Chopin’s 24 Preludes (1838) represent the Rosetta Stone of Romantic keyboard rhetoric. Arranged according to the circle of fifths, they engage all the major and minor keys, as did Bach, but in a concise, poetic form. They have no “fixed shape”: some are virtuoso etudes, some mazurkas or haunting nocturnes. Many embrace Chopin’s belief that the piano should be a singing instrument, not merely percussive. While the C Major (No. 1) provides symmetry, the succeeding A Minor is asymmetrical, seeming 20th Century. The moody E Minor (No. 4) appeared in the Jack Nickolson movie Five Easy Pieces. The cycle’s 15th prelude - in D-flat Major “Raindrop” - has a morbid chant in its middle. The little A Major (No. 7) has been used in ballet. The B-flat Minor (No. 16) explodes with huge octave chords and runs, ascending and descending. The lovely No. 17 in A-flat has an obsessive beauty. No. 20 in C Minor is a funeral march, while the final pair, in F Major (No. 23) and D Minor (No. 24), complement each other in their emotional extremes.

Schumann conceived his 1836-39 Fantasie as part of fund-raising tribute to Beethoven. He called the first mvmt of this 3-mvmt suite, “the most passionate thing I have ever written.” The music alludes to several pieces by Beethoven, especially in its last mvmt, with echoes of the “Moonlight” Sonata. The Fantasie’s 1st mvmt takes its motto from Beethoven’s song, “Take them, then beloved, these songs I sang to you.” The mvmt breaks into a ballad form, quite dramatic. The second mvmt is a march that echoes the syncopations from Beethoven’s Sonata in A, Op. 101. The last mvmt is a nocturne that refers to a poetic sentiment from Schlegel: “one gentle note sounds for the secret listener.”