Nor was this the practice for the 25 years after his death. This prelude, modified slightly, was used as the theme for variations in both Sergei Rachmaninoff's Variations on a Theme of Chopin and in Ferruccio Busoni's Variations on a Theme of Chopin.Ĭhopin himself never played more than four of the preludes at any single public performance. An opposing view is that the set was never intended for continuous performance, and that the individual preludes were indeed conceived as possible introductions for other works. Since this sequence of related keys is much closer to common harmonic practice, it is thought that Chopin might have conceived the cycle as a single performance entity for continuous recital. C major, A minor, G major, E minor, etc.). Whereas Bach had arranged his collection of 48 preludes and fugues according to keys separated by rising semitones, Chopin's chosen key sequence is a circle of fifths, with each major key being followed by its relative minor, and so on (i.e. In publishing the 24 preludes together as a single opus, comprising miniatures that could either be used to introduce other music or as self-standing works, Chopin challenged contemporary attitudes regarding the worth of small musical forms. He thus imparted new meaning to a genre title that at the time was often associated with improvisatory "preluding". Whereas the term "prelude" had hitherto been used to describe an introductory piece, Chopin's pieces stand as self-contained units, each conveying a specific idea or emotion. The German edition ( Breitkopf & Härtel) was dedicated to Kessler, who ten years earlier had dedicated his own set of 24 Preludes, Op. 31, to Chopin. The French and English editions (Catelin, Wessel) were dedicated to the piano-maker and publisher Camille Pleyel, who had commissioned the work for 2,000 francs (equivalent to nearly $30,000 in present day). The manuscript, which Chopin carefully prepared for publication, carries a dedication to the German pianist and composer Joseph Christoph Kessler. 28 set comprises a complete cycle of the major and minor keys, albeit with a different ordering. In Majorca, Chopin had a copy of Bach's The Well-Tempered Clavier, and as in each of Bach's two sets of preludes and fugues, his Op. 28, are a set of short pieces for the piano, one in each of the twenty-four keys, originally published in 1839.Ĭhopin wrote them between 18, partly at Valldemossa, Mallorca, where he spent the winter of 1838–39 and where he had fled with George Sand and her children to escape the damp Paris weather. The varied images, narratives, and techniques in these poems attest to the very personal nature of the listening experience, and a careful reading of this poetry offers fresh perspectives on the "Raindrop" Prelude's genesis, meanings, and reception history.Problems playing these files? See media help.Ĭhopin's 24 Preludes, Op. In addition, the poems prove the fascination of the music's biographical context: the Prelude may have been composed during Chopin's stay on the Spanish island of Majorca with novelist Aurore Dudevant, better known as George Sand. The prominence of the "Raindrop" Prelude in poetry can be attributed in part to its popularity in the concert hall and on recordings, but it is clear that poets have also been attracted by the pictorial element suggested by the Prelude's nickname.
#Chopin raindrop music free#
Drawn by both the evocative music and the composer's compelling biography, well over one hundred poets writing in English have responded with an abundance of sonnets, quatrains, blank verse, and free verse, and at least a dozen of these poems focus on Prelude in D-flat major, Op. Music by the so-called "poet of the piano," Frédéric Chopin, has provided irresistible raw material for many poets of the literary kind.
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