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I have read in a couple of places that Chopin himself requested for his Prelude Op. 28 No. 4 to be played at his own funeral, but no citation was given. Now I know that the preludes No. 4 and No. 6 were played at Chopin's funeral; but did he actually request the Prelude No. 4 for his funeral?

Maurycy Karasowski says (bottom of p320, top of p321) that Chopin requested that the only music to be played at his funeral be the Mozart Requiem.

Dom
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Julian Newman
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    Can I ask: do you have a reputable source saying that Chopin requested the E minor prelude? I ask because it is often difficult to disprove a negative -- it's doubtful that a reliable source is going to go out of its way to say, "By the way, here's a list of all the thousands of pieces Chopin didn't request for his funeral." My initial cursory search concurs with you: it seems the Mozart Requiem was the main (perhaps only) item in Chopin's own plans. –  Dec 26 '19 at 00:05
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    @Athanasius No. I was hoping that if the claim is true, someone could give a source for it (and perhaps, if false, someone might know the origin of this "Chinese whisper"). Webages with the claim include: (1) Wikipedia [with no citation] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prelude,Op._28,_No._4(Chopin); (2) https://www.pianostreet.com/chopin-sheet-music/preludes/prelude-op-28-4-e-minor.htm or https://www.lisamandel.net/2018/08/13/chopins-best-piano-pieces/; (3) https://www.mfiles.co.uk/scores/prelude04.htm; (4) https://www.onlinepianist.com/piano-songs/frederic-chopin/prelude-in-e-minor – Julian Newman Dec 27 '19 at 01:20

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The original source for the Wikipedia entry is a New York Times article from 2003:

https://www.nytimes.com/2003/04/20/books/chapters/chopins-funeral.html

"Chopin had planned the musical program whose principal offering was to be a performance of Mozart's Requiem. [...] Shouldering the massive coffin, the six men moved up the nave to the sounds of the organ playing Chopin's Preludes in E Minor and B Minor."

Though https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prelude,_Op._28,_No.4(Chopin) doesn't cite this explicitly, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Preludes_(Chopin) provides the link.

Roger McCoy
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