Blogtrek

Chasing Kittens: Chopin's Prelude in C Major

I haven't been posting too frequently to this blog so I came up with a good idea for doing so. As of late I have been playing the preludes of Chopin's Opus 28. These have always intrigued me. I learned how to play several of them when I was a child, and I found out later that there are 24 preludes in this opus, one in each of the 24 major and minor keys. They cover a wide range of motions, although the major ones tend to be tranquil or happy and the minor ones either sad or angry. So what I have decided to do is to review in a series of blogs each of the 24 preludes. Further, I will give these preludes names. Chopin did not name them, and that causes some people to object, since names like "Prelude in C Major" don't say anything about the piece. It allows one to be imaginative in saying what the prelude means to them, and I am going to do that, giving each of these gems a name.

I shall start, then with the Prelude in C Major, Opus 28, Number 1. The piece resembles Bach's Well Tempered Clavichord with its rising arpeggios. But it is faster, with a bouncy 6/8 rhythm, and to me it resembles a bunch of kittens that have somehow escaped from a box or cage and are running all over the place. Hence I call this one "Chasing Kittens". I have tried playing this one myself, and find the stretches somewhat hard to deal with, and it is one of these pieces that can get your arms tired if you play it too often. The piece starts out with some simple C major arpeggios, then goes up in pitch and reaches a peak, then settles down to an alteration between C and F chords to a C bass, a passage which reminds me of finally catching all the kittens and putting them back where they belong. It is a sparkling prelude and it is altogether too short, but it sounds complete when it ends.