Prelude in D-flat major (Op. 28 No. 15, "Raindrop")

Background

This is No. 15 of Chopin's 24 Preludes, Op. 28, and at around five minutes it is the longest of the set. Like most of the preludes, it was finished during the winter of 1838–39 that Chopin spent on Majorca with George Sand and her children, much of it in a former monastery at Valldemossa, where he was often ill.

The nickname "Raindrop" is not Chopin's, and he disliked descriptive titles for his music. It comes from Sand's memoir, Histoire de ma vie, in which she describes coming home through a storm to find Chopin at the piano, having composed a prelude that seemed full of falling raindrops. She did not say which prelude she meant. Because this one has a single note repeating throughout, the story attached itself to it, though other preludes have been suggested too.

How to practise it

The piece is in three parts. A calm opening in D flat major has a gentle melody over the repeated note. A long middle section turns to the minor and gradually builds to a powerful climax, with the repeated note still sounding through it. Then the opening melody returns briefly, and a short coda closes the piece.

The repeated note is A flat (written as G sharp in the middle section). In the opening it is in the left hand, in steady eighth notes under the tune.

Practise that left hand alone first. The A flat should be soft and perfectly even, like rain you notice only when you listen for it. Rest the finger on the key and let it rise only partway between notes. In several bars the left hand also holds a chord while the A flat keeps repeating, so check in each bar which notes are held and which repeat.

The melody of the opening is shown here without its five-flat key signature, so every flat is written in:

Sing it and shape it like a song, with the dotted rhythm relaxed rather than snappy.

In the middle section, the repeated G sharp moves into the right hand, and the left hand plays a slow, solemn melody in low chords. The music has to grow from very soft to very loud over many bars without the repeated note turning into hammering. Practise it in four-bar sections, decide in advance how loud each should be, and save your loudest sound for the climax.

A plan:

1. Opening: left hand alone, then right hand, then together at 48 beats a minute.
2. Middle section: each hand alone, then together, in short sections.
3. Join everything, then move up through 60 to the full 72.

Use the sustaining pedal carefully, changing it with each harmony, so the repeated note never becomes a blur. The marking is Sostenuto: sustained, unhurried and singing throughout.

Building a long crescendo is one of the ideas in the F major and changing dynamics unit.