Prelude in C minor (Op. 28 No. 20)

Background

Prelude No. 20 in C minor is only thirteen bars long, yet it is one of the best known of Chopin's 24 Preludes, Op. 28. It is marked Largo, very broad, and moves entirely in slow, heavy chords, four to a bar, like a funeral march or a solemn hymn. The preludes were published in 1839 in Paris, Leipzig and London. The French edition was dedicated to the piano maker Camille Pleyel, and the German edition to the composer Joseph Christoph Kessler.

The grave theme of this prelude has drawn other composers to it. Sergei Rachmaninoff used it as the theme of his Variations on a Theme of Chopin, Op. 22, written in 1902–03, and its chord sequence has found its way into many later arrangements and popular songs.

How to practise it

The structure is simple. Bars 1 to 4 are loud and full. Bars 5 to 8 are soft, and bars 9 to 12 repeat them more softly still. Bar 13 is one long C minor chord. Chopin marks the opening ff, the second phrase p and its repeat pp, so most of the expression comes from making those three levels clearly different.

Every bar has the same rhythm: quarter-note chords on beats 1, 2 and 4, while beat 3 is split into a dotted eighth and a sixteenth. Keep the sixteenth short but unhurried, and never let the chord after it arrive early.

The right hand plays four-note chords, mostly with fingers 1, 2, 3 and 5. Shape each chord before you play it and let the weight of your arm sink into the keys, with a little more on the top note. A deep sound comes from weight, not from hitting.

The left hand plays octaves that leap around, in bar 3 right down to the lowest C on the piano. Practise the leaps alone, looking ahead to the next octave. In bars 5 and 6 the bass walks slowly downwards:

This sinking line gives the soft section its sadness, so let it be heard clearly under the right-hand chords.

Pedal on every chord, pressing the pedal again just after each new chord sounds, so the chords join without blurring into each other.

A plan:

1. Right-hand chords alone, bar by bar, at 30 beats a minute.
2. Left-hand octaves alone, watching the leaps.
3. Hands together at 30, then 38, then the full 46.
4. Add the pedal, then shape the three dynamic levels.

Hold the final chord for its full length and lift your hands and the pedal together, letting the silence finish the piece.

Finger numbers for chords are explained in the piano finger numbers guide.