Where Prelude Op. 2, No. 3 offers possibilities of happiness, this prelude has no such delusion: there is only loss and desolation to be found from beginning to end. The lonely toll of a church bell echoing across a barren landscape. The forlorn cry of a bird in a tree that is dead, or dying. The use of tritones imposing an air of unease upon the music that has no resolution. It depicts a world that is devoid of color…of joy…of hope.