Prelude in A minor, Op. 28 No. 2
A prelude that never quite finds its key - and never tries to.
Chopin composed the twenty-four Preludes of Op. 28 between 1836 and 1839, finishing the final revisions during a difficult winter on Majorca with George Sand. The second prelude, in A minor, is among the strangest in the set: the right hand holds a plain, almost expressionless melody while the left hand moves through a series of slow, chromatic chords that drift far from the home key and only return at the very last bar.
The harmonic restlessness is deliberate. Chopin described the Preludes not as preparatory pieces but as self-contained musical thoughts; No. 2 is a thought that cannot settle. Schumann, reviewing the collection in 1840, found this prelude particularly unsettling - he called it morbid. Contemporary pianists have read it as a portrait of alienation, of melody unable to recognise the world beneath it.
Let the left hand wander while the right hand stays still.
The technical challenge here is independence: the right hand keeps a steady, unhurried melody while the left navigates a chromatic harmonic sequence that pulls in unexpected directions. Practise the left hand alone first, listening for the logic of each chord change before adding the melody.
Engraving based on the Mutopia Project edition , licensed Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0.
MIDI based on the Mutopia Project edition , licensed Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0.
Before you practice.
01 Why does Chopin's Prelude Op. 28 No. 2 sound so strange?
The piece is built on persistent dissonances that refuse to resolve cleanly - Chopin delays or sidesteps the expected harmonic arrivals, which gives it an unsettled, dream-like quality unlike almost anything else in Romantic piano music.
02 Is the Prelude in A minor Op. 28 No. 2 suitable for intermediate pianists?
Yes, at 23 bars and a slow tempo it is technically manageable for intermediates, but the musical challenge - sustaining a controlled tone across ambiguous harmonies - demands real musical sensitivity beyond mere note-reading.
Keep the melody flat so the harmony can be heard.
At 60% tempo, play the left hand alone and name each chord - the strangeness becomes navigable once you hear the voice-leading. At 80%, add the right hand and use wait-for-note mode to ensure the melody never rushes to escape the dissonance beneath it. The final cadence in A minor should feel like arriving somewhere unfamiliar rather than coming home.
