The first measures

Frederic Chopin's (1810-1849) Prelude #4 for the piano is a highly chromatic piece. Yet it is based on a very simple harmonic progression as we will try to demonstrate in this article.

The basic chords are no other than the tonic, subdominant and dominant chords (i - V - i - iv - V - i - iv - V).

In the following animation we start with the basic chords on which the 12 first measures are based and transform them step by step into the chords we find in the prelude.

These are the chords in the first 12 measures. Use the arrow button to see how they are transformed step by step...

© 2001 José Rodríguez Alvira. Published by teoria.com


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