Chapter 26

PRELUDE IN C

MAJOR, OP. 28, NO.

1.

This Prelude, the first of the set of 24, is an excellent example of
the sonority Chopin gained from widely extended chords in the
bass; by the use—characteristically bold—of dissonances (mea-
sures 13-20), and by the sensuous richness of the closing mea-
sures, in which a wonderful wave of sound is produced through
the damper pedal, in connection with the blending of the tonic,
dominant and subdominant chords. The prelude is a kind of
intensified Bach and may well be compared with that prelude
in the same key which begins the immortal well-tempered Clavi-
chord. All the Preludes, for their poetic import, finished style
and pianistic effect, are masterpieces of the first rank. Schu-
mann well says of them: “They are sketches, eagle’s feathers,
all strangely intermingled. But in every piece we recognize the
hand of Frédéric Chopin; he is the boldest, the proudest poet-
soul of his time.”