HARMONY ANALYSIS

Chopin’s Prelude No. 7 in A major

As an example, we shall annotate the harmony in Chopin’s Prelude No. 7 in A major. Since it is completely written in the A major key, this is the single key that we shall use.

In Chopin’s Prelude No. 20 in C minor, as we have already seen, the notes from each chord appear simultaneously (at the same moment). However, in this prelude we see that the notes from a single chord appear both simultaneously and as well as in a sequence. We can find chords that last for a few measures.

The next figure annotates chords (above the staff) and harmony (below the staff). Nonchord tones are marked with red circles.

Figure: Harmony analysis of Chopin's Prelude No. 7

Explanations are given in the next table. The positions (the root position and inversions) of the chords are annotated according to the single lowest note that occurs during the chord. That is, we are reducing the bass line to the simplest possible. When examining the bass line, nonchord tones should be excluded. However, they do not appear in the bass line here. The bass notes of the chords are marked in blue color in the table. By examining the bass notes, we see that all the chords are in the root position, except for one seventh chord which is in the second inversion.

The chord in measure 13 (the F# dominant seventh chord) is a secondary chord. Secondary chords will be explained in detail in chapter Secondary chords, while measure 13 of this prelude will be explained in chapter Secondary chords usage.