31. Prelude in C Minor

The difficulty of this song hit me when I tried to hold the first two chords. Never had my fingers stretched so much, especially in the right hand. The stretching of the notes across the staves is symbolic of the effect of the music on your hands: extended lines translate directly to stressed ligaments. The first bar was indeed difficult, though after having played through the whole song and been through its rigours, its difficult for me to recall what was so bad about it. However, I do remember having to step away from the song for a day or so just to let my hands recuperate. And this was while I was on only the third beat of the bar! Okay... to be precise, I had been previewing the song ahead of time, so "stepping away" might just really have meant I was happy to revert to my real piece and leave this song for another day.

I had no such excuse when it came time to really work on this piece. I averaged a bar a day, not just because of the difficulties holding the chords (though, as we will see, these were considerable), but also because each chord was in itself kind of a full bar's worth of work. It took so much of my cognition to memorize the placements of the fingers that I could only handle memorizing one bar at a time. 

Take a look at the third beat of the second bar (right). Unbelievable! Chopin wants us to hold both D-flat and E-flat with the thumb, jam the second finger between two black keys to hit G and then stretch over the rest of that group of blacks and into a nook to hit C, and finally cotch up the little finger (pinky) on E-flat. This is truly the most contorted my hands have ever been—and this is just Grade 3! My hand looks and feels like a crab whenever it reorganises itself to fit that very specific and unorthodox chord-shape (pictured below). The good news is, after holding that impossible chord, everything else becomes easy. I remember working on the third bar (above left) and thinking, wow this one's a lot easier. I christened it the "bar of reprieve." I honestly think Chopin front-loaded this song with difficult chords, because after bar two, everything's pretty sedate. This isn't to say your fingers don't get a good stretching, but never as in bar two, and once or twice, you even get to hold three-note chords in the right hand! Very nice. So much so, that while it took me four days to learn the first four bars, I learned the other four in just one sitting. And I really learned nine bars in that time because bars 5 to 8 repeat as bars 9 to 12. Bar 13 is unique, but contains only one chord that's held for 4 beats (see last pic below). Plus, since it's the eponymous C-Minor chord—and in root position, no less!—that made it even easier to remember.

Crab Hand!

End

Once I got to the second half of the song, I noticed something else, too. My reading had improved. I know this has been the case regarding other songs in the past. I mentioned experiencing better reading results as early as Berceuse, and especially in that stretch from Watchman's Song through Pathétique. But this most certainly didn't apply to the dense chords that comprise this piece. I was very surprised to catch myself reading through those measures with an unprecedented level of ease. Not complete ease by any means, but of the kind I certainly hadn't even experienced in the first three measures. So I think the work I did on those earlier bars actually propelled me into an even better reading position. It's always good to experience measurable progress (get it?).

So for many reasons, I'm happy to have played my first official Chopin piece! (Prelude in E Minor was unofficial.) I wonder how long until I can legitimately play my first Rachmaninoff...

Crab Hand Update April 29, 2016 (Over a year later)

Can't really see much of a difference, but my hand felt way more relaxed in that position this time.

Alan Chan's rendition