Prelude in E minor, Op. 28 No. 4 ("Largo")

Learn this piece

Composer

Frédéric Chopin

Level

Advanced

Key

E minor

Metre

2/2

Tempo

56 BPM

Length

26 bars, about 2 minutes

Hands

both

Trains

Chromatic voice leading, sustained dissonance, a wide dynamic range, and rhythmic independence between a slow-moving right-hand line and pulsing left-hand chords.

How to practise it

• In bars 2-4 your right hand holds a long B and then a C over the left hand's chords. Play the chords pp so the long right-hand notes still sound above them.
• The left hand's eighth-note chords change slowly, often by just one note. Practise bars 2-9 with the left hand alone and listen for the note that moves.
• Bars 17-19 are the one loud moment: the right hand climbs and the bass drops to a low B in bar 18, f. Loop them at 40 BPM, then let the sound fall back to p in bar 20.
• In bar 24 the music stops on a rest with a fermata: hold the silence a little longer than written. Then play the last chords of bars 25-26 pp, both hands together.

Where this score came from

Licence: Public domain

https://www.mutopiaproject.org/cgibin/piece-info.cgi?id=468

Credit: Typeset by Magnus Lewis-Smith for the Mutopia Project (Mutopia-2016/10/28-468) from the Peters edition of 1879, and placed in the public domain by the typesetter.

Limitations: written pedal is not played

More at this level

• La Candeur (25 Etudes faciles, Op. 100, No. 1) Johann Friedrich Franz Burgmüller
• Ballade (25 Etudes faciles, Op. 100, No. 15) Johann Friedrich Franz Burgmüller
• l'Arabesque (25 Etudes faciles, Op. 100, No. 2) Johann Friedrich Franz Burgmüller
• Prelude in C minor, Op. 28 No. 20 Frédéric Chopin
• Prelude in B minor, Op. 28 No. 6 Frédéric Chopin