Prelude: Op. 28, No. 4 ('Suffocation')
Prelude · in E minor · Op. 28 No. 4
Frédéric Chopin 1810–1849
E minor
Key
Prelude
Form
Largo
Tempo
Op. 28 No. 4
Catalogue
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Difficulty
Our estimate Easy
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Themes & character
Played at his funeral·Chromatic descent·Extreme simplicity·Famous harmonic slide
At a glance
- Catalogue
- Op. 28 No. 4
- Key
- E minor
- Tempo / character
- Largo
- Form
- Prelude
About the piece
The fourth of Chopin's twenty four Preludes, in E minor, one of the most widely known pieces he wrote and among the simplest to play. A plain, sighing melody sits over a left hand that descends by tiny chromatic steps, each shift changing the harmony underneath almost imperceptibly.
It was performed on the organ at Chopin's funeral at the Madeleine in Paris in 1849, alongside another of the preludes, and its air of quiet resignation has kept it bound up with that occasion ever since.
The composer
Frédéric Chopin
1810–1849
Frédéric François Chopin was a Polish composer and virtuoso pianist of the early Romantic period who wrote primarily for solo piano. He has maintained worldwide renown as a leading composer of his era whose "poetic genius was based on a professional technique that was without equal in his generation".
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