Expressing emotion, longer and more developed melody lines, freedom in structure and form, chromatic/dissonant harmonies, strong dynamic contrasts (pppp-ffff) and development of the piano
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What key is this piece written in?
D flat major
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What is the time signature of this piece?
4/4 (common time)
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What is the structure of this piece?
Ternary form: A, B, A (slightly shorter), coda. B section is disproportionally longer, return of A is shorter. It is rounded binary.
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What is tempo of this piece?
Rubato: tempo can vary at the pianist's discretion
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What is the instrumentation of this piece?
Solo piano
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What is the rhythm like in the piece?
Use of septuplets and dectuplets (fitting 7 or 10 notes in 1 beat)
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What is the harmony/tonality like in the piece? (1)
A section - D flat major (tonic) with imperfect cadence. B section - C sharp minor (enharmonic minor) with imperfect cadence. A section (2nd) - D flat major with perfect cadence. Harmony is diatonic with some chromaticism. Regular cadences define key
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What is the texture like in the piece?
A - homophonic (RH melody, LH broken chords and A flat pedal). B - homophonic (RH chords and G sharp pedal doubled in octaves, LH melody). Coda - monophonic 2 bars, then homophonic. Melody in the middle of the texture, sustained chords in RH and LH
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What does the dominant pedal throughout the piece symbolise?
A raindrop (hence the nickname 'The Raindrop Prelude')
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What are the dynamics like in the piece?
Wide range (pp-ff), no sudden changes, crescendos and diminuendos, section A is quieter than section B which starts softly too but crescendos to ff, smorzando at the end to pp, expressive NOT extreme
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What is the melody like in this piece? (1)
A - RH melody, dotted rhythms, light feeling, 2 falling motifs. B - LH chorale-like melody, crotchets and minims, darker feeling, repetition, octave doubling with RH. End of B - RH melody, inner pedal, octave bass.
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What is the melody like in this piece? (2)
Cantabile melody lines, lyrical/legato, regular phrases, ornaments like turns, acciaccaturas etc in section A
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What is the tonality/harmony like in the piece?
Modulates to related/unrelated keys like A flat major, A flat minor, B flat minor, G sharp minor, repeated pedal, ambiguous chords in B section, use of 7ths and 9ths
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