Piano Video Lesson: My First Chopin - Prelude in E minor

Hi, I'm Robert Estrin and you're watching LivingPianos.com. Today is a personal story, my first Chopin. It was a funny thing because I was in my office and I'm going through music because we just moved here a few months ago and I'm still sorting through things and what did I uncover but this book. Now this just looks like any old Schirmer edition of Chopin preludes but if you open it up in here you can see that this is the book that I first learned my first piece of Chopin. This is the E minor prelude. I did a few of the preludes and you could see where my father even assigned the piece to me. It's really something after all these years to uncover this and it brings up a really important point, a few important points.

First of all, just the fact that Chopin with his incredible output for the piano with ballades and scherzos, polonaises and so many waltzes and yet he wrote pieces that can be approached by relatively intermediate pianists. Now this isn't to suggest that these preludes are in any way lacking or aren't really profoundly deep pieces of music because they are and that's what got me so unbelievably enthralled. I remember when I first played this piece, I couldn't even imagine any other piece of music, much less a piece of Chopin, being as enthralling. I was just completely insanely in love with this piece. And the funny thing is in revisiting it, I still have that same passion for it. Truth be known, I've played this piece many times over the years and I never play it the same twice. You're going to hear a performance of it but first I want to just talk a little bit about this unique piece, the E minor prelude, which I'm sure many of you know.

The interesting thing is the melody of this piece. If you just listen to it out of context, without the accompaniment, it's one of the most boring melodies you could ever imagine. Really? Well, you tell me. And it goes on and on like that, you figure, "How can this possibly be a piece of music?" Well, it is the lush, rich, ever-changing harmonies undulating underneath an eighth note that brings this piece to life. Now, why did he play eighth notes in the left hand with a slow melody on top? Well, it's the physics of the sound of the piano, because if you just have chords sustain it, it wouldn't really work because you play a chord on the piano and it just dies away. Just imagine what this would sound like with a string orchestra. I can do better than that. Let me just play a little bit and see if I can create something out of this to get an idea what this would be like if it was played by instruments that sustain.

That's the mood you can create on the piano. How is it possible? By listening to the ever-changing harmonies and yet keep them subtle so you still draw the attention to this incredibly simple melody, but each and every note of that melody takes on just profound implications because of the ever shifting harmonies. I want to play a performance of this for you so you know what I'm talking about. And to revisit this prelude after all these years, to share it with you, is a great pleasure. I hope you enjoy this performance of Chopin's prelude in E minor.

So that's what it sounds like, how Chopin composed it, and it's a remarkable thing how Chopin in his Nocturnes and his preludes and in so much of his music is evocative of the human voice or the sustained strings and yet all done with a percussion instrument. Did you know that the piano is really technically a percussion instrument? Now you're not hitting with drum sticks or mallets, but indeed there are hammers that are hitting strings and to create a singing line out of the piano is really the art and magic of illusion. And when you have a score written by Chopin, it is an amazing thing how it brings it to life.

I hope you've enjoyed this, revisiting this music and recordings. There's so much I'm going to share with you on a personal level and stories about my childhood and my life in music that I hope you enjoy. Again, I'm Robert Estrin here at LivingPianos.com. This is your piano resource. You're welcome to share your ideas with me anytime and join my Patreon for exclusive content not available anywhere else. Thanks again for joining me. We'll see you next time.

Find the original source of this video at this link: https://livingpianos.com/my-first-chopin-prelude-in-e-minor/

Automatic video-to-text transcription by DaDaScribe.com

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