OURCHOPIN FORUM

[Manolito Mystiq]

The intro is bugging me. I see a Db (only root), E (only root), C#5, F7sus-F7, right?

Why is there first a Db and then a C#? Has this to do with triad relationships (E with C#)?

I lend a book, which was recommended at wikipedia. Although it is for sure an informative book, it only says about this part, that: 1"The opening is a shock, beginning with a suggestion of the wrong key, D flat, which turns quickly to B flat minor."

It says nothing about the E, C# thing. It does say something very interesting, that the four bars are an integral part of the exposition and should be repeated as well, instead of repeating from bar 5, which should've been a double bar, not a start repeat bar. The German edition is fault, the French and London ones aren't.



I just analysed both the first Prelude and Fugue in C major by Bach. This seems like a totally different league.

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1 Charles Rosen - The Romantic Generation

[chopin]

There are different versions for this opening. They use different notations but basically the same notes. Should the chord analysis be different?

Version 1: C sharp



Version 2: D flat

[Pianoman1992]

Anyone have a clue as to what the original manuscript showed? That would definitely allow us to see what Chopin was thinking a little better.

[chopin]

Below is extract from the article by Charles Rosen. Read the full analysis in the attached pdf.
http://www.ourchopin.com/others/RosenChopinSonata.pdf

It is interesting that I heard the version played correctly by Angela Lear and I found it strange


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There is a serious error on the first page that makes awkward nonsense of an important moment in the opening movement. The repeat of the exposition begins in the wrong place.

The opening is a shock, beginning with a suggestion of the wrong key of Db which turns quickly to Bb . When it comes back, it is now the right key, as the exposition has closed in Db. The opening four bars have a double function: a dramatic beginning, and a transition from the end of the exposition back to the tonic. The left hand, unharmonized, resolves the
cadence a measure before the right. This is a device used with equally astonishing effect by Chopin a few years before the sonata, in the Scherzo in B minor, op. 20, written in 1832. It occurs in measure 569 at the beginning of the coda. The effect here is perhaps even more startling because it is not prepared rhythmically as in the sonata.

The opening of the sonata is exactly twice as slow as the rest of the exposition. (Chopin's direction for the new tempo is Doppio movimento, and the usual concert performance of the first four bars as three or four times as slow is absurd, a thoughtless attempt to make the beginning more pretentious.) Two bars of the quick tempo equal one of the slow (marked Grave), and at the end of the exposition Chopin returns to the original slow tempo with long notes two bars in length so that the transition is wonderfully smooth.

A phrase that is both an initial dramatic motto and a modulation from the secondary tonality of the exposition back to the tonic is a remarkable conception: even more significant is the carefully worked-out realization in terms of the rhythm, harmony, and texture. When we reflect that the misprint in almost all editions has gone not only uncorrected but seemingly
unnoticed for more than a century, I think we may reasonably decide to give very little weight to the standard critical opinion that Chopin's treatment of the sonata form is uninteresting.

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[Manolito Mystiq]

Yes, I got that book. But as I said, it didn't said anything about the C# notation.

[wanderer]

That E note in the bass is really weird. It has no relationship with other chords. Everything is in Bbm or Db major.