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Two Bach Preludes/Two Chopin Etudes, or Toujours travailler Bach-ce sera votre meilleurmoyen de progresserAuthor(s): Robert W. WasonSource: Music Theory Spectrum, Vol. 24, No. 1 (Spring, 2002), pp. 103-120Published by: University of California Press on behalf of the Society for Music TheoryStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/1556089Accessed: 25/07/2010 22:48

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Two Bach Preludes/Two Chopin Etudes, or

Toujours travailler Bach-ce sera votre meilleur

moyen de progresser

Robert W. Wason

Chopin's first acquaintance with the music of Bach dates back to his childhood in Poland and his first teacher; thus, Bach seems to have been with him from the beginning. But after his arrival in Paris in 1831 at age 21, two years after Mendelssohn had con- ducted the "St. Matthew Passion" in Berlin but before Bach had

fully recovered from his long period of neglect, Chopin became a

truly passionate devotee of Bach's music. These were the years when he wrote the Etudes and Preludes-works, in particular, that show a strong influence of Bach. In 1838, Chopin, in Majorca with George Sand, wrote to his friend and copyist, Julian Fontana, from "a huge deserted Carthusian monastery where in a cell with doors larger than any carriage-gateway in Paris you may imagine me with my hair unkept, without white gloves and pale as ever. The cell is shaped like a tall coffin, the enormous vaulting covered with dust, the window small ... Close to [my] bed is an old

square grubby box which I can scarcely use for writing on, with a leaden candlestick (a great luxury here) and a little candle. Bach, my scrawls [Chopin refers to his Preludes] and someone else's old

papers ... Silence ... you can yell [but] still silence." The next

year, he wrote-this time from George Sand's estate in Nohant, since the Majorcan trip had been largely disastrous-that "when I have nothing particular to do I am correcting for myself, in the Paris edition of Bach, not only the mistakes made by the engraver

but those which are backed by the authority of people who are

supposed to understand Bach-not that I have any pretensions to a deeper understanding, but I am convinced that I sometimes hit on the right answer."' Much later, Chopin's piano students contin- ued to attest to his knowledge, from memory, of much of the Well-

Tempered Clavier2 Thus the alternate title of this article, Chopin's advice to his pupil Madame Dubois during his last meeting with her in 1848 (a year before his death), is advice that he himself took very seriously indeed.

For quite some time now, Chopin's debt to Bach has been well

known, particularly with respect to surface resemblances between Bach's C-major Prelude (wTc I) and Chopin's Etude op. 10, no. 1.

Early in this century, Hugo Leichtentritt even went so far as to show how Chopin's harmonic scheme could be rendered in Bach's figuration, and recently, Simon Finlow has demonstrated the reverse, as seen in Examples 1(a) and (b).3 Allen Forte and

Stephen Gilbert have shown that the resemblance is more than

superficial-that it affects deeper-level musical structure of the

'See Walker 1966, 10. Complete quotations are taken from Syndow 1962, 165 and 182.

2Eigeldinger 1986, 61. 3Finlow 1992, 70. Example 1(a) cited by Finlow from Leichtentritt 1921-2,

vol. 2, 84-5.

104 Music Theory Spectrum

Example 1. C-major Preludes, after Finlow 1992

(a) Chopin's harmonies with Bach's figuration

e Fr

I

'K-i4

.K-• • .K-• .7

>->• .7. .. .7. .. .7.

9:40 do. IL

" r •

(b) Bach's harmonies with Chopin's figuration

8•F ------v

8v-----------------

f e e

+! ? o ? _ 5,.. 5 ,• • . ?

opening sections of both pieces.4 Although the present article takes issue with details of their analysis, it continues on essen- tially the same tack, showing other structural parallels and draw- ing in additional pieces as well.

Such "figural preludes" might be characterized as "non- narrative": there are no musical "characters" participating in a "drama" delineated by rhythmic "motives." Instead, the rhythmic surface is deceptively placid, and the musical teleology deter- mined purely by resources of pitch organization--or "harmony." While Chopin's Viennese contemporaries were specializing in the development of the narrative sonata, Chopin--only infrequently a proponent of Sturm und Drang-often favored the more Baroque compositional method of developing a piece from a single motive,

or "affect."5 This is not to deny the influence on some of his music of the sonata, and perhaps of its greatest proponent, Beethoven.6 But Chopin always remained partial to the figural texture, whether he referred to the resultant piece as an "etude," or "prelude"; moreover, the texture occupied significant parts of his larger pieces-even those marked by change of texture and rhythmic motive. (One thinks of large ABA forms, such as the C#-minor Fantasie-Impromptu, op. 66-a figural "etude" surrounding an adagio melody.)

Bach's "figural prelude" has a heritage that stretches back to the earliest keyboard music, and the texture was a clich6 well- known to his contemporaries. The Musikalische Handleitung by

4See Forte & Gilbert 1982, 188-90. 5See Chapter 4, "Baroque Reflections," in Samson 1994, 58-80. 6See Petty 1999.

Two Bach Preludes/Two Chopin Etudes 105

Friedrich Erhard Niedt-purportedly Bach's favorite thorough- bass treatise-gives a few humdrum recipes for such composi- tions.7 But in the hands of the master, they were to become some-

thing far more interesting: several of Bach's preludes underwent considerable revision, documented in various sources, and re-

cently, Joel Lester has shown that four of Bach's "figural prel- udes" were revised and positioned in the Well-Tempered Clavier in such a way as to offer us a pedagogy of the genre.8 Essentially, the structure of such a prelude, as Lester points out, was described in a famous passage by C. P. E. Bach:

There are occasions when an accompanist must extemporize before the beginning of a piece. Because such an improvisation is to be regarded as a prelude which prepares the listener for the content of the piece that fol- lows ... the construction ... is determined ... by the nature of the piece which it prefaces; and the content or affect of this piece becomes the ma- terial out of which the prelude is fashioned ... When only little time is available ... the performer should not wander into too remote keys ... At the start the principal key must prevail for some time so that the listener will be unmistakably oriented ... [The keyboardist] fashions his bass out of the ascending and descending scale of the prescribed key, with a variety of figured bass signatures ... A tonic organ point is convenient for estab- lishing the tonality at the beginning and end. The dominant organ point can also be introduced effectively before the close.9

Philipp Emanuel continues by showing a number of sample bass progressions (with figures), some of which are shown in

Example 2. Variants of such progressions had been studied by keyboard students well back into the seventeenth century, under the well-known rubric, "regle de l'octave" ("regola dell'Ottava"). 0 Lester proceeds to show that a descending octave bass progression is the structural basis of all four Bach preludes, although it

Example 2. Octave-line harmonizations and pedal points, excerpted from C. P. E. Bach 1753 [1949]

6 6 6 6 56 98 98 98 98 98 6 5 76 76 76 76 76 5

6 5 9 8 7 6 7 6 5 9 8 9 8 7 6 5,

7 6 7 6 5 6 5 6 6 7 6 7 6 86 9 8 6 5 56- 75 5

4

5,

98 98 7 6 57 7698 7 5 4 6 5 3 43 4 3 5- 4 3

6 & 2 6 6 567654436 7676

74 4 76 5~6 6 6 7 6 6 5 6 3 3 2 4+

5 4 6 5 4 6 4 6 76 6 6 6 6 325 43 2 5 5

4 5676 74 76 4 # 7

5, 5-

7 7 6? 8 5

5 4

,7

6 4 5 5 6 4 8 ?7 5 3 2 3 4 2 3 5 5 4 3

6 56 5 5 4 447 43- 8 7 4 2 4 3 8 2 3 4 2

a~101

7Translated as "The Musical Guide" in Niedt 1988. 8Lester 1998. 9Bach [1753] 1949, 431 ff. 'oChristensen 1992. Also see Lester 1992, 72-4.

106 Music Theory Spectrum

becomes progressively more embellished in each. On the other hand, C. P. E. Bach's translator, William Mitchell, takes pains to

point out that Philipp Emanuel never mentions "r6gle de l'octave." Still, although he does not recognize one particular "rule," as the more prescriptive and unimaginative theorists did, his many ex-

amples amount to an elaboration of the idea. Lester was very likely made aware of the structure of the C-

major Prelude initially by the Dover publication of Schenker's

analysis-the first such analyses that were generally available in the late sixties." For our purposes, the most important addition over C. P. E. Bach's description is the notion of a structural so-

prano that parallels the octave bass-progression in 10ths above; this motion through the C4 to C3 octave then proceeds to the dom- inant pedal, as recommended by Philipp Emanuel, and subse-

quently the tonic pedal. Another feature of the piece described in Schenker's analysis

is phrase structure. Lester calls the opening tonic section- characteristic of many Bach pieces, we might add-the "frame," and in this piece, it is not a tonic pedal, but a combined neighbor- note motion of soprano and bass: 3-4-3 over 1-7-1. As is typical of Bach's phrase formations, the fourth measure of the frame is also the launching point for the next four-measure segment. One

might be tempted to propose a four-measure group starting in m. 5, with good motivic support, but there are problems in later

groupings. Schenker's interpretation here is persuasive: the articu- lation of the primary melodic tone at the outset of the piece and its motion to the upper neighbor and return in m. 4 enable us to hear the first four measures as an "extension" (Dehnung) of the first measure; moreover, the 4-measure segment in mm. 8-11 and its

transposition in mm. 16-19 confirm his reading and clearly articu- late the division of the structural octave progression, first with a

cadence in the dominant and then with a return to the tonic.'2 This

interpretation becomes most compelling when we propose a nor- mative duration for the descending middleground of E5-E4 of two measures for each tone starting in m. 4. (The half-step motions, C-B, F-E, in each of the two tetrachords are held off in the man- ner of a "middleground suspension".)'3

Prior to publishing the analysis of the C-major Prelude, Schenker presented a less-developed analysis of the C-minor Prelude from WTC I, which is shown in Example 3.14 (The thick brackets underneath the analysis are my additions; they will be discussed below.) In comparison with the C-major Prelude, the "tonic pedal" is the most prominent element of the frame-in both soprano and bass. Neighbor-note motion now ultimately forms a

complete neighboring VII7 chord in m. 3 (although buried in inner parts), and the tonic returns in m. 4, as it did in the C-major Prelude. Emerging from the inner voices of the opening, structural 3 then appears as Eb4, initiating a descent in seventeenths (that is, an octave plus a tenth) with the bass through the first tetrachord of the bass-octave descent. At this point, the bass moves up an octave (so as not to give away the C2 goal yet, presumably), and thus the

bass-soprano interval is now reduced to a tenth.'5 The dominant-

pedal section then enters at m. 21 (with structural 3 retained to

overlap the entrance of the pedal). Background 2 arrives over the

"Schenker [1932] 1966.

"2The replication of this four-measure segment is one reason why Lerdahl & Jackendoff (1983, 261) "locate the change [of hypermeter] at m. 8, in conjunc- tion with a combined grouping overlap and metrical deletion." However, post- poning the metrical shift until this point places the two 4 chords (both of which seem like suspensions) in weak hypermetric measures, which runs counter to the properties of suspensions.

13Cf. Komar 1971, 119: "The cadences at bars 1 , 19, and 32 suggest the lo- cation of some of the large-scale downbeats" Also see Lerdahl & Jackendoff 1983, 262 ff.

14See Schenker [1926] 1996, 48. This analytical graph, published in 1926, is essentially the same as the one Schenker presents at the outset of Schenker 1923.

'1Schenker spends considerable effort describing Bach's departure, at letters b) and c), from the pattern established at a).

Two Bach Preludes/Two Chopin Etudes 107

Example 3. Analysis of Bach, C-Minor Prelude, after Schenker 1926 [1996]

a) b) c)

..... ...o

_. .o/ (5- 6-)

c minor: I

2 3 4 5

A I

"'-

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

--......- ---

•-- --

- -- -' "- . .

p r s o• opresto

6- 7 4

- _

4

_5 II (II) V

5 6

adagio

_.

)

A I -7- ~3 4 4-03 t3 0 - 4 4

108 Music Theory Spectrum

preexisting dominant at m. 28, leading to an arrival on C in m. 34. The harmony at this point avoids resolution both because it is the dominant of IV, and because C3 is not the goal of the bass line; C3 is elaborated as an out-of-time improvisational aside, after which

C2 arrives to complete the bass-line descent, and, as in the C-

major Prelude, the soprano returns to the obligatory register of the

opening-all of this a remarkable structural parallel with the C-

major Prelude that goes well beyond the minimal demands of the

"r6gle de l'octave." Schenker does not take on the issue of phrase structure in the

C-minor Prelude; I have grafted my interpretation onto his analy- sis in Example 3, using thick brackets to denote phrase groups up to m. 24. If we were to suggest a rhythmic norm for the descend-

ing octave line, it would seem to be, once again, two measures per tone. Thus, the last measure of the four-measure frame-this time a tonic pedal-returns to EK, while m. 5 puts that Eb in place as E 3. (The change of register in m. 5 gives the illusion of a group starting at this point.) But if four-measure groups are heard to start in m. 4, two successive ones emerge: mm. 4-7 and 8-11. These

support the first tetrachord of the descent, EB, D, C, Bb. Indeed, the first eleven measures of each piece parallel one another closely -note the 4 chords in parallel positions. At m. 12, Bach breaks the pattern (just as he did in the C-major Prelude), but we are still able to project two more four-measure groups: mm. 12-15 and 16-19 for AK, G, F, EB. The first of these seems convincing, with the caveat that G is shortchanged to one measure while F gets three. However, not only does the first group seem to anticipate the second, but that group, mm. 16-19, includes the end of the de- scent in m. 18, making m. 19 superfluous. The bass takes off im-

mediately to destroy any sense of stasis or arrival by harmonizing the goal E6 with various pre-dominants. These ultimately give way to the dominant pedal (m. 21), at which point the beginning of a group seems to be in order. Could it be that the arrival of so-

prano F3 in m. 15 is not an anticipation of the next group, but its actual start? The bass line certainly lends support to this interpre- tation: the 4 in m. 15 acts like a 9-10 bass suspension that resolves

in the following measure, while the soprano F is suspended against the bass as 4 (m. 17) to 3 (m. 18); two measures of pre- dominant follow. Thus, it seems that mm. 12-14 are a three- measure (or abbreviated four-measure) group, while mm. 15-20 are a six-measure group (actually a four-measure group with two- measure extension). The arrival of the dominant pedal brings with it a clear four-measure group, while the subsequent single-voice elaboration of the dominant starts a four-measure group that over-

laps the arrival of structural soprano 2 (m. 28). From here on, the

phrase structure is appropriately telescoped to fit with the erratic succession of tempi, all designed as an out-of-time improvisation. (Phrase groupings at this point become increasingly tentative.) Clearly, the piece is considerably more varied and complicated than the C-major Prelude in its phrase structure.

We turn now to some structural parallels with music of Chopin. First, it is important to note that the pedagogical basis of the

"r6gle de l'octave" survived well past the eighteenth century. Thus, while some of the structural parallels noted here may be the result of Chopin's engagement with Bach's keyboard music, some

may be ascribable to the survival of an eighteenth-century keyboard pedagogy, an assertion supported in the following discussion.

The "r6gle de l'octave" is closely allied with the discussion of

harmonizing the "unfigured bass" that may be found in such early eighteenth-century treatises as those by Saint Lambert, Gasparini, and Heinichen;16 thus, one is tempted to regard it as an early peda- gogical device designed to teach a compositional skill that ulti-

mately was more efficiently handled by Rameau's harmonic the-

ory. Yet, in the middle of the century, Joseph Riepel (naive though he certainly was) would report that he knew of no thorough-bass

'6See Saint Lambert [1707] 1991, 45-99; Gasparini [1708] 1963, 26-47; Buelow 1966 (a study of Heinichen's treatise Der Generalbass in der Composition [Dresden: 1728]), 200-18.

Two Bach Preludes/Two Chopin Etudes 109

manual in which the device was not mentioned.'7 In fact, the de- vice continued to live on in Italian treatises on keyboard improvi- sation, called partimenti.'8 Such treatises have a long history of their own, but, most suggestive for our topic here, the Italian tradi- tion was taken up by the French in the early nineteenth century, as seen in treatises by Choron/Fiocchi (1804), Fetis (1829), and Kalkbrenner-the extraordinarily successful virtuoso pianist with whom Chopin contemplated study upon his arrival in Paris. It would be ideal, of course, if we could document Chopin's knowl-

edge of Choron/Fiocchi or F6tis, but as of this writing that is not

possible. Chopin's theory instruction with J6zef Elsner (Director of the Warsaw Conservatory) seems to have centered on German

pedagogical materials, most notably Johann Philip Kirnberger's Die Kunst des Reinen Satzes in der Musik.19 This may be read as

placing Chopin in the "Bach School," but certainly more obliquely than Mendelssohn.20 If it is impossible to say whether Chopin studied French partimenti manuals before arriving in Paris, it at least seems likely that he would have encountered such pedagogi- cal materials once his teaching career there got underway in the 1830s.

Example 4 shows some selected improvisational models based

upon the "regle de l'octave" taken from Kalkbrenner's treatise of 1849, Traite d'harmonie du pianiste. The textures Kalkbrenner

presents look similar to other virtuoso piano music of the period, as shown in writings by Collet, Finlow, and Samson-all of whom have dealt with Chopin's Etudes in the context of other piano studies of the period.21 Surely, these authors have been successful in showing that Chopin's piano textures, in some cases, may have been inspired or suggested by earlier etudes, but just as surely, most of the surface rhythms, textures, playing techniques, etc., of

Chopin's Etudes show an extraordinary originality. Indeed, the pieces in score present a unique visual appearance that has in-

spired commentary by Douglas Hofstadter.22 In large measure, this is precisely where the great originality of many of the Chopin Etudes resides-on the surface; and there is certainly nothing wrong with that. (There are also pieces that are strikingly original at deeper levels, such as the Etude op. 25, no. 3, in F major, which overshoots a presumed thematic repetition on the dominant to pre- sent it at the tritone instead.23) The Etudes dealt with in the present article, however, are clear cases of Chopin troping on traditional structural archetypes.

Let us turn now to the C-major Etude, op. 10, no. 1, written in 1829 or 30, before Chopin's arrival in Paris. One of the most sig- nificant features in this piece is a regularity of four-measure

phrase structure so consistent that it establishes a deeper-level meter-a hypermeter, as Edward T. Cone called it.24 Example 5 shows a hypermetric reduction of the piece in the manner of Carl Schachter;25 it articulates a four-measure hypermeter throughout, shown by the meter in which each measure of the original equals one half note of the transcription. (In order to translate the

seventy-nine measures of the Etude into twenty hypermeasures, the transcription assumes that the final fermata could last a full extra measure, which seems quite plausible.)

Certainly, the most original feature of the piece is the thematic

arpeggiation, which assumes the suppleness of the hand and wrist rotation typical of the Chopin style as well as the damper pedal of the pianoforte to sustain the cascading arpeggios. At first, the figu- ration would seem to throw the whole notion of structural register into doubt, but on closer inspection it turns out that the arpeggios are completely consistent registrally, so that the voice leading

"Christensen 1992, 101 ff. "8See Christensen 1992, 110. 19See Samson 1999. 20See Todd 1983. 21Collet 1966 and Finlow 1992. Also see Samson 1994, Chapter 4,

"Baroque Reflections."

22See figures 9-2 and 9-5 (pp. 175 and 179) in Hofstadter 1985. 23See Brown, Headlam & Dempster, 1999. Also see Salzer 1973. 24Cone 1969. 25Schachter 1999 collects the relevant essays, which originally appeared

individually.

110 Music Theory Spectrum

Example 4. Excerpts from Kalkbrenner 1849

legato

-777 1r . - 7

Brilliante

"W •.L iNs

NO. 14

Presto 1 L6 1

cresf,

( 0. P L

Prst

Two Bach Preludes/Two Chopin Etudes 111

Example 4. [continued]

cres. f

8 ~TI 0'

-•: r6

,-.

•"• - • : -' - r- . . . • --- F,, • _ - " '

_ ll

, J ,.. I t" , I " ', - F" ' ', " , '..d' • "- t" . . .

comes through as shown in the reduction (although the "right- hand part" is replicated an octave below, and in two successive octaves above the written part throughout the piece). This consis-

tency of pattern is absolutely essential in communicating the basic voice leading behind the surface (and essential to the visual ap- pearance that impressed Hofstadter). The importance of voice-

leading detail to Chopin is clear from his obsessive editorial re- finement of it, documented in the best editions. Unfortunately,

such continuous editing is also the source of discrepancies be- tween his original manuscripts and the various contemporaneous printings, making determination of an "authoritative score" a controversial matter.

The regularity of phrase structure in op. 10, no 1, is a signifi- cant departure from the Bach style, in which overlapping phrases and elisions are typical and in which continuity and forward mo- tion reign supreme. Indeed, the present analysis maintains that the

112 Music Theory Spectrum

Example 5. Hypermetric reduction of Chopin, op. 10, no. 1. o =

Al A Bi B2r u 4f 3IFC LI

m. 9 m.17 m.25

B3 Al ............... .

I ; j "

_ f U-

I~d1

do

W-. " 0 a 0,,d i-

,,GO,,a ,•,-•

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~~"#~ m, c.L.,--1- )• , 1

...

Tr I4 1""? -t_

Io •, -'

9"~~e .......... , io- - i

• - " , i •" ' • y r , r - rF .....o , -

first sixteen measures of the piece (four hypermeasures in the re-

duction) are an interrupted classical period-structure reinterpreted within Chopin's harmonic language. (If Chopin appropriated a

Baroque compositional technique to his own purposes, he of course placed it within a phrase and harmonic idiom in which he

habitually worked.) The first half-phrase moves to VII7/V and thence to V in the second half-phrase (the whole comprising the first eight measures); meanwhile, structural 3 moves to 2. But on the very last quarter of the phrase (end of m. 8), 2 is inflected to #2, becoming thereby a leading tone back to 3, and the consequent phrase picks up on 3 again.

Complete closure at the end of the A section in m. 16 is pre- vented by overlapping the 2-1 soprano with the return of the pri- mary melodic tone, 3, above. Two hypermeasures (eight real mea-

sures) now occur, which present the full course of the B section of the piece: VI to ViVI (E major), labeled B 1 in the analysis. Up until this point, hypermeasures, each made of four measures, have themselves grouped duply; however, the rest of the B section

(mm. 25-48) groups into 3 + 3 hypermeasures, labeled B2 and B3. This division of B2 and B3 is clear for at least two reasons: first, the harmonic rhythm slows in mm. 33-6; and second, mm. 25-36 are easily read as the prolongation of a single harmony, A7,

Two Bach Preludes/Two Chopin Etudes 113

albeit through an interesting Tristan-like detour to the flat-side of the circle of fifths, and an enharmonic return (B75 becomes Fr+6 in D minor).26 B3 now picks up in m. 37 with a clear cycle of fifths and an acceleration of the harmonic rhythm (to two chords

per real measure) in mm. 43-4, followed by a deceleration back to one chord per measure in mm. 45-8, all of this acting as a retran- sition back to Al, which returns in m. 49.

The ubiquitous cycle of fifths of the B2 and B3 sections is yet another trace of Bach and the Baroque, of course; after all, the A section was essentially a "frame," supported by a cadence. But the

middleground line behind all of this is at least as important. Jim Samson seems to have had this piece in mind when he writes that "the sense of harmonic flow in both Bach and Chopin is achieved

by maintaining a dissonant tension over extended periods, and by

long-range linear motions which emerge through the figuration, cre-

ating a strong counterpoint with the melodic bass."27 The primary melodic tone E5 (to choose the most likely in the three-octave "reg- istration") is first reintroduced from a third above after the first hy-

permeasure of B2; at this point, E5 begins a descent through an oc- tave that finishes with the acceleration of harmonic rhythm in the second hypermeasure of B3; the new, lower-register E4 is now pro- longed by neighbor-note motion in the last hypermeasure of B3. This octave descent is accompanied by tenths in the bass, just as it

was in Bach, though the tenths are elaborated by intervening 7ths to form the cycle-of-fifths progression. Still, the parallel with Bach and the "regl6 de l'octave" formula is striking. All of the preceding discussion is summarized in the analysis shown in Example 6.

The slowing of harmonic rhythm in mm. 45-8 allows an ex- tended arpeggiation in mm. 47-8 that restores the original register of the primary melodic tone (the return of the "obligatory regis- ter"?). The return of Al in m. 49 leads to the expected return of A2 in m. 57, which in turn seems to lead to B 1. This time, how-

ever, the apparent goal of B 1, V/VI, is a divider between the over- all V and the returning I that occurs in m. 69, although melodic closure is anything but clear. Subsequent pedals on I and V in the

closing section continue to fill out the parallel with the Baroque prelude. Example 7 shows the analysis.

We turn now to the "bookend" mate of op. 10, no 1: op. 25, no.

12, in C minor. By all reports, this piece was composed at least six

years after op. 10, no 1, although the two pieces seem to be ex-

tremely close in all ways, except perhaps chronologically. Many have noted the similarity of this Etude to op. 10, no 1, with regard to surface diminution: both hands participate in the arpeggiation this time around. Samson also notes that "again there are echoes of Bach-the Prelude in the same key from Book 1, for instance -in the tolling 'chorale,' against which subsidiary material

emerges in flexible rhythms."28 The parallels run more deeply than

that, as we shall see. A significant difference from the Bach works-or from op. 10,

no 1, for that matter-is the register in which the right-hand arpeggiation starts: by starting in the C3-C4 octave, the downbeat of each measure announces a "tenor melody" since the tone will be sustained by the pedal. Such tenor melodies catered to

nineteenth-century aesthetic tastes, the same tastes that preferred Gounod's revision of Bach's C-major Prelude with its superim- posed melody to the unadorned original. (Incidentally, proof that the tenor octave is indeed the primary melodic register occurs later in the piece when the echoing C4-C5 octave briefly takes a

pedal instead of doubling the tune.) Example 8 shows the hypermetric analysis. In order to make

the distinction between melody and bass in the analysis more eas-

ily readable, the tenor melody has been notated up an octave

throughout. Once again, one measure of the original score equals a half note in the reduction, and once again the piece consists of

twenty hypermeasures, but this time there are eighty-three real measures instead of seventy-nine (accounted for by including two

26An alternate interpretation is that V7/vi is "resolved" into the next chord, and when A major returns as a triadic cadential goal, it is VI#.

27Samson 1994, 61. 28Samson 1994, 71.

114 Music Theory Spectrum

Example 6. Analysis of Chopin, op. 10, no 1, mm. 17-49

m. 17 m.25 37

?3 N

7 10 7 10 7 10 10 7 10 7 10 7 10 7 10 7 10 7 10 8

VI V/VI V7/II VI IIVI V/VI V

Example 7. Analysis of Chopin, op. 10, no. 1, mm. 49-end

m.49 m 57 m.69(Codetta)

2: VV__VI_-_ _____ __

I V V III# V7 I

hypermeasures). A quick scan through the reduction shows that the rhythmic structure of the Etude is more complicated than that of op. 10, no 1, just as Bach's C-minor Prelude is more compli- cated that his C-major Prelude. While most of the piece falls into four-beat hypermeasures, the connection between the opening thematic section and the change of mode to C major is a six-beat

hypermeasure; given the opening hypermetric structure, we might regard the last two half notes in the 3 hypermeasure as beginning a new four-beat hypermeasure (see the tentative, overlapping 4 placed over the top of the example at this point). However, the

repetition of this C-major section in Ab confirms four-beat hyper-

measures starting at m. 15, which remain the norm until an extension to a 3 hypermeasure occurs to bring about the final cadence of the piece.

Example 9(a) shows an analysis of opening thematic section, labeled Al. It begins with double-neighbor melodic motion around structural 3, supported by a tonic pedal in the bass (the first hypermeasure). The parallel with Bach's C-minor Prelude is

striking, as shown in 9(b): one opening motive is the retrograde- or the tonal inversion--of the other. It is difficult to overstress the importance of this motive to the piece: it recurs in the theme of the B section, and becomes especially important in the

Two Bach Preludes/Two Chopin Etudes 115

Example 8. Hypermetric reduction of Chopin, op. 25, no. 12. o =

m. 15

(Retransition)

SCf. motive of A

I_-, m. 25 m. 31

d @

Extension

m. 71-.n.

55 9 •

Etni ' .

A t I ..

116 Music Theory Spectrum

Example 9.

(a) Analysis of Chopin, op. 25, no. 12, mm. 1-9

X T

m. 9

- I-

(b) Analysis of Bach, C-Minor Prelude from WTC I, mm. 1-5

66

5 6

I

retransition. The Al phrase continues to a structural 2, which moves to tonic closure on the strong-beat 3 of the second hyper- measure. 2 is embellished by 3 as an incomplete upper neighbor (supported by the dominant over the tonic pedal), a typical device of Chopin's harmonic language, and one which cannot fail to evoke its parallel-major, enharmonically equivalent cousin, #22, last seen in the same position in the C-major Etude. But the two col- orations have very different effects: this time, the opening eight- measure phrase clearly closes on the tonic with a structural 3-2-1 in the tenor register, which continues through an echoing dimin- uted octave-descent in the soprano register, as I is picked up to continue as 8-7-6-5-4.

A2 starts as a restatement of Al, but after the surprising change to the parallel major in m. 12, the neighbor figure this time embell-

ishes 5 in m. 14, transforming the double-neighbor figure into what

might be called a "cambiata" F-E?-Ab-G. This leads directly to the B theme, although this theme clearly evolves from a diminution of A (in the parallel major) in m. 16 to the downbeat of m. 17, along with its embellished extension, again through a 3-2-1 descent, in mm. 18-20. It is important to add that the extension of the fore-

ground arpeggiation figure by yet another octave gives additional

emphasis to the E in m. 15. The B theme is then repeated in Ab major in mm. 23-30, although the last two beats of m. 30 head back to C minor via a Fr+6. What follows is a sixteen-measure span that

prolongs the dominant of C minor, stating various transpositions and combinations of the "cambiata" variant of the double-neighbor.

Example 10 provides an analysis of mm. 15-46. Once again, we see Jim Samson's "long-range linear motions which emerge

Two Bach Preludes/Two Chopin Etudes 117

Example 10. Analysis of Chopin, op. 25, no. 12, mm. 15-47

m.15 m.23 m 31 m.42 m.47

10 N 10

( :, i;9 w - I M I- o 0

a'-I; 6 5~

IVI V

through the figuration." Moreover, this particular long-range mo- tion is a variant of the same descent we have seen in each of the other pieces we have examined: 3 (this time with change of mode to major) initiates a descent to I (m. 24), which becomes 3 of Ab (VI), supporting a continuation of the descent to Ab (m. 30), and thence to G (m. 31). While G is prolonged throughout mm. 31-46, the transposition scheme of the cambiata motive (up diatonic

thirds) effectively arpeggiates a V?9 over the course of the retran-

sition, the seventh of which resolves strongly to 3 with the return of A (m. 47). Thus, the B section is hung on the same octave-line

through 3 that we have seen in each of the other pieces, although this time there is no doubt that the soprano "tune" is far more im-

portant than the bass line, which essentially reduces to the three

pedals, I, VI, and V. The Baroque "regle de l'octave" in the bass

gives way in importance to a structural tenor melody in this

nineteenth-century work.

Needless to say, there are other features of these pieces deserv-

ing of our attention beyond those discussed here. One of these is

certainly the notion of affect: in maintaining that there is a con- nection between Bach and Chopin, the topic seems ultimately in-

escapable. The drama of the "Ocean Etude," as one sometimes hears op. 25, no. 12, called, certainly calls to mind the traditional

dramatic affect of C minor, not so far from Bach's conception of that key. (The piece also calls to mind the "Revolutionary Etude" that ends op. 10; Chopin seems to have wanted a dramatic close to both collections.) Can we say more? Might tuning bear upon the issue here? A recent investigation of the subject claims that tem-

peraments prevalent in Chopin's time (documented by the piano makers of the day) were "circulating" (that is, all keys were

playable), but not equal (thus, even those of us without absolute

pitch would be able to differentiate keys by their individual tun-

ing).29 In the case of the F-major Etude, op. 25, no. 3, mentioned

earlier, the issue is extraordinarily significant: the "recapitulation" of the tune in C major (V), is overshot, such that a "false recapitu- lation" in B major occurs instead. This passage is in the low regis- ter of the instrument, and in contrast to the piano dynamic of the

opening tune in F, a forte dynamic underscores the appearance in B. It certainly seems relevant to point out that F major would be close to just in a temperament of the day, while the major third

B-D# of B major (likely derived in most temperaments as B-E6) would be one of the widest available and would beat wildly in

comparison to the F-A third. But is temperament relevant to the

29Jorgensen 1991 presents an exhaustive study of the topic.

118 Music Theory Spectrum

present discussion? To cite one possibility, the E-major triad that often "divides" C and G in op. 10, no 1, would sound distinctly more "dissonant" than the C-major and G-major triads on either side of it in one of these circulating temperaments (E-G# would be wider than C-E or G-B). Moreover, differently tuned keys might preserve different affects, and perhaps that is one reason why Chopin's C-major and C-minor Etudes seem to share many affec- tive qualities with the Bach Preludes in the same key. But that is a

topic to pursue in detail in another article. It must be admitted that in its structural comparison of works

of Bach and Chopin, the present essay cannot escape the contro- versial topic of "influence." Purposely, the genre that probably transmitted that influence of Bach to Chopin is narrowly defined

here, while, at the same time, the precise source of that influence, whether it be the works of Bach or rather mundane pedagogical works for keyboard, remains unclear. "Influence" itself is a much

larger topic in recent Bloom-influenced studies.30 Were we to at-

tempt grander statements in this regard, we should certainly have to factor in the beginnings of the Industrial Revolution and, as a

consequence, the technology that made the beginnings of the

modern piano possible. In an extreme interpretation, it might be maintained that Chopin simply brought the Bach prelude into that

modern world: the "strength" of his reading of Bach owes much to this technology and the new playing techniques that arose as a

consequence-some of which were certainly invented by Chopin.31 Seeking to transfer the virtuosity of Paganini to the new medium, Chopin, Liszt, and a host of lesser lights created a new musical literature to do so. The industrial technology that gave rise to the modern piano also ushered in an extraordinarily pro- ductive period of metal instrument building: the range-extending winds, the saxophones, and other exotic instruments that later fell out of favor. Clearly, this was a period in which the past could be

made to weigh lightly on many musicians while a bright future of new instruments and techniques beckoned.

To be sure, as instrumental forces stabilized (to the extent that

they are still essentially the same today), the distinction between

"performer" and "composer" began to crystallize, and both the Romantic aesthetic and a welling historical consciousness lent that "composer" an identity and charge requiring "originality." Certainly the "Anxiety of Influence" became greater with later

generations (and greatest in the 20th century) as the weight of

history increased; but when Chopin first became seriously ac-

quainted with Bach's music, Bach was hardly the mythic figure he was to become during the course of the nineteenth century.

The present article has also attempted to demonstrate that Schenkerian analysis can be used as a tool with which to make some reasonably clear statements regarding the evolution of

"style" (in a very limited repertoire, to be sure). While the middle-

ground structure shown here might seem to suffer from the same

"generic disease" that both Meyer's archetypes32 and other Schen- kerian middleground "motives" suffer from (that is, there seems

nothing particularly unique or memorable-at least from a motivic

point of view-about an octave scale), it has, nevertheless, some

interesting features. First, the bass progression of this abstract mid-

dleground formation was in fact reified as a concrete pedagogical aid for at least two-hundred years, enabling us to make a connec- tion between musical structure and the pedagogy of improvisation. Second, the structural soprano of this middleground-the so-called "octave line"-is most unusual in the background of a composi- tion, and not terribly common in the middleground either.

Certainly, motions through thirds and fifths are far more common

(in approximately that order). Further, in all four pieces consid- ered in the present article, the octave line elaborates the back-

ground tonic area of the piece before the move to the background dominant, and thence to background tonic return. What at first

30Korsyn 1991, for example. 3'The connection between compositional structure and practical matters of

instrumental technique is taken up in Kinzler 1977. 32Meyer 1989.

Two Bach Preludes/Two Chopin Etudes 119

blush might seem to be "generic" is really considerably more spe- cial. By looking closely at middleground formations in these two

Chopin Etudes, the present essay hopes to have put greater detail into Jim Samson's perceptive notion of "long-range linear motions which emerge through the figuration, creating a strong counter-

point with the melodic bass," and in so doing, to have elucidated

one of Chopin's most profound connections to Bach.

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ABSTRACT Chopin's interest in the music of Bach has long been known, if perhaps underrated. Of particular importance around the time Chopin arrived in Paris (1829), the influence of Bach is most prominent in his works of this period, especially the Etudes and certain of the Preludes. The present ar- ticle begins by considering the relationship of the baroque "figural prel- ude" to the larger context of Baroque keyboard and compositional peda- gogy. After demonstrating the structure of an improvised figural prelude as described by C. P. E. Bach, and the embodiment of this structural plan in J. S. Bach's preludes, the paper continues by demonstrating another po- tential source from which Chopin may have drawn compositional models: the improvisation manual of the early 19th century, in which the same structural pattern survives, clothed in early 19th-century pianistic bravura. Thus the structural resemblances to the Baroque prelude that this study finds in Chopin's Etudes are hardly anachronistic, although it seems clear that in the case of Chopin, his study of Bach is the primary source. The

paper then reveals deep-level structural relationships between Chopin's C-Major Etude op. 10, no. 1, and Bach's C-Major Prelude (wTC I), mov- ing on as well to another pairing of Chopin's C-minor Etude op. 25, no.

12, and Bach's C-minor Prelude from WTC I. The study uses Schenkerian

analysis as a means of making clear statements about the evolution of musical "style."