[2] Preludes for piano (1928)

Chamber works

dedication: to Edward Słoński

duration: ca 3’

manuscript: Zygmunt Mycielski Archive, Manuscript Department, National Library, no. IV 14313, akc. 020704

premiere: ?

The two Preludes or piano, dedicated to Edward Słoński (a poet and community activist who died in 1926), were written in the summer of 1928.

[2] Preludes for piano, no. 1, manuscript. Zygmunt Mycielski Archive, National Library

Prelude no. 1 is a kind of contrapuntal study. The initial theme, presented by a single voice, gradually acquires a richer texture. It is shown in a variety of textural configurations, including a canon. Although the signatures and the last chord suggest the key of B minor, the harmonic fabric of the theme, its “illumination” in various tonal centres (quasi B major, E major, E minor) as well as the frequent use of modulating progressions testify to rather loose links to the minor-major system.

[2] Preludes for piano, no. 2, manuscript. Zygmunt Mycielski Archive, National Library

Prelude no. 2, on the other hand, is a study of dyads and chords displayed in a semiquaver rhythmic continuum. The fourteen-bar Vivo, complemented by a broad coda, the Lento, is an example of Mycielski’s experiments with the organisation of notes over time (successive polymetry).

Although from the textural and tonal-harmonic perspective Mycielski is close in the Preludes to the exuberance of his youthful sketches, especially the piano Allegro, what is evident already in these miniatures is the control of the musical form – the budding composer made sure that the cycle would be coherent in terms of its material (the preludes begin with a similar leading motif).