Interpreting — Exercise Nº 2b

Interpreting

Exercise nº 2b

On the Prelude in E minor, Op. 28 no. 4, by Frédéric Chopin (1839) — public domain.
Exercise material © 2026 Mario Maurano. All rights reserved.

What you will do: in Exercise nº 2 you converted the Prelude from MIDI into the Score. The notes are right and each one falls exactly in its place — which is exactly why it sounds like a machine: no pedal, the left-hand chords all alike, a metronome's tempo. Here you give it an interpretation: the tempo, the pedal, the breathing of the left hand, the inner voice of the chords and the turn in bar 16. At the end you put your ear to the test.

How long: about forty minutes. What you need: the exercise zip (it contains CHOPIN_Prelude-Nº-4-Op28-E el segundo-2CH sin editar.mmf, the escucha folder and the finished version), the COSMIC KEYBOARD open for the sound, and Exercise nº 2 done.

If something goes wrong: the UNDO button in the top bar undoes the last step, and you can press it several times in a row. Try things without fear.

Five words you will meet

Simile
«the same». You write the pedal for one bar and the Score repeats it in the following ones, without filling the score with marks. The SEQUENCES window sets it.
Intelligent Beams
the Score reads how the notes are grouped under one beam and plays them as a group, with strong and weak notes. The Level says how much you hear it.
ASYM AGOG region
a golden band over a stretch of one channel. It has two axes: TEMPO (the notes come earlier or later along a curve) and PRES (presence: the weight of each note follows another curve). One band can carry both.
Inner voice
the middle note of a chord that moves while the others stay. In this Prelude it is what drives the harmony: it goes down a semitone at a time, bar after bar.
Turn
an ornament of four notes around a main one: the note above, the main note, the note below and the main note again. Delayed means the note sounds first and the ornament comes after.

PART ONE — THE FRAME

IN THE PICTURES: the orange circles show where to look or click.

1 · Open the file and listen to it as it is

Open the SCORE (from the COSMIC KEYBOARD) and in MENU FILES → IMPORT MMF load CHOPIN_Prelude-Nº-4-Op28-E el segundo-2CH sin editar.mmf. It has two channels: CH1 the right hand, CH2 the left hand.

Listen to the first bars. Everything is in its place, but nothing breathes: the melody doesn't sing, the chords go by even and dry, and the tempo is the MIDI's (♩ = 96), far too fast for a Largo.

2 · The tempo: Largo, ♩ = 64

  1. Click the first left-hand chord (bar 1): the cursor lands in bar 1.
  2. Press TEMPO in the top bar.
  3. In BPM type 64. Then, in TERM, type Largo — in that order: typing the BPM makes the Score suggest its own term, and it would replace yours.
  4. In SCOPE: This bar.
  5. Press TOGGLE / UPDATE MARKING (bar 1 already had a marking, and this changes it).
Check: above bar 1 it reads Largo ♩ = 64.
The tempo marking — the bar-1 chord and the TEMPO window: Largo, 64, This bar

3 · The pedal in bar 1

Chopin changes harmony twice per bar: the pedal goes down with each new harmony and comes up just before the next one. You write it in bar 1, and in step 4 you carry it to the rest.

  1. First the left hand has to be the active channel: click its staff where there are no notes (for instance low down, between the stems of the first beat). At the foot of the window it reads CURSOR: CH2.
  2. Press ART (top right). PEDAL is at the bottom of the window.
  3. Click the first chord of bar 1 → Ped.
  4. Click the fourth chord (the second half of beat 2) → ✻ ped up.

For the second half of the bar there is a quicker gesture: with a selection, Ped. puts the pedal down at the start and lifts it at the end.

  1. Press ◻ SELECT (it turns into ◼).
  2. In the left hand, drag from beat 3 to the end of the bar along the lower part of the staff, where there are only stems: the chord heads are at the top.
  3. In the ART window, Ped.
  4. Press Esc and press ◼ SELECT again to leave.
Check: under the left hand you read Ped. ✻ Ped. ✻: the first ✻ on the second half of beat 2 and the last one at the end of the bar. Listen to bar 1: the chords no longer cut off, they melt into each other.
If you drag from a note, you move it. In SELECT, starting the drag on a note head shifts it instead of selecting. If that happens, UNDO and start again lower down.
The pedal — top, the first Ped. on the beat-1 chord; bottom, the selection of beats 3–4 with the four marks

4 · SEQUENCES: the same pedal up to bar 25

  1. Right-click SELECT: the SELECT · ACTIONS panel opens.
  2. Open sequence… opens the SEQUENCES window.
  3. In REPEAT A BAR, HOW IT REPEATS: simile.
  4. PATTERN: 1 (the bar you just pedalled). THROUGH: 25.
  5. SET THE RULE.
Check: at the foot it reads «rule set on M1 through M25 — no marks were written», and the rule M1 → M25 · 25 bars appears at the top. The score doesn't fill up with marks: the pedal is stamped as it plays. Listen to bars 2 and 3: they pedal like bar 1.
SEQUENCES — the SELECT panel with Open sequence…, and the window with simile, 1 → 25 and the rule set
A bar where you write your own pedal is skipped: what is written rules, and the rule carries on in the next bar. That way you can change one bar without losing the rest. Close the window with its ⊗.

PART TWO — THE LEFT HAND BREATHES

5 · Intelligent Beams in the left hand

  1. Right-click the 3·2 button in the top bar (next to R·K): INTELLIGENT BEAMS opens.
  2. In RANGE: M 1 → M 25.
  3. In CH: leave only 2 on.
  4. In LEVEL: 2.
Check: at the foot of the window: «✓ Level 2 · M1–M25 · CH 2 · 498 notes». The chords group in twos under each beam: the first leans, the second follows.
INTELLIGENT BEAMS — right-click 3·2 — Range 1 → 25, CH 2 only, Level 2

6 · An ASYM AGOG region with two axes

Now bar 1 of the left hand: let it push a little towards the middle and settle at the end (TEMPO), and let the weight of the chords change across the bar (PRES).

  1. ◻ SELECT and drag over the left hand across the whole of bar 1, again along the lower part of the staff.
  2. Right-click inside the selection, also low down, between the stems: the SELECTION menu opens.
  3. At the bottom of the menu, ⌘ ASYM AGOG.
The selection and the SELECTION menu — bar 1 of CH2 selected and ⌘ ASYM AGOG at the bottom of the menu

The ASYMETRIC AGOG editor opens. First the time axis:

  1. Check that it reads AXIS: TEMPO. PHASE: Move. INT: Expressive.
  2. Press AXIS: TEMPO: it changes to AXIS: PRES. Same band, now seen from the presence side.
  3. PHASE: Arrive. INT: Extreme.
  4. Close the editor with its ⊗, press Esc and leave SELECT.
Check: on the TEMPO axis the curve rises towards the middle (earlier) and comes back; on PRES it rises first (more bite) and sinks towards the end (more air) before coming back. Listen to bar 1 several times.
The two axes — AXIS: TEMPO with Move · Expressive, and AXIS: PRES with Arrive · Extreme
What about the other bars?Give the band a name (right-click its edge → Name) and carry it to other bars with Take, as in Exercise nº 5. The finished version has it only in bar 1: try it and decide for yourself.

7 · The inner voice

Look at the left-hand chords: the top and bottom notes stay put for a long time; the middle one is the one that moves, a semitone at a time. That line carries the harmony. You will give a little more volume (VEL) and presence (PRES) to its first two notes: the B of the last chord of bar 1 and the A of the first chord of bar 2.

  1. Right-click the head of the B (the middle note of the last chord in bar 1): the NOTE EDITOR opens. At the top it says which note it is: BN3 · M1 B4.
  2. In VEL, press +5 three times: the velocity goes up 15 (from 33 to 48).
  3. In PRES, +1.
  4. Close with its ⊗ and do the same with the middle A of the first chord in bar 2 (AN3 · M2 B1).
Check: the editor header reads vel 48 FIJADA (la banda daba 33 ← pp M1) — «fixed; the band gave 33»: the note has its own velocity and no longer follows the dynamic. PRES +1 is lit.
The Note editor on the B — VEL +5 (three times) → 48, PRES +1, and the middle note of the chord
The right-click has to land on the head of the middle note: the top line says which one you opened. If it names another, close it and aim again.

Carry on for a few more bars yourself: the inner voice continues E · E♭ in bar 2, E♭ · D · A · G♯ in bar 3… If you get lost, open the finished version: all 59 notes of the voice are marked.

Why +1 and not +2? PRES +1 gives a weighted entry without hardening the sound; +2 is for now and then, for a note that has to stand out. In between, the ◂ ▸ arrows of the PRES row adjust in steps of 0.25.

PART THREE — THE TURN IN BAR 16

8 · B♭ or A♯: spelling the note as it is

In bar 16 the melody rises B · A♯ · A♯ towards the B. MIDI knows nothing about spelling — it only keeps the key — and the conversion wrote B♭. It sounds almost the same, but it is not the same note: A♯ is the leading note that rises to B, and the turn you are about to add circles around it (with a G𝄪 below). First you fix it.

  1. Go to bar 16 (mouse wheel or the bar at the bottom).
  2. Click the right-hand sixteenth B♭ and press the ↓ arrow: it goes down one step, to A.
  3. Right-click it → in the Note editor, ACC: ♯. It becomes A♯.
  4. The same with the quarter note that follows.
Check: the editor header reads AS4 · M16 B2, and in the score both notes carry a ♯. The A♯ sounds a tiny bit higher than the B♭ that was there: the difference between the two is a comma, and the Score tunes it.
A♯ in bar 16 — the Note editor with ACC ♯ and the two corrected notes

9 · The delayed turn

  1. Click the quarter note A♯ in bar 16: it gets highlighted.
  2. In ART, the turn: turn.
  3. Right-click the turn that appeared above the note → ✎ TURN EDITOR.
  4. PLACE (when it falls): delayed.
  5. LOWER NEIGHBOUR: 𝄪. Close with Close.
Check: listen to bar 16: first the A♯, then the turn B · A♯ · G𝄪 · A♯. Without the double sharp the lower neighbour would be G♯, a whole tone lower: the turn sounds slack, out of the key.
TURN EDITOR — delayed and the lower neighbour 𝄪

Save it: MENU FILES → EXPORT MMF.

PART FOUR — TEST YOUR EAR

10 · How much does a voice need to stand out to be heard?

In the zip's escucha («listening») folder there are four versions of the finished Prelude. They are the same in everything — tempo, pedal, Intelligent Beams, the ASYM region, the turn — except the inner voice:

FileThe inner voice
1 · sin nadalike the rest of the chord: no velocity of its own, no presence
2 · +1010 more velocity than the dynamic, and PRES +1
3 · +2020 more, and PRES +1
4 · +3030 more, and PRES +1
  1. Open 1 and listen to bars 1 to 4. Can you hear the middle voice going down?
  2. Open 2, 3 and 4, and listen to the same bars.
  3. Write down in which one you start to follow the voice without looking for it, and in which one it already covers the melody.
Harder, blind: ask someone to open them for you in another order without telling you which is which, and put them in order yourself, from least to most.
And the finished version?CHOPIN_Preludio Nº-4-Op28-E-min (voz interior ).mmf is at +15 with PRES +1: between 2 and 3. It is a starting point, not an answer — on your piano, with your speakers, you may prefer another.

Congratulations: the Prelude is no longer a MIDI, it is an interpretation

Try another shape for the left hand — Inhale, Exhale, another intensity — and hear how the character changes. With UNDO you can always go back to what you had.