composer-is absolutely effortless and engaging! Great interpretation at the end too!!!
Thanks for all that! I love your final commentary on your performance. I have taught this piece many times, and no doubt, will continue to do so. But your thoughts and impressions will stay with me and hopefully inspire any future students who approach this beautiful piece.
This piece worked its way into pop culture ~2007 because it was used in the marketing campaign, "Believe," for Halo 3, one of the biggest video games of all time. That's when I first heard it, and I've loved it ever since. Great video as always.
For all these composers' genius, there are these moments of simplicity, like the cadenza, that require bravery to say, "This is the moment." and expect it not only to be played but respected. Yet we do respect it, for there is a value in that sequence of lone quavers among the tangled harmony surrounding it. No suspensions to pull the syncopated B-flat down; no dissonance says it must fall to A-flat. It comes down on its own terms. That, I think, comprises some of the beauty of simplicity-that between all the ordered chaos of counterpoint and harmony, there can be something that breaks nothing but still claims originality, existing uniquely under disciplined governance.
There’s so many things I want to mention here. First of all, this prelude is very special for me. It actually encouraged me to start playing the piano at the age of 40, and was the first piece that I’ve learn from start to end. Secondly, thank for sharing this video. I love to watch people unpacking Chopin pieces, because it allows me to enjoy them even more the next time i listen to them (I don’t have a musical background, so I miss all this thing that are obvious for you) And last but not least, its funny that you mentioned that Chopin is trying to trick us in the C# minor part by starting on the second beat of the bar, and then you actually get ticket in the 27th minute of the video by incorrectly coloring bars in purple 🥰
This was really interesting, from the background to the piece to all analysis on it. The middle section is one of my favourite sections of piano music full stop. I can play the first part of it, but I guess I should perhaps try and learn the rest of the piece as well!
@@johnburniston6525 My hands can stretch an octave so it's not too bad. When it comes to the minor tenth I use my left hand for the C# and my right for the E. The Flaming Piano does the same thing in his performance of the piece if you've seen that.
This video was so interesting . I play this prelude more slowly and it’s rather nice like that. The repeating note almost becomes a pulse besting in your temple and then the thunder storm. Thanks. 🦘
@@sasanrahmatian312 Some say dragging out Chopin is sacrilegious particularly in the hymn parts that he often inserts. I'm a bit guilty of doing it in his nocturnes. I do think they probably shouldn't be played too slowly even if they are extremely beautiful since they steal the show of the rest of the piece.
@@Roescoe "dragging out" is already a loaded, negative characterization of a tempo and, by definition, is not advisable. I think your reference to "hymn parts" provides the key: Hymn parts should be played at a normal hymn tempo, funeral march parts should be played at a normal funeral march tempo, waltz parts should be played at a normal dancing tempo, etc. In general, tempo is quite subjective: When we listen to different performances of the SAME piece by the SAME pianist over time, the tempos are not consistent. Example: The middle-aged Arthur Rubinstein playing the Chopin Nocturns vs. the old Arthur Rubinstein playing the same set! The latter tends to be slower, more free, and more contemplative.
@@sasanrahmatian312 I didn't mean any negative connotation by it, but I think you got it right. There's a time for various tempos of the same piece. This happens in the Church I'm a part of. On different weeks we will sing the very same hymns at very different tempos generally to fit with the other music and talking of the whole service.
The most important writing about this is in one of his students Editions of the Preludes where the word "Rainy" (written in polish) apears written in pencil as a possible title (and not rain drop). The edition is on OCVE (Online Chopin Variorum Edition). There is also the title "Stabat Matter" written in Prelude n° 20 in the same edition (same title given by Von Bullow years later). As for the Monk's Funeral, in my opinion is refered to n° 2 since the prelude has a cotation to Dies Irae in the prelude himself and the right hand has a clear rithm of a Funeral March. Loved your video and the quotes of Sand, Schumann and Liszt. The book "A winter in Maiorca" by Sand is also a good source. The description of Sand seems to refer to the first set of 7-8 preludes, but its just an opinion.
Quite a bit of Chopin's music makes me imagine stories or images in my head. He would probably laugh or gag at the story in my head for the D flat prelude.
A piece that I studied for GCSEs years ago and one that really kick-started my love for Chopin and his music - so much so I played it for my practical assessment! He sounded a troubled soul but what an incredible composer
I play this piece along with the third Ballade. I imagine a boat ride to Majorca, the donkey cart to the monastery, with the dangerous rockfalls, joyous days when the weather was good, and then the nightmares, only to awaken and realize it was just a dream.
Such a breathtaking piece, yet I could have not imagined the miracles a masterful disambiguation and exploration does to my perception - I had goosebumps all over me, with my face at awe hearing the piece in the very end. Sir, I thank you from the bottom of my heart for this new appreciation of this masterpiece by my favourite composer, for it is a gift oh so dear that now I know just what I want more of in my life. Very much obliged.
thanks for the monk reference. the minor-key section never sounded "stormy" in the same way as the thunderstorm movement of Beethoven's Pastoralé or Chopin's own Op. 28 No. 24 Prélude. Nowhere near the dissonance in Op. 28 No. 15 as those 2 now the similar character with R. Schumann's Rhenish Symphony (4th movement) becomes clearer. Both have a climax that isn't "over the top"
Chopin just isn't as dissonant as Beethoven, though he can have some crunchy chords. That's probably due to him being a bit more atonal. I think the reason Beethoven sounds more stormy is he contrasts well.
About what you said about the melody being an increasing and decreasing scale of long and short notes This is quite interesting, because Chopin uses it a lot, he said, his melodies are the best, at the end, for example in Scherzzo no.4, he makes a melody with these same characteristics and it's beautiful.
Thanks for a other brilliant analysis, and especially of this beautifully soggy musical cloudburst. I was born and still live just outside Valldemossa (Vay-de-mossa) and 'grew up' with these preludes. This 'preludio de la gota de lluvia' [the prelude of the raindrop] being the one most famously associated with Valldemossa. Which, in winter, can indeed be incredibly wet, hence the difficulty that George(s) Sand experienced in clambering up the rocky torrent that runs through the valley. Sand spent the winter of 1838-1839 with Chopin (a French, not Polish surname) in Mallorca at the (formerly semi-abandoned) Carthusian monastery of Valldemossa. This winter trip to Mallorca was originally described by Sand (real name Amantine Lucile Aurore Dupin de Francueil) in her book "Un hiver à Majorque" (A Winter in Majorca), first published in 1841. Chopin was already ill with incipient tuberculosis at the beginning of their relationship, and spending a cold and wet winter in Mallorca where they could not get proper lodgings wasn't the greatest of ideas. Indeed, it was a lousy winter break 'package deal' and did nothing but exacerbate his symptoms. The very unwordly, somewhat hostile and deeply religious locals were very suspicious of the couple and not exactly welcoming towards them, not least because of rumours to stay well clear of them on account of Fred's 'highly contagious and deadly disease.' These isolated and rather backward locals were also deeply troubled by his mysterious androgynous companion, who, dressed as a man, strutted around smoking cigars. The Cartuja monastery is well preserved, inhabited, open to the public and well worth a visit. Fred's humble 'cell' is also very much as he left it, and the Pleyel upright pianoforte that he ordered from Maison Playel in Paris is still there. It was badly out of tune last time I defied the custodians and tried it out... Anyway, in his day the cell would have been very cold, draughty, damp, stark and austere. What with the miserably wet weather, no WiFi, TV or any other comforts or entertainment, what else to do but huddle in a woollen blanket at his piano, listening to the rain beating down both outside and probably inside his cell? Yuck. This prelude should have been far more tempestuous and paroxysmal, but at least when not raining, the view from his cell was, and remains, absolutely beautiful. One can imagine Fred looking out down the rocky valley and the olive groves below with the Tramuntana mountains to the left, nonchalantly chewing on his lunch of hard bread, olive oil, delicious tomatoes, a lump of sobrassada and slices of cured ham. Or whatever the monk on kitchen duty could rustle up; I doubt Fred and George would have much liked the "Sopes Mallorquinas" or "bullit", so they probably lived off ensaimadas and over-wintered oranges. Anyway, we all know about Fred and his magnificent and exquisite legacy, but the deeply feminist noblewoman George remains more enigmatic, although her book is still a huge best seller. In Mallorca. One admirer wrote that: "George Sand was an idea. She has a unique place in our age. Others are great men ... she was a great woman." (Victor Hugo, Les funérailles de George Sand). Thanks again Prof: let the rain patter down our window panes as we live in fervent hope the damp doesn't de-tune our pianos. 😊
BTW, my copy of 'A Winter in Mallorca' is the version translated from the French by Robert Graves, who was a long standing family friend and lived nearby in Deia. He kindly dedicated and signed a copy for me, although Graves was ill and his writing shaky. RIP uncle Robert!
@federicoprice2687 Thank you for that wonderful account of Valldamossa and the famous visit from the oddest celebrity couple ot the 19th century! I was reading from Robert Graves's translation. That's wonderful that you have a copy with his signature. I have another friend who knew him and said he was a delightful companion.
It‘s pieces like this where the question of rubato becomes central to the interpretation. Apparently Chopin was fond of it to a kitschy degree but with a steady element at the heart of the piece I think playing more or less to the metronome is best. Thanks for great analysis ^^
The mid section appears to me as the rain shower becoming a thunder storm with lightening strikes, again subsiding into a tapered rain. Ending with the rain fading away, with final slow drops. Just me.
This has got to be the most interesting and in depth video about Prelude in Db on the internet! I just finished learning it, my first Chopin Prelude I've learned. Thank you for teaching me the significance behind it! (Vid of me playing it on my channel if you're interested)
I always saw the Ab note as blue, and very distant. In the higher octaves like a twinkling star. In List's rendition of the Paganni's "La Campanella" (the bell), it uses the hight Ab as the actual ringing bell. I'm sure that Chopin uses that repeating A-flat because of the that "blueness" which is suggesting of the water drops. If i'm correct, the Raindrop Prelude in in Db, "warmth" fo being indoors looking out the window and seeing the rain-drops, which are cool, flowing, "blue" water. (I see Db as red-orange, and shape of a gumdrop.) I don't know if i'm allowed to post link here, but for those interested, I i have my video up titled: "How I see the color-shapes when I play piano" ua-cam.com/video/DssbYI-B9l0/v-deo.html And that's at my main channel, _The Acoustic Rabbit Hole_
Liszt is probably the most reliable source concerning which Prelude is connected to raindrops since he knew Chopin as well as Sand. The Prelude in Dflat might be depicting a little bell in a monk procession. Liszt's first bell piece is Les Cloches des Geneve.
I think of the preludes as being, to paraphrase the protagonist in the movie Forrest Gump, like a box of chocolates: Of course, unlike in the grand scheme of life in which we "never know what we are going to get "we do know what to expect in the preludes, but it is always something uniquely different from the last one.
And finally - GREATLY enjoyed your play through at the end there and for the main part, that's how I'd approach it. I think a bit of freedom with the rhythm is called for at the start of the segment you label (for very obvious reasons!) "Beethovenesque" (or thereabouts😂) from 26min 13 secs - but then as it builds, with the "thickening" octaves up to 26min 33, I think you can start holding back a bit with any rubato and definitely at 26min 43, where your annotations describe the swinging from E major to G# Minor, I think that section deserves to be as turgid and portentous as possible!!! I feel that the freedom there was too frivolous - really maxxing the pesante would have emphasized the gut wrenching finality of that priestly funeral! You had a bit too much of nice old jazzy you showing through😂. All the very best, prof... What a treat on a Saturday night!
George Sands son was suffering arthritis, that is why they went to Majorca , Chopin decided to go later. Chopin rejected the title “raindrop” title, in fact he rejected programmatic music in general, despite Berlioz and Lizst. He was actually diagnosed with TB by doctors in Majorca, and was very unwell, and was told he was going to die!
Does anyone remember the Frank Muir story describing the birth of the Impressionist Movement? Everyone was there - Emile Zola with his striking wife, Gorgon; George Sand, like a ship in full sail, with a Chopin to port and a Liszt to starboard; the ever-bubbling Bruch; even George Frederick Händel who, a full century after his death, was still a name which opened every door.
Wow! Just goes to show what wildly different images people can get from the same music. In the midsection of this prelude, you mentioned monks. I was thinking a couple of adventurers getting lost in a cave, with a monster in slow pursuit.
There is a monestary along the road ahead No cave men,perhaps covid disbeliever monks going to thank God for escaping the jabs and not having to wear face masks.
0:30 ahhh, pronun mmm pronounciation. I think the "in" thing in French is tricky. Actually I suspect that those raised English don't in fact hear it! For example, our mundane *_shoppin'_* ends a lovely clear *en* ... Choppin'? 🙂 Shopihn ... how to soften it but not have it disappear! Like *_enh?_* cheers _(nice to have found you again!)_
After hearing the beutiful leterature, We should normalise making up novels for every piece composed, as a composer I am happy that I have the freedom to do it for my pieces😂
I cannot BELIEVE I was not subscribed before! Suffice to say I have rectified that anomaly now! As for there being any debate about the pronunciation of Chopin - LUDICROUS😂 And that from a REAL stickler - one of my nephews is an undergraduate at Trinity, Cambridge doing Modern and Medieval Languages with whom I greatly enjoy having in depth discussions on language! I did Grade VIII piano at 16 - by no means exceptional - but demonstrates my genuine interest in and love for music from the earliest age and for the nearly 40 since then..... I love this channel and wish I had had someone like yourself to teach me back then - and since - rather than the (undoubtedly very well qualified) Director of Music of the school I attended whose main job was to play the organ for daily and Sunday services at the school chapel - I can never expunge from my memory the confusion I felt upon being recommended to play a Chopin piece à la Bach - staccato, pedalless and very strictly in time. His job - and BMus MA(Cantab) FRCO after his name - should give you a clue as to - at least on that occasion - how I was taught. ... I feel only fondness towards him by the way - a figure of slight melancholy and personal tragedy - and who only did his best. But I recognise in you someone who, in a different universe, might have guided my life in a quite different direction....🙂
I am very impressed by all the background that Matthew explains each time, what books does he advise to read where we could find some more extensive information about pieces and composers, periods, genres...?
Difficult to answer quickly! One book that is an interesting introduction to Romanticism is Charles Rosen's 'The Romantic Generation'. It has quite detailed discussions about the artistic currents in the early 19th century: Schumann, Chopin, Liszt etc. and lots of interesting musical stuff.
I might be wrong about this when I checked out john field's nocturnes I began to understand where chopin got his ideas from, he became a hybrid of john field and his experience of meeting paganini I might be wrong about this too john field was the actual founder of the russian school
Field certainly had a significant influence of Chopin, especially on his nocturnes. I think Chopin viewed the Field nocturnes as a new kind of genre that he could develop and expand upon in a uniquely rich and wonderful way.
21:00 where you say 'it's like a chorale'...it is actually the Bach-choral 'O Haupt voll Blut und Wunden' from the St. Matthew Passion, that Chopin quotes here.
Chopin’s father was French. Chopin is a French surname. His family never tried to change their surname or its spelling to make it sound more Polish. I don’t think they felt the need. They were a Polish family with a French last name. I don’t see a problem, do you?
Professor, two things that stand out to me are 1) the eighth notes in the right hand in m.63, which leave the pulsing drone G# for a melodic G# F# G# A before the droning G# resumes in the left hand, and 2) in m.68 the four G# eighth notes in the lower voice of the left hand that appear out of nowhere then suddenly stop. Do you have any thoughts about these? I agree that the F# maj prelude is very raindrop-esque (and incredibly beautiful).
Yes! Both fascinating moments.There's also bars 14 - 19 when the pedal. note shifts to F. I think 63 is just a beautiful embellishment really: Chopin uses a suspension to 'destabilise' the pedal notes and it's really a slow turn. 68: imagine this without the low G#s - it would seem a bit bland with the pedal note just going up an octave. The LH G#s create a much darker colour: an ominous shading beneath the chorale-like texture.
@themusicprofessor I agree that the low G# eighth notes add an ominous quality. I'm just surprised that, in m.68, Chopin stopped the lower, darker G#s eighth notes after only those four-but Chopin did many surprising things. The B maj nocturne you mentioned is my favorite of his lesser-heard nocturnes, especially the coda, which is an emotional rollercoaster.
I think he stops the low G#s because they're more mysterious that way. If they continued the textrue might become too heavy or emphatically bassy - an effect that Chopin isn't particularly keen on. The subtlety of the passage is key to its success. The B major nocturne is indeed lovely and the coda is extraordinary and absolutely shocking. It must have horrified his contemporaries. It's the first piece I can think of which turns from major to minor. Brahms, I suspect, was influenced bit when he wrote his late E flat Rhapsody Op 119.
Chopin hated the idea of 'program' music and the idea of George Said that one of his preludes represented raindrops was complete anathema to him as was the naming of others of his works by publishers and others.
He disliked the idea of overt programmatic elements. Yet behind the appearance of classical form there are clearly narrative elements at work (e.g. the 2nd sonata!)
That's cool. I've never had any formal training but took up guitar, and bass In my early 20s. I am also blind so if I want to play Somebody Else's music I learn it by ear. Yasu of man's desiring was the first thing I taught myself on bass Because I loved it since I was about the same age as you were at your first recital. Take care.
I disagree with your interpretation. I think the repeated A♭3 notes are not "pedal points" or "drones", but rather, they are death. They are unwelcome intruders, clashing with everything else. I think the last chord is not intended to be "resolution" at all, but rather, the A♭3 should be slightly louder than the other notes like an illness which is in temporary remission but will eventually prove fatal. I think that's the whole point of the piece: light-hearted distraction, followed by anguished despair, followed by acceptance of mortality. About the only other piece of music I can think of which revolves around a "poison" note that shouldn't be there is Sibelius's 5th symphony, which somehow manages to be in both E♭ and G (two horribly incompatible keys) at the same time. It's really in E♭ (life), but with G (death) added as "poison". In a similar spirit, I think Chopin's D♭ prelude is using A♭ as its "poison" note.
Needs a metronome to control the repeated notes,especially in the middle section.I would not use rubato very much here. Tender is paramount- the monks would have a slow 'steady' gate.Sostenuto pedal is to be used,even with a mild crescendo, And finally,the melody notes must sing,unless a harmony passage is brought in eg,the final return of the first theme.
@@user-overload Thanks,it will need a bit of organising. At the moment I am cutting grass,hedges to the dump.Finding that my fingers are not so helpful.I am 90 this year.I am playing ,Brahms op 117,no 2 intermezzo before retiring to keep in touch Sokolov plays it beautifully. If you are near Folkestone we could meet with my Steinway! Brahms D minor piano concerto-out of this world! JB
@@johnburniston6525 Good luck with your grass cutting and such. Not my favorite things to do but always a necessity. Do your best not to damage your fingers. I agree with you on Sokolov. A great artist. I hope I may be blessed with your abilities should I make it to 90. All the best.
@@user-overload Thanks for your kind reply.A bit of history! At 12yrs during WW2 I had my 1st piano lesson. My last very dear lady tutor ex concert pianist [died at the end of 20 yrs tuition] helped me with Chopin etudes,waltz,2nd sonata,preludes.mazurkas,123 scherzi,ballades,2 polonaises,Fminor fantasie.Then on to Scriabin-a few preludes& etudes.I have now fallen for Schubert-gone back to Brahms Fab.Rachmaninov preludes [a few op 23] I tinker with the vast pieces now-it brings me joy.Thinking of Richter,what will be my last encore-Schubert like him,or the depth of the 'soul' BRAHMS.The D minor concerto would give me hope! And raise my spirit-something to look forward to.Then meet my dear tutor. This is some way ahead! Cheers.
Berlioz was indifferent to Bach - he saw the Bach revival as a very German Protestant thing but not especially relevant to him. I suspect that the great 19th century Italian bel canto composers may not have been especially into Bach... but you're right: he is a crucial figure for most composers.
Many thanks for this - a knee jerk, unsopported reaction is around the 'crucial figure' description of Bach. Berlioz, who could not play piano, and bel canto where perhaps melody line is the take-away, could think Bach was not crucial to them. But it would be a strange composer who could go further than that.
Another composer, who was rather indifferent to Bach, was Tchaikovsky. To cite Laroche there seems to be no doubt that "Tchaikovsky did not show the slightest interest in the early music movement which emerged in the 1850s and has been gaining in strength ever since, leading to a revival of the works of Bach and Handel. For although (as he told me himself) he would every now and then play piano fugues by Bach when he was alone, he always felt that the latter's cantatas and major vocal works were 'real classical bores'" .
@segovia5758 Not everyone thinks Bach is the greatest dude since sliced bread. Most people who insist he's the Greatest, just repeat the same jargon..it's almost like they're thinking for themselves. It's almost like most people who are into classical music, don't really think for themselves, and simply conform.
Learn the Polish pronunciation of the last name "Chopin" in two easy steps. Step one: say Schopenhauer (Arthur Schopenhauer, a German philosopher) Step two: cut off the ending "hauer" and say Schopen. You are done.😁
Could Bach's 2 and 3 Part Inventions have been a "dry run" for the Well-Tempered Clavier, the same way the Beethoven Choral Fantasy could have been a "dry run" for the 9th Symphony?
I think with Bach he always knows precisely what he wants to do. The 2 and 3 part inventions are precisely that: perfectly judged miniatures in 2 and 3 parts. The sequence of keys works slightly differently that the WTC
@@themusicprofessor Are there any other instances in baroque music where exotic key signatures that are Ab major (4 flats- F minor is used with J. Clarke & A. Soler) or more flats, or B major or more sharps, used (exotic places like Polish Baroque and the Tirol Landsmuseum count as well)?
Bach was certainly the most adventurous Baroque composer when it came to exploring remoter keys. Heinrich Biber explored some experimental key signatures.
It's extremely difficult. I'd recommend total control over the musical material; textural, harmonic and orchestral expertise, and a completely clear sense of form and emotional/musical landscape.
Wonderful analysis Matthew and I'm enjoying your tempos here. As you know, this is often played as a stand alone piece and sometimes it seems a bit slow and milked (to me). Ponderous, even rigid, especially where repeated notes are kept metronomic and taut. Like a sort of misunderstood Beethovian gravitas..maybe. Perhaps "raindrop" however wonderfully poetic a name, can lead to a mindset of drip.drip.drip.drip in the music which can become metronomic if not held in check by overall flow. Your conception brings out the overall "story" of the piece, the myriadic qualities, with continuous flow, repeated notes phrased to prevailing mood. Your comment about second part of the melody (in dark moody section) starting on the second beat of the bar to bring a forward momentum is key in understanding how to play this part with the requisite flow (vis a vis to avoid being ponderous). This has helped me a lot
Good insight. More credible if you lose the toupé or stop colouring your hair. Be unabashedly who you are, Iike Chopin! BTW the only note which should be played from beginning to end without a hint of rubato is the "raindrop note," which only feels right if unrelentingly metronomic. Rubato anywhere else is fine.
Because he himself felt strongly connected to Poland. On multiple occasions he showed how much he cared for the polish nation. I see that people like you often disregard that composers of the past were actual people with their unique feelings. Implying that one should pronounce it the French way not because Chopin was ok with it as well BUT because his father is french is like saying this part of your heritage your identity is worthless
Is that a cup of liquid you've placed on your piano x.x shame shame shame. Ah yes just place something on top of your most expensive piece of furniture in your home that one slightest wrong move will permanently ruin it. And you're a TEACHER, arrgggg
Why not store open paint cans above the clothes in your closet?? Why not store open cleaning chemicals directly above a babies crib? Arrrrrgggggggggggggggggg If you REALLY insist on having a glass within reach from the piano put it on the FLOOR ffs
The raindrop etude has got to be the most astoundingly boring piece of the whole piano repertoire. The repetitions and lazy lack of material in the intolerably long slow first A part drives me to torture boredom. Yes you got the right word Chopin "sits" on the music, wallowing. And it sounds so repetitive and boring. It might be endured on first listen but after you heard it more than 3 times it gets more harrowingly intolerably boring each time. I passionately hate the A part of this A B A prelude. Don't get me me wrong there is material in the B part especially when it gets to that chorale but the first pastoral part which returns at the end is like a zombie stutter. I strongly believe this composition is linked (subconsciously) to Chopin neurological symptoms from tuberculosis.
@@themusicprofessor The repetitive accompaniment is a litany evoking a procession of dead monks walking ritualistically and somberly to the cemetery. But there is more to that, i think this prelude is about bewitchment similar to what could be found in voodoo rites and african trance in wild tribes in the early 20th century. It still exists in Indonesia with the Gamelan music playing an entrancing repetitive music. The initiated young people are repeating a sutra and may have received hallucinogenic substance (some don't need any) after hours of repeating the same words and hearing the same music they enter a trance where their body is no longer in their control they start to shake violently and are possessed and are seized with wild seizures. Two sober accompanists are monitoring the initiated to prevent them from getting in some asphyxiating position. and there with that word "asphyxiating" one is immediately remembered of Chopin. How he couldn't breathe and his heart in the autopsy after his death was found to be almost 50% bigger than a normal heart, the sign of lungs that are not absorbing sufficient oxygen and require the heart to compensate. The choral part is the paroxysme of the trance. In the ritual the initiates may get so possessed and overworked that they faint. And that is when the chatarsis takes place. They release their emotional tension especially fear and pity, after that overwhelming experience, it restores or refreshes the spirit back to peace. In view of this psychological analysis of this prelude i think the initial pseudo calm tune is demoniac and sickly and it's the choral that heals it. It explains why i naturally felt something was wrong with it health wise.
Chopin is actually a French last name; his father, Nicolas, was in fact a Frenchman. So you're right with your pronunciation in every respect. I love your videos.
Ah! You just answered my question in this comment string. Having seen this I deleted it. Thank you, Laura! I did note in the Wikipedia article on Chopin that his father taught the French language in Poland. That clears up a question that I have had for many decades.
yeah chopin's father came from the region now called Alsace, Frankish Elsass, west of the Rhein/Rhin, where people spoke and speak different dialects, mixtures of deutsch, français and western frankish . in an introduction to a translation of polish and french letters of chopin we read that in Alsace the family's name was widely written both as chopin, chopen, schopen and even schoppen .
@@keescanalfp5143So a Schopenhauer is someone who plays the piano too loudly?
@@keescanalfp5143 The case of the French line of Fryderyk's family is interesting. More careful research says that the family originated in southwestern France, and the surname was originally spelled as follows: Chopion.
Returning to Nicols, as a young boy he was employed by the Polish aristocrat Fryderyk Skarbek. At the time, Alsace was ruled by Stanislaw Leszczynski, the would-be king of Poland, and Skarbek owned an estate in Alsace. Unrest over the impending French Revolution caused Skarbek to return to Poland. Returning with his entire court, Skarbek took sixteen-year-old Nicolas with him. Nicolas' ties to his French family were completely severed. And Fryderyk Chopin never bothered to track down his French relatives, even though he spent half his life in France.
@@martinmills135 Ganz genau
Please don’t ever stop your lectures. You are the best kept secret in the internet. Your insights and passion are inspiring. Your playing of this piece, (which I have loved since my childhood), is capricious, self indulgent, unorthodox and deeply moving because, of course, it doesn’t belong in a concert hall but is designed to support the points you made in your lecture. Music stirs the soul and your lectures are a big spoon stirring the pot.
Thank you so much for this lovely message of encouragement!
Chopin said once about the lack of fugues after the Preludes was because "that would be too much for my Polish patience ".
Have you ever seen the fugue which Chopin undertook to write? As I recall, it's in the last volume of the Paderewski collection. As a Baroque composer, Chopin was a wonderful Romantic composer.
the vine boom at 0:58 is so funny
Your wonderful reactions from 22:16 to the equally wonderful chord progression, thanks, brilliant video
I can't believe that my favorite prelude by Chopin is really that interesting.😮
Thank you for this great tactile analysis...the way Matthew can beautifully play and comment on what's he is playing-both from the perspective of a pianist and a composer-is absolutely effortless and engaging! Great interpretation at the end too!!!
Thanks for all that! I love your final commentary on your performance. I have taught this piece many times, and no doubt, will continue to do so. But your thoughts and impressions will stay with me and hopefully inspire any future students who approach this beautiful piece.
Love your discussion. Can't take my eyes off that strange cabinet.
It's an old apothecary's cabinet.
This piece worked its way into pop culture ~2007 because it was used in the marketing campaign, "Believe," for Halo 3, one of the biggest video games of all time. That's when I first heard it, and I've loved it ever since. Great video as always.
Once you know Chopin's works, you feel safe saying that he is the pinnacle of tonal pianistic composition, his complexities are not seen even in jazz
For all these composers' genius, there are these moments of simplicity, like the cadenza, that require bravery to say, "This is the moment." and expect it not only to be played but respected. Yet we do respect it, for there is a value in that sequence of lone quavers among the tangled harmony surrounding it. No suspensions to pull the syncopated B-flat down; no dissonance says it must fall to A-flat. It comes down on its own terms. That, I think, comprises some of the beauty of simplicity-that between all the ordered chaos of counterpoint and harmony, there can be something that breaks nothing but still claims originality, existing uniquely under disciplined governance.
Yes. Lovely comment. Bravery is absolutely right!
Fantastic lecture.
Edit. Great score analysis
Thank you!
I appreciate these great videos! I’ve studied Chopin excessively
great video!! chopin is really my favorite composer, and this a fantastic opus-so glad to hear you analyzing this prelude :)
Thank you!
There’s so many things I want to mention here.
First of all, this prelude is very special for me. It actually encouraged me to start playing the piano at the age of 40, and was the first piece that I’ve learn from start to end.
Secondly, thank for sharing this video. I love to watch people unpacking Chopin pieces, because it allows me to enjoy them even more the next time i listen to them (I don’t have a musical background, so I miss all this thing that are obvious for you)
And last but not least, its funny that you mentioned that Chopin is trying to trick us in the C# minor part by starting on the second beat of the bar, and then you actually get ticket in the 27th minute of the video by incorrectly coloring bars in purple 🥰
This was really interesting, from the background to the piece to all analysis on it. The middle section is one of my favourite sections of piano music full stop. I can play the first part of it, but I guess I should perhaps try and learn the rest of the piece as well!
Must be very difficult with small hands
@@johnburniston6525 My hands can stretch an octave so it's not too bad. When it comes to the minor tenth I use my left hand for the C# and my right for the E. The Flaming Piano does the same thing in his performance of the piece if you've seen that.
This video was so interesting . I play this prelude more slowly and it’s rather nice like that. The repeating note almost becomes a pulse besting in your temple and then the thunder storm. Thanks. 🦘
Yes, a bit slower would do justice to the spirit of this gem. Why chew and swallow quickly when the food is so delicious?!
@@sasanrahmatian312 Some say dragging out Chopin is sacrilegious particularly in the hymn parts that he often inserts. I'm a bit guilty of doing it in his nocturnes. I do think they probably shouldn't be played too slowly even if they are extremely beautiful since they steal the show of the rest of the piece.
@@Roescoe "dragging out" is already a loaded, negative characterization of a tempo and, by definition, is not advisable. I think your reference to "hymn parts" provides the key: Hymn parts should be played at a normal hymn tempo, funeral march parts should be played at a normal funeral march tempo, waltz parts should be played at a normal dancing tempo, etc.
In general, tempo is quite subjective: When we listen to different performances of the SAME piece by the SAME pianist over time, the tempos are not consistent. Example: The middle-aged Arthur Rubinstein playing the Chopin Nocturns vs. the old Arthur Rubinstein playing the same set! The latter tends to be slower, more free, and more contemplative.
@@sasanrahmatian312 I didn't mean any negative connotation by it, but I think you got it right. There's a time for various tempos of the same piece.
This happens in the Church I'm a part of. On different weeks we will sing the very same hymns at very different tempos generally to fit with the other music and talking of the whole service.
@@Roescoe "On different weeks we will sing the very same hymns at very different tempos". That is fantastic!
The most important writing about this is in one of his students Editions of the Preludes where the word "Rainy" (written in polish) apears written in pencil as a possible title (and not rain drop). The edition is on OCVE (Online Chopin Variorum Edition). There is also the title "Stabat Matter" written in Prelude n° 20 in the same edition (same title given by Von Bullow years later). As for the Monk's Funeral, in my opinion is refered to n° 2 since the prelude has a cotation to Dies Irae in the prelude himself and the right hand has a clear rithm of a Funeral March. Loved your video and the quotes of Sand, Schumann and Liszt. The book "A winter in Maiorca" by Sand is also a good source. The description of Sand seems to refer to the first set of 7-8 preludes, but its just an opinion.
Thank you. Very interesting comment.
This is one of the most elegant pieces of music ever written. You explained it beautifully.
Obviously not musical. Throw Chopins 1st scherzo at you, then phone a doctor-RIP Sonata no 2,last movement is your demise.
Quite a bit of Chopin's music makes me imagine stories or images in my head. He would probably laugh or gag at the story in my head for the D flat prelude.
A piece that I studied for GCSEs years ago and one that really kick-started my love for Chopin and his music - so much so I played it for my practical assessment! He sounded a troubled soul but what an incredible composer
Came here for the silly Signalis song, stayed for the Analysis and Loki, thank you for your time kind sir!
I just stumbled upon your channel and I’m hooked!
Also, I don’t know who to envy more: you or Loki 😊
Looking forward to watching this, always appreciate your videos.
Thank you so much your videos are gold to me !
Great video. Thanks. Off to play it again now...
Going from the D=flat to C-sharp minor section, the tranquil raindrop A-flats turn into menacing G-sharps.
You make fantastic content. Thank you.
I play this piece along with the third Ballade. I imagine a boat ride to Majorca, the donkey cart to the monastery, with the dangerous rockfalls, joyous days when the weather was good, and then the nightmares, only to awaken and realize it was just a dream.
Such a breathtaking piece, yet I could have not imagined the miracles a masterful disambiguation and exploration does to my perception - I had goosebumps all over me, with my face at awe hearing the piece in the very end.
Sir, I thank you from the bottom of my heart for this new appreciation of this masterpiece by my favourite composer, for it is a gift oh so dear that now I know just what I want more of in my life.
Very much obliged.
@@ТищенкоДанило-ь1у Thank you so much!
Amazing presentation
Brilliant video! Love this!
Wonderful! Thank you!
thanks for the monk reference. the minor-key section never sounded "stormy" in the same way as the thunderstorm movement of Beethoven's Pastoralé or Chopin's own Op. 28 No. 24 Prélude. Nowhere near the dissonance in Op. 28 No. 15 as those 2
now the similar character with R. Schumann's Rhenish Symphony (4th movement) becomes clearer. Both have a climax that isn't "over the top"
Chopin just isn't as dissonant as Beethoven, though he can have some crunchy chords. That's probably due to him being a bit more atonal. I think the reason Beethoven sounds more stormy is he contrasts well.
About what you said about the melody being an increasing and decreasing scale of long and short notes This is quite interesting, because Chopin uses it a lot, he said, his melodies are the best, at the end, for example in Scherzzo no.4, he makes a melody with these same characteristics and it's beautiful.
I always felt the low section was like an approaching storm with flashes of lightning, then slowly clears and resolves into the ending.
George Sand heard it as a monk procession.
Thanks for a other brilliant analysis, and especially of this beautifully soggy musical cloudburst. I was born and still live just outside Valldemossa (Vay-de-mossa) and 'grew up' with these preludes. This 'preludio de la gota de lluvia' [the prelude of the raindrop] being the one most famously associated with Valldemossa. Which, in winter, can indeed be incredibly wet, hence the difficulty that George(s) Sand experienced in clambering up the rocky torrent that runs through the valley. Sand spent the winter of 1838-1839 with Chopin (a French, not Polish surname) in Mallorca at the (formerly semi-abandoned) Carthusian monastery of Valldemossa. This winter trip to Mallorca was originally described by Sand (real name Amantine Lucile Aurore Dupin de Francueil) in her book "Un hiver à Majorque" (A Winter in Majorca), first published in 1841. Chopin was already ill with incipient tuberculosis at the beginning of their relationship, and spending a cold and wet winter in Mallorca where they could not get proper lodgings wasn't the greatest of ideas. Indeed, it was a lousy winter break 'package deal' and did nothing but exacerbate his symptoms. The very unwordly, somewhat hostile and deeply religious locals were very suspicious of the couple and not exactly welcoming towards them, not least because of rumours to stay well clear of them on account of Fred's 'highly contagious and deadly disease.' These isolated and rather backward locals were also deeply troubled by his mysterious androgynous companion, who, dressed as a man, strutted around smoking cigars. The Cartuja monastery is well preserved, inhabited, open to the public and well worth a visit. Fred's humble 'cell' is also very much as he left it, and the Pleyel upright pianoforte that he ordered from Maison Playel in Paris is still there. It was badly out of tune last time I defied the custodians and tried it out... Anyway, in his day the cell would have been very cold, draughty, damp, stark and austere. What with the miserably wet weather, no WiFi, TV or any other comforts or entertainment, what else to do but huddle in a woollen blanket at his piano, listening to the rain beating down both outside and probably inside his cell? Yuck. This prelude should have been far more tempestuous and paroxysmal, but at least when not raining, the view from his cell was, and remains, absolutely beautiful. One can imagine Fred looking out down the rocky valley and the olive groves below with the Tramuntana mountains to the left, nonchalantly chewing on his lunch of hard bread, olive oil, delicious tomatoes, a lump of sobrassada and slices of cured ham. Or whatever the monk on kitchen duty could rustle up; I doubt Fred and George would have much liked the "Sopes Mallorquinas" or "bullit", so they probably lived off ensaimadas and over-wintered oranges. Anyway, we all know about Fred and his magnificent and exquisite legacy, but the deeply feminist noblewoman George remains more enigmatic, although her book is still a huge best seller. In Mallorca. One admirer wrote that:
"George Sand was an idea. She has a unique place in our age. Others are great men ... she was a great woman." (Victor Hugo, Les funérailles de George Sand).
Thanks again Prof: let the rain patter down our window panes as we live in fervent hope the damp doesn't de-tune our pianos. 😊
BTW, my copy of 'A Winter in Mallorca' is the version translated from the French by Robert Graves, who was a long standing family friend and lived nearby in Deia. He kindly dedicated and signed a copy for me, although Graves was ill and his writing shaky. RIP uncle Robert!
@federicoprice2687 Thank you for that wonderful account of Valldamossa and the famous visit from the oddest celebrity couple ot the 19th century! I was reading from Robert Graves's translation. That's wonderful that you have a copy with his signature. I have another friend who knew him and said he was a delightful companion.
It‘s pieces like this where the question of rubato becomes central to the interpretation. Apparently Chopin was fond of it to a kitschy degree but with a steady element at the heart of the piece I think playing more or less to the metronome is best. Thanks for great analysis ^^
"Apparently Chopin was fond of it to a kitschy degree"
You couldn't be more wrong.
The mid section appears to me as the rain shower becoming a thunder storm with lightening strikes, again subsiding into a tapered rain. Ending with the rain fading away, with final slow drops. Just me.
This has got to be the most interesting and in depth video about Prelude in Db on the internet! I just finished learning it, my first Chopin Prelude I've learned. Thank you for teaching me the significance behind it! (Vid of me playing it on my channel if you're interested)
I always saw the Ab note as blue, and very distant. In the higher octaves like a twinkling star. In List's rendition of the Paganni's "La Campanella" (the bell), it uses the hight Ab as the actual ringing bell.
I'm sure that Chopin uses that repeating A-flat because of the that "blueness" which is suggesting of the water drops. If i'm correct, the Raindrop Prelude in in Db, "warmth" fo being indoors looking out the window and seeing the rain-drops, which are cool, flowing, "blue" water. (I see Db as red-orange, and shape of a gumdrop.)
I don't know if i'm allowed to post link here, but for those interested, I i have my video up titled:
"How I see the color-shapes when I play piano" ua-cam.com/video/DssbYI-B9l0/v-deo.html
And that's at my main channel, _The Acoustic Rabbit Hole_
Congratulations on reaching 50k subscribers!!
Thank you so much 😀
Great video
Liszt is probably the most reliable source concerning which Prelude is connected to raindrops since he knew Chopin as well as Sand. The Prelude in Dflat might be depicting a little bell in a monk procession. Liszt's first bell piece is Les Cloches des Geneve.
Congratulatiuos dear Frien but you´re a great person
17:02 it’s always nice when Eric pops in
16:51!
I think of the preludes as being, to paraphrase the protagonist in the movie Forrest Gump, like a box of chocolates: Of course, unlike in the grand scheme of life in which we "never know what we are going to get "we do know what to expect in the preludes, but it is always something uniquely different from the last one.
Most interesting.
I was introduced to this piece by Akira Kurosawa's . So for me this is the "Martin Scorsese as Vincent van Gogh" prelude. 😅
Whenever I'm in a recital, I play this Prelude as an Encore to the 3rd ballade;)
The two really go together. I believe they tell the same story, but the Ballade tells it from the perspective of ten years later.
And finally - GREATLY enjoyed your play through at the end there and for the main part, that's how I'd approach it. I think a bit of freedom with the rhythm is called for at the start of the segment you label (for very obvious reasons!) "Beethovenesque" (or thereabouts😂) from 26min 13 secs - but then as it builds, with the "thickening" octaves up to 26min 33, I think you can start holding back a bit with any rubato and definitely at 26min 43, where your annotations describe the swinging from E major to G# Minor, I think that section deserves to be as turgid and portentous as possible!!! I feel that the freedom there was too frivolous - really maxxing the pesante would have emphasized the gut wrenching finality of that priestly funeral! You had a bit too much of nice old jazzy you showing through😂. All the very best, prof... What a treat on a Saturday night!
George Sands son was suffering arthritis, that is why they went to Majorca , Chopin decided to go later. Chopin rejected the title “raindrop” title, in fact he rejected programmatic music in general, despite Berlioz and Lizst. He was actually diagnosed with TB by doctors in Majorca, and was very unwell, and was told he was going to die!
Does anyone remember the Frank Muir story describing the birth of the Impressionist Movement? Everyone was there - Emile Zola with his striking wife, Gorgon; George Sand, like a ship in full sail, with a Chopin to port and a Liszt to starboard; the ever-bubbling Bruch; even George Frederick Händel who, a full century after his death, was still a name which opened every door.
Liszt to starboard.... 😅😅😅
Wow! Just goes to show what wildly different images people can get from the same music.
In the midsection of this prelude, you mentioned monks.
I was thinking a couple of adventurers getting lost in a cave, with a monster in slow pursuit.
There is a monestary along the road ahead No cave men,perhaps covid disbeliever monks going to thank God for escaping the jabs and not having to wear face masks.
0:30 ahhh, pronun mmm pronounciation.
I think the "in" thing in French is tricky. Actually I suspect that those raised English don't in fact hear it!
For example, our mundane *_shoppin'_* ends a lovely clear *en* ... Choppin'? 🙂
Shopihn ... how to soften it but not have it disappear! Like *_enh?_*
cheers _(nice to have found you again!)_
You french and your funny nasal sounds.
@@Roescoe Who here are you saying is French?
And what did you hear?
_seem _*_pretty nutty_*_ to me!_
Bravo
After hearing the beutiful leterature, We should normalise making up novels for every piece composed, as a composer I am happy that I have the freedom to do it for my pieces😂
It would be quite fun to have a novelist on hand whenever you compose a new piece!
I cannot BELIEVE I was not subscribed before! Suffice to say I have rectified that anomaly now!
As for there being any debate about the pronunciation of Chopin - LUDICROUS😂 And that from a REAL stickler - one of my nephews is an undergraduate at Trinity, Cambridge doing Modern and Medieval Languages with whom I greatly enjoy having in depth discussions on language!
I did Grade VIII piano at 16 - by no means exceptional - but demonstrates my genuine interest in and love for music from the earliest age and for the nearly 40 since then.....
I love this channel and wish I had had someone like yourself to teach me back then - and since - rather than the (undoubtedly very well qualified) Director of Music of the school I attended whose main job was to play the organ for daily and Sunday services at the school chapel - I can never expunge from my memory the confusion I felt upon being recommended to play a Chopin piece à la Bach - staccato, pedalless and very strictly in time. His job - and BMus MA(Cantab) FRCO after his name - should give you a clue as to - at least on that occasion - how I was taught. ...
I feel only fondness towards him by the way - a figure of slight melancholy and personal tragedy - and who only did his best. But I recognise in you someone who, in a different universe, might have guided my life in a quite different direction....🙂
Thank you!
I appreciate the excellent lectures however, I am terrified by the cup on the piano!😂
We like to add a bit of danger to the videos
No piano UA-camr has yet acknowledged the pedal markings, completely ignoring them at performance time, even though contemporaries praised them
I tried not to ignore them.
I am very impressed by all the background that Matthew explains each time, what books does he advise to read where we could find some more extensive information about pieces and composers, periods, genres...?
Difficult to answer quickly! One book that is an interesting introduction to Romanticism is Charles Rosen's 'The Romantic Generation'. It has quite detailed discussions about the artistic currents in the early 19th century: Schumann, Chopin, Liszt etc. and lots of interesting musical stuff.
Thank you this is great 🙏
The book I was reading from in the video was a translation of George Sand's 'Story of my Life' by Robert Graves.
And all that asides from your magnificent analysis of this profound and wonderful piece!🥹
The G# is still the dominant here. Its when we reach E major it really changes its meaning
I might be wrong about this
when I checked out john field's nocturnes I began to understand where chopin got his ideas from, he became a hybrid of john field and his experience of meeting paganini
I might be wrong about this too
john field was the actual founder of the russian school
Field certainly had a significant influence of Chopin, especially on his nocturnes. I think Chopin viewed the Field nocturnes as a new kind of genre that he could develop and expand upon in a uniquely rich and wonderful way.
21:00 where you say 'it's like a chorale'...it is actually the Bach-choral 'O Haupt voll Blut und Wunden' from the St. Matthew Passion, that Chopin quotes here.
...actually I don't think it is.
@@themusicprofessor It is like Oh dear what can the matter be in b flat
Chopin’s father was French. Chopin is a French surname. His family never tried to change their surname or its spelling to make it sound more Polish. I don’t think they felt the need. They were a Polish family with a French last name. I don’t see a problem, do you?
Professor, two things that stand out to me are
1) the eighth notes in the right hand in m.63, which leave the pulsing drone G# for a melodic G# F# G# A before the droning G# resumes in the left hand, and
2) in m.68 the four G# eighth notes in the lower voice of the left hand that appear out of nowhere then suddenly stop.
Do you have any thoughts about these? I agree that the F# maj prelude is very raindrop-esque (and incredibly beautiful).
Yes! Both fascinating moments.There's also bars 14 - 19 when the pedal. note shifts to F. I think 63 is just a beautiful embellishment really: Chopin uses a suspension to 'destabilise' the pedal notes and it's really a slow turn. 68: imagine this without the low G#s - it would seem a bit bland with the pedal note just going up an octave. The LH G#s create a much darker colour: an ominous shading beneath the chorale-like texture.
@themusicprofessor I agree that the low G# eighth notes add an ominous quality. I'm just surprised that, in m.68, Chopin stopped the lower, darker G#s eighth notes after only those four-but Chopin did many surprising things. The B maj nocturne you mentioned is my favorite of his lesser-heard nocturnes, especially the coda, which is an emotional rollercoaster.
I think he stops the low G#s because they're more mysterious that way. If they continued the textrue might become too heavy or emphatically bassy - an effect that Chopin isn't particularly keen on. The subtlety of the passage is key to its success. The B major nocturne is indeed lovely and the coda is extraordinary and absolutely shocking. It must have horrified his contemporaries. It's the first piece I can think of which turns from major to minor. Brahms, I suspect, was influenced bit when he wrote his late E flat Rhapsody Op 119.
Wonderful analysis but please stop rushing through the pieces!
Chopin hated the idea of 'program' music and the idea of George Said that one of his preludes represented raindrops was complete anathema to him as was the naming of others of his works by publishers and others.
He disliked the idea of overt programmatic elements. Yet behind the appearance of classical form there are clearly narrative elements at work (e.g. the 2nd sonata!)
I'm only here for Loki.
That's cool. I've never had any formal training but took up guitar, and bass In my early 20s. I am also blind so if I want to play Somebody Else's music I learn it by ear. Yasu of man's desiring was the first thing I taught myself on bass Because I loved it since I was about the same age as you were at your first recital.
Take care.
I disagree with your interpretation. I think the repeated A♭3 notes are not "pedal points" or "drones", but rather, they are death. They are unwelcome intruders, clashing with everything else. I think the last chord is not intended to be "resolution" at all, but rather, the A♭3 should be slightly louder than the other notes like an illness which is in temporary remission but will eventually prove fatal. I think that's the whole point of the piece: light-hearted distraction, followed by anguished despair, followed by acceptance of mortality. About the only other piece of music I can think of which revolves around a "poison" note that shouldn't be there is Sibelius's 5th symphony, which somehow manages to be in both E♭ and G (two horribly incompatible keys) at the same time. It's really in E♭ (life), but with G (death) added as "poison". In a similar spirit, I think Chopin's D♭ prelude is using A♭ as its "poison" note.
I have visited Poland quite a few times and everyone there say CHop in.
Needs a metronome to control the repeated notes,especially in the middle section.I would not use rubato very much here. Tender is paramount- the monks would have a slow 'steady' gate.Sostenuto pedal is to be used,even with a mild crescendo, And finally,the melody notes must sing,unless a harmony passage is brought in eg,the final return of the first theme.
@johnburnistone6525
Could you post your version?
Would be interesting to compare.
@@user-overload Thanks,it will need a bit of organising. At the moment I am cutting grass,hedges to the dump.Finding that my fingers are not so helpful.I am 90 this year.I am playing ,Brahms op 117,no 2 intermezzo before retiring to keep in touch Sokolov plays it beautifully. If you are near Folkestone we could meet with my Steinway! Brahms D minor piano concerto-out of this world! JB
@@johnburniston6525
Good luck with your grass cutting and such. Not my favorite things to do but always a necessity. Do your best not to damage your fingers.
I agree with you on Sokolov. A great artist. I hope I may be blessed with your abilities should I make it to 90. All the best.
@@user-overload Thanks for your kind reply.A bit of history! At 12yrs during WW2 I had my 1st piano lesson. My last very dear lady tutor ex concert pianist [died at the end of 20 yrs tuition] helped me with Chopin etudes,waltz,2nd sonata,preludes.mazurkas,123 scherzi,ballades,2 polonaises,Fminor fantasie.Then on to Scriabin-a few preludes& etudes.I have now fallen for Schubert-gone back to Brahms Fab.Rachmaninov preludes [a few op 23] I tinker with the vast pieces now-it brings me joy.Thinking of Richter,what will be my last encore-Schubert like him,or the depth of the 'soul' BRAHMS.The D minor concerto would give me hope! And raise my spirit-something to look forward to.Then meet my dear tutor. This is some way ahead! Cheers.
Tangential question following Chopin admiring Bach but serious - was there a 'serious' composer who didn't like Bach or was indifferent to him?
Berlioz was indifferent to Bach - he saw the Bach revival as a very German Protestant thing but not especially relevant to him. I suspect that the great 19th century Italian bel canto composers may not have been especially into Bach... but you're right: he is a crucial figure for most composers.
Many thanks for this - a knee jerk, unsopported reaction is around the 'crucial figure' description of Bach. Berlioz, who could not play piano, and bel canto where perhaps melody line is the take-away, could think Bach was not crucial to them. But it would be a strange composer who could go further than that.
Another composer, who was rather indifferent to Bach, was Tchaikovsky.
To cite Laroche there seems to be no doubt that "Tchaikovsky did not show the slightest interest in the early music movement which emerged in the 1850s and has been gaining in strength ever since, leading to a revival of the works of Bach and Handel.
For although (as he told me himself) he would every now and then play piano fugues by Bach when he was alone, he always felt that the latter's cantatas and major vocal works were 'real classical bores'"
.
Yes, and in fact I don't think Bach mattered all that much to the 19th century Russian composers in general: Mussorgsky, Balakirev, Borodin etc.
@segovia5758 Not everyone thinks Bach is the greatest dude since sliced bread. Most people who insist he's the Greatest, just repeat the same jargon..it's almost like they're thinking for themselves. It's almost like most people who are into classical music, don't really think for themselves, and simply conform.
But you place the stress on the first syllable of the name which is wrong!
1:45 every composer in the 19th century would've said that
Not Berlioz.
Chopin?!?! I’m outraged!
The word is. PRONUNCIATION not pronounciation.
Not important, but some think Chopin didn't suffer from tuberculosis but from cystic fibrosis
Yes. It's possible.
Learn the Polish pronunciation of the last name "Chopin" in two easy steps.
Step one: say Schopenhauer (Arthur Schopenhauer, a German philosopher)
Step two: cut off the ending "hauer" and say Schopen.
You are done.😁
All these "weird things" were put in the songs to provide food for the idle on the internet and benefit them with likes on their podcasts
Could Bach's 2 and 3 Part Inventions have been a "dry run" for the Well-Tempered Clavier, the same way the Beethoven Choral Fantasy could have been a "dry run" for the 9th Symphony?
I think with Bach he always knows precisely what he wants to do. The 2 and 3 part inventions are precisely that: perfectly judged miniatures in 2 and 3 parts. The sequence of keys works slightly differently that the WTC
@@themusicprofessor Are there any other instances in baroque music where exotic key signatures that are Ab major (4 flats- F minor is used with J. Clarke & A. Soler) or more flats, or B major or more sharps, used (exotic places like Polish Baroque and the Tirol Landsmuseum count as well)?
Bach was certainly the most adventurous Baroque composer when it came to exploring remoter keys. Heinrich Biber explored some experimental key signatures.
VINE BOOM 😱😱😱😱😱
Any tips for writing a symphony????
It's extremely difficult. I'd recommend total control over the musical material; textural, harmonic and orchestral expertise, and a completely clear sense of form and emotional/musical landscape.
Start with something much easier, for example a small chamber ensemble. Crawl before you run.
Wonderful analysis Matthew and I'm enjoying your tempos here. As you know, this is often played as a stand alone piece and sometimes it seems a bit slow and milked (to me). Ponderous, even rigid, especially where repeated notes are kept metronomic and taut. Like a sort of misunderstood Beethovian gravitas..maybe.
Perhaps "raindrop" however wonderfully poetic a name, can lead to a mindset of drip.drip.drip.drip in the music which can become metronomic if not held in check by overall flow.
Your conception brings out the overall "story" of the piece, the myriadic qualities, with continuous flow, repeated notes phrased to prevailing mood. Your comment about second part of the melody (in dark moody section) starting on the second beat of the bar to bring a forward momentum is key in
understanding how to play this part with the requisite flow (vis a vis to avoid being ponderous).
This has helped me a lot
@simondavis8300 Thank you so much for your lovely comment
Chompain.
Good insight. More credible if you lose the toupé or stop colouring your hair. Be unabashedly who you are, Iike Chopin! BTW the only note which should be played from beginning to end without a hint of rubato is the "raindrop note," which only feels right if unrelentingly metronomic. Rubato anywhere else is fine.
It's pronounced: Chopin
😄
Eric sare
No key-by-key since that you can think of? Please think again.
?
Interstellar soundtrack
tempo please
yeah no lento, no adagio, no andantino nor what, just Sostenuto .
take it or leave it .
@@keescanalfp5143 No I meant your tempo.
Sorry, but your pronunciation is still incorrect. The emphasis is on the last syllable; choPIN, as in (almost) all French names/words.
Chipin's father was French. Why one should pronounce it Polish?
because he was quintessentially Polish and a symbol of Poland's struggle for independence during the 19thc.
Because he himself felt strongly connected to Poland. On multiple occasions he showed how much he cared for the polish nation. I see that people like you often disregard that composers of the past were actual people with their unique feelings. Implying that one should pronounce it the French way not because Chopin was ok with it as well BUT because his father is french is like saying this part of your heritage your identity is worthless
Is that a cup of liquid you've placed on your piano x.x shame shame shame. Ah yes just place something on top of your most expensive piece of furniture in your home that one slightest wrong move will permanently ruin it. And you're a TEACHER, arrgggg
Why not store open paint cans above the clothes in your closet?? Why not store open cleaning chemicals directly above a babies crib? Arrrrrgggggggggggggggggg If you REALLY insist on having a glass within reach from the piano put it on the FLOOR ffs
Thanks for the tips. We'll make sure to store open chemicals above babies' cribs from now on!
The raindrop etude has got to be the most astoundingly boring piece of the whole piano repertoire. The repetitions and lazy lack of material in the intolerably long slow first A part drives me to torture boredom.
Yes you got the right word Chopin "sits" on the music, wallowing. And it sounds so repetitive and boring. It might be endured on first listen but after you heard it more than 3 times it gets more harrowingly intolerably boring each time. I passionately hate the A part of this A B A prelude.
Don't get me me wrong there is material in the B part especially when it gets to that chorale but the first pastoral part which returns at the end is like a zombie stutter.
I strongly believe this composition is linked (subconsciously) to Chopin neurological symptoms from tuberculosis.
I love it but I completely understand that not everyone feels the same way about it.
@@themusicprofessor The repetitive accompaniment is a litany evoking a procession of dead monks walking ritualistically and somberly to the cemetery. But there is more to that, i think this prelude is about bewitchment similar to what could be found in voodoo rites and african trance in wild tribes in the early 20th century. It still exists in Indonesia with the Gamelan music playing an entrancing repetitive music. The initiated young people are repeating a sutra and may have received hallucinogenic substance (some don't need any) after hours of repeating the same words and hearing the same music they enter a trance where their body is no longer in their control they start to shake violently and are possessed and are seized with wild seizures. Two sober accompanists are monitoring the initiated to prevent them from getting in some asphyxiating position.
and there with that word "asphyxiating" one is immediately remembered of Chopin. How he couldn't breathe and his heart in the autopsy after his death was found to be almost 50% bigger than a normal heart, the sign of lungs that are not absorbing sufficient oxygen and require the heart to compensate.
The choral part is the paroxysme of the trance. In the ritual the initiates may get so possessed and overworked that they faint.
And that is when the chatarsis takes place. They release their emotional tension especially fear and pity, after that overwhelming experience, it restores or refreshes the spirit back to peace.
In view of this psychological analysis of this prelude i think the initial pseudo calm tune is demoniac and sickly and it's the choral that heals it. It explains why i naturally felt something was wrong with it health wise.
You either feel it, or you don't. I feel it; you don't.
@@toohuman2 That's fart logic, when you feel the need to go to the toilet, or you don't.
@@ericastier1646 That's also vulgar. And you don't feel it.
So much unnecessary waffle. Like the dog, i found it 7:13 sooooo boring😊!
@bealreadyhappy Cheers! I will keep on waffling if you don't mind.