Raindrop prelude in Db major by Chopin

Background

• The Romantic era was from 1825 to 1900
• Romantic music is often expressive and emotional
• Composers included Chopin, Mendelssohn and Schumann

Structure

• The overall stucture is unbalanced ternary (or rounded binary), A - B - A1
• Section A uses a lyrical melody and also has an ABA structure within it
• Section B contrasts section A due to its minor key, left-hand melody and ff climaxes
• Section A1 is shorter than A, and ends with a short coda

Rhythm, metre and tempo

• The metre is 4/4
• There are unusual rhythmic features, such as a septuplet in bar 4 and a dectuplet in bar 79
• The piece is 'sostenuto' - sustained, legato, unhurried
• There is use of rubato to add expression
• A unifying rhythmic feature throughout are the repeated quavers
• Section A has a lighter feel than section be due to the use of dotted rhythms repeated throughout in the main motif

Melody

• The falling motif introduced in section A is a tonic Db triad…