Preludes (Chopin) - Quiz
Preludes Chopin
  • 1. What instrument are Chopin's preludes written for?
A) Full orchestra
B) Violin solo
C) Cello and piano
D) Piano solo
  • 2. How many preludes are included in Chopin's Op. 28 collection?
A) 48
B) 27
C) 12
D) 24
  • 3. Which musical keys are covered by Op. 28?
A) Only major keys
B) Natural keys only
C) All major and minor keys
D) Only minor keys
  • 4. How many other preludes did Chopin write outside of Op. 28?
A) Three
B) Five
C) Four
D) Two
  • 5. What is the key of Chopin's prelude designated as Op. 45?
A) C major
B) A♭ major
C) E♭ minor
D) C♯ minor
  • 6. In what year was the piece in A♭ major written?
A) 1835
B) 1839
C) 1834
D) 1838
  • 7. Which of the additional preludes is unfinished?
A) C♯ minor
B) E♭ minor
C) A♭ major
D) C major
  • 8. What number is sometimes used to refer to the prelude in C♯ minor, Op. 45?
A) No. 27
B) No. 25
C) No. 24
D) No. 26
  • 9. What number is sometimes used to refer to the unfinished E♭ minor piece?
A) No. 26
B) No. 28
C) No. 25
D) No. 27
  • 10. In what year were the 24 Preludes, Op. 28, originally published?
A) 1839
B) 1845
C) 1835
D) 1838
  • 11. During which years did Chopin write his Op. 28 preludes?
A) 1835 and 1839
B) 1840 and 1842
C) 1830 and 1832
D) 1825 and 1828
  • 12. In which city were most of the Op. 28 preludes written?
A) Warsaw
B) Vienna
C) Mallorca
D) Paris
  • 13. Where did Chopin spend the winter of 1838–39?
A) Valldemossa, Mallorca
B) Rome, Italy
C) Paris, France
D) Berlin, Germany
  • 14. Why did Chopin, George Sand, and her children go to Mallorca?
A) To attend a music festival
B) To open a piano factory
C) To meet Johann Sebastian Bach
D) To escape the damp Paris weather
  • 15. Whose work did Chopin have a copy of while in Majorca?
A) Beethoven
B) Bach
C) Mozart
D) Schumann
  • 16. What specific work by Bach did Chopin have in Majorca?
A) The Well-Tempered Clavier
B) The Art of Fugue
C) The Goldberg Variations
D) The Brandenburg Concertos
  • 17. To whom did Chopin write about finishing his préludes on a little piano?
A) Sand
B) Busoni
C) Kessler
D) Pleyel
  • 18. Who was the German pianist and composer dedicated in the manuscript prepared for publication?
A) Camille Pleyel
B) Alfred Cortot
C) Joseph Christoph Kessler
D) Ferruccio Busoni
  • 19. Who received the dedication for the French and English editions of Op. 28?
A) Joseph Christoph Kessler
B) Camille Pleyel
C) Anna Yesipova
D) George Sand
  • 20. What was the profession of Camille Pleyel?
A) Composer and violinist
B) Music critic
C) Concert promoter
D) Piano-maker and publisher
  • 21. How much was Camille Pleyel commissioned to pay for the work?
A) 5,000 francs
B) 500 francs
C) 2,000 francs
D) 1,000 francs
  • 22. Which edition of Op. 28 was dedicated to Joseph Christoph Kessler?
A) The French edition
B) The Spanish edition
C) The English edition
D) The German edition
  • 23. How many years before Chopin's German edition did Kessler dedicate his own Op. 31 preludes to Chopin?
A) Twenty years
B) Ten years
C) Fifteen years
D) Five years
  • 24. What was the opus number of Joseph Christoph Kessler's set of preludes dedicated to Chopin?
A) Op. 10
B) Op. 45
C) Op. 31
D) Op. 28
  • 25. Before Chopin, how was the term 'prelude' typically used?
A) As a vocal accompaniment
B) To describe an introductory piece
C) As a standalone symphony
D) As a grand finale
  • 26. How do Chopin's pieces stand as units?
A) As orchestral arrangements
B) As self-contained units
C) As improvisatory warm-ups
D) As unfinished sketches
  • 27. What did Chopin impart new meaning to through his preludes?
A) The traditional fugue structure
B) The standard sonata form
C) A genre title often associated with improvisatory 'preluding'
D) The rules of classical harmony
  • 28. How did Bach arrange his collection of 48 preludes and fugues?
A) According to keys separated by rising semitones
B) Using a circle of fifths
C) By major keys only
D) In random order
  • 29. What key sequence did Chopin choose for his Op. 28 collection?
A) A circle of fifths
B) Rising semitones
C) Descending chromatic scale
D) Random key ordering
  • 30. In Chopin's key sequence, what follows each major key?
A) Its relative minor
B) The dominant key
C) Its parallel major
D) The subdominant key
  • 31. What is the maximum number of preludes Chopin ever played at a single public performance?
A) Four
B) Twenty-four
C) Twelve
D) Two
  • 32. For how many years after Chopin's death was playing all the preludes in a single performance not the practice?
A) 50 years
B) 25 years
C) 10 years
D) 100 years
  • 33. Who was probably the first pianist to program the complete set of preludes in a recital?
A) Alfred Cortot
B) Ferruccio Busoni
C) Anna Yesipova
D) Joseph Christoph Kessler
  • 34. In what year did Anna Yesipova perform the complete set in a recital?
A) 1915
B) 1876
C) 1839
D) 1926
  • 35. Who was the first pianist to record the entire set of preludes?
A) Camille Pleyel
B) Ferruccio Busoni
C) Anna Yesipova
D) Alfred Cortot
  • 36. In what year did Ferruccio Busoni record the entire set of preludes?
A) 1926
B) 1876
C) 1839
D) 1915
  • 37. What format was used when Ferruccio Busoni recorded the preludes in 1915?
A) Magnetic audio tape
B) Vinyl LP records
C) Digital compact discs
D) Piano rolls for the Duo-Art label
  • 38. Which pianist recorded the complete preludes immediately after Ferruccio Busoni?
A) Joseph Christoph Kessler
B) Anna Yesipova
C) George Sand
D) Alfred Cortot
  • 39. In what year did Alfred Cortot record the complete preludes?
A) 1915
B) 1939
C) 1926
D) 1876
  • 40. Did Chopin attach names or descriptions to any of the Op. 28 preludes?
A) No
B) Only to the minor keys
C) Yes, to half of them
D) Yes, to all of them
  • 41. Which other composers frequently attached names or descriptions to their pieces in contrast to Chopin?
A) Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart and Joseph Haydn
B) Robert Schumann and Franz Liszt
C) Johann Sebastian Bach and Ludwig van Beethoven
D) Johannes Brahms and Felix Mendelssohn
  • 42. What is the maximum length in bars of any Chopin prelude?
A) 24 bars
B) 12 bars
C) 45 bars
D) 90 bars
  • 43. Which prelude is the shortest in terms of bars?
A) Number 9
B) Number 17
C) Number 7
D) Number 28
  • 44. Approximately how long does Prelude No. 7 take to play?
A) 1 minute 25 seconds
B) 90 seconds
C) 12 seconds
D) 45 seconds
  • 45. Who stated that if all piano music were destroyed except one collection, their vote would be for Chopin's Preludes?
A) Jeremy Nicholas
B) Anatole Leikin
C) Jeffrey Kresky
D) Henry Finck
  • 46. What sequence did musicologist Anatole Leikin highlight as a hidden theme in the Preludes?
A) Golden dreams
B) Dies irae
C) Eagle pinions
D) Opus 28
  • 47. What medieval mass does the dies irae sequence belong to, according to the text?
A) Requiem mass
B) Wedding mass
C) Easter mass
D) Christmas mass
  • 48. How does Anatole Leikin view the conceptual organization of the collection?
A) Conceived in pairs
B) As twenty-four completely random pieces
C) As a single uninterrupted 90-bar piece
D) As individual eagle pinions
  • 49. What overarching theme does Anatole Leikin associate with the collection?
A) Death
B) Joy
C) Romance
D) Nature
  • 50. What is notably lacking from the structural design of the Preludes?
A) Pairs of preludes
B) Hidden quotes
C) Connected motifs
D) Formal thematic structure
  • 51. How are Bach's pieces arranged in each volume of The Well-Tempered Clavier?
A) Circle of fifths
B) Ascending chromatic order
C) Descending diatonic scale
D) Random key sequence
  • 52. Who wrote a set of twenty-four preludes in 1815 starting with C major, mentioned by Harold C. Schonberg?
A) Hummel
B) Beethoven
C) Schubert
D) Mozart
  • 53. In what year was Prelude No. 25 (Op. 45) in C♯ minor composed?
A) 1841
B) 1815
C) 2002
D) 1834
  • 54. What is the title or tempo indication of Prelude No. 26?
A) Devil's Trill
B) Allegro maestoso
C) Andante spianato
D) Presto con leggierezza
  • 55. In what year was Prelude No. 26 published in Geneva?
A) 1834
B) 1918
C) 2002
D) 1841
  • 56. Who was the recipient of the gift of Prelude No. 26?
A) Alain Jacquon
B) Joseph Christoph Kessler
C) Jeffrey Kallberg
D) Pierre Wolff
  • 57. Who gave the uncompleted E♭ minor prelude the subtitle "Devil's Trill"?
A) Pierre Wolff
B) Harold C. Schonberg
C) Alain Jacquon
D) Jeffrey Kallberg
  • 58. Which violinist's sonata inspired the nickname "Devil's Trill" for Chopin's uncompleted prelude?
A) Joseph Christoph Kessler
B) Hummel
C) Giuseppe Tartini
D) Johann Sebastian Bach
  • 59. Where was Chopin staying when he worked on the uncompleted E♭ minor prelude?
A) Geneva
B) Newport
C) Majorca
D) Paris
  • 60. How is the original signature of the uncompleted E♭ minor prelude described?
A) Completely missing
B) Neat and precise
C) Written in gold ink
D) Hastily scrawled
  • 61. When did the uncompleted E♭ minor prelude have its first public performance?
A) 1834
B) 1918
C) 1841
D) July 2002
  • 62. Which pianist performed the first public performance of the uncompleted E♭ minor prelude?
A) Alain Jacquon
B) Pierre Wolff
C) Jeffrey Kallberg
D) Harold C. Schonberg
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