24 Preludes, Op. 28 — complete cycle

Frédéric Chopin (1,810–1,849)

First published: 1839
Key: C major / D minor
Style: Romantic
Level: Fellowship and Concert
Roughly: ABRSM FRSM · Trinity FTCL · Henle 9
Lesson: C.8 Carry a twenty-four-piece cycle as one programme identity
Musicianship: C.8 Extended chords
Focus: Programme the complete key-cycle as one continuous large-scale interpretation, sustaining contrast, memory, transitions and endurance across all 24 preludes.

What its lesson teaches

C.8 Carry a twenty-four-piece cycle as one programme identity

Prepare all twenty-four Preludes of Chopin’s Op. 28 as one complete cycle. Compare the key succession, changes of texture and the effect of each transition rather than treating the sequence as a collection of unrelated encores. The mixed-key technical preparations address contrasting textures within that cycle; they are not simplified substitutes for any prelude. In your programme the cycle counts once; its preludes do not count again on their own.

Ideas: Large forms and cycles
The circle of fifths
Sforzando, subito and sudden contrasts
Recital architecture
Theory cards: A form map from evidence
Recovering in a programme
Technique: F-sharp major scale in alternating thirds and sixths, hands separately, 2 octaves
E-flat minor held voices over moving harmony, hands together
B major chord tremolo, hands together: coordinate rotation and register

Edition and licence

Score: First Editions of Fryderyk Chopin's Music

Website: https://chopinscores.org

Digital scores: https://github.com/pl-wnifc/humdrum-chopin-first-editions

License: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0

Adapted by Musalea: converted to MusicXML with every bar the converter misread rebuilt from the encoding and the performance markings restored; a complete cycle or sonata is joined in order without changing the music.

Practice tempos: from the encoding where it gives them, otherwise from Kullak's recommendations (1881–1883) or chosen by Musalea; they are practice targets, not the composer's metronome marks. The printed tempo words are kept and no number is shown in the score.

Leipzig: Breitkopf & Härtel, first German edition, 1839, plate 6088

Encoding source: https://github.com/pl-wnifc/humdrum-chopin-first-editions

Digital licence: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ · CC BY 4.0

Twenty-four Preludes, Op. 28 — complete cycle

Edition: Leipzig: Breitkopf & Härtel, first German edition, 1839, plate 6088

Published: 1839

Source: https://github.com/pl-wnifc/humdrum-chopin-first-editions

First Editions of Fryderyk Chopin's Music

Digital licence: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/

CC-BY-4.0

Licence: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/

The other lesson pieces of Fellowship and Concert

Goldberg Variations, BWV 988 — complete cycle, Johann Sebastian Bach
Piano Sonata No. 32 in C minor, Op. 111: I. Maestoso – Allegro con brio ed appassionato, Ludwig van Beethoven
Piano Sonata No. 2 in B-flat minor, Op. 35 — complete, Frédéric Chopin
Étude in A minor “Winter Wind”, Op. 25 No. 11, Frédéric Chopin
Prélude, choral et fugue, FWV 21, FWV 21; CFF 24, César Franck
Piano Sonata No. 3 in B minor, Op. 58 — complete, Frédéric Chopin
Étude in C minor, Op. 25 No. 12, Frédéric Chopin
Toccata in C major, Op. 92, Carl Czerny
Gaspard de la nuit, M. 55: III. Scarbo, Maurice Ravel
Piano Concerto No. 1 in E minor, Op. 11 — complete, Frédéric Chopin

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