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Contentment: Chopin's Prelude in B Major

This prelude, Opus 28, Number 11, suggests contentment to me, hence the name. It is a happy and resolved piece. Down under the contented exterior, there are some unexpected turns. These come out if you play the prelude. You stumble all over the place to begin with because the notes are not where you expect them. An arpeggio goes zigzag up and down then it unexpectedly goes up after an up. The pieces of the prelude do fit together into an organized whole. So this can be thought of as a Yin-Yang piece: there is a disturbance in the contentment. It terminates with a one-note solo (as do the preludes in D flat, A minor, and some others) followed by parallel fifths (Fx-Cx -> G#-D#), something the classical musical theorists say should not be done. So Chopin is breaking ground with this pleasant-sounding piece.

By the way, I am going to put all of these reviews of Chopin's Opus 28 on a separate web page and will tell you when it is ready.