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Prelude, Op. 28, No. 15 (Chopin)
The Prelude Op. 28, No. 15, by Frédéric Chopin, known as the "Raindrop" prelude, is one of the 24 Chopin preludes. It is one of Chopin's most famous works.[1] Usually lasting between five and seven minutes, this is the longest of the preludes. The prelude is noted for its repeating A♭, which appears throughout the piece and sounds like raindrops to many listeners.[1] CompositionSome of Op. 28 was written during Chopin and George Sand's stay at a monastery in Valldemossa, Mallorca in 1838.[2] In her Histoire de ma vie, or "Story of My Life", Sand related how one evening she and her son Maurice, returning from Palma in a terrible rainstorm, found a distraught Chopin who exclaimed, "Ah! I knew well that you were dead." While playing his piano he had a dream:
Sand did not say which prelude Chopin played for her on that occasion, but most music critics assume it to be no. 15, because of the repeating A♭, with its suggestion of the "gentle patter" of rain.[4] However, Peter Dayan points out that Sand accepted Chopin's protests that the prelude was not an imitation of the sound of raindrops, but a translation of nature's harmonies within Chopin's "génie".[5] Frederick Niecks says that in the middle section of the prelude there "rises before one's mind the cloistered court of the monastery of Valldemossa, and a procession of monks chanting lugubrious prayers, and carrying in the dark hours of night their departed brother to his last resting-place."[6] Description The prelude opens with a "serene" theme in D♭. It then changes to a "lugubrious interlude" in C♯ minor, "with the dominant pedal never ceasing, a basso ostinato".[7] The repeating A♭/G♯, which has been heard throughout the first section, here becomes more insistent. Following this, the prelude ends with a repetition of the original theme. Frederick Niecks says, "This C♯ minor portion... affects one like an oppressive dream; the reentrance of the opening D♭ major, which dispels the dreadful nightmare, comes upon one with the smiling freshness of dear, familiar nature – only after these horrors of the imagination can its serene beauty be fully appreciated."[6] In popular cultureIn Akira Kurosawa's Dreams (1990 film), the "Raindrop" prelude intermittently plays for about seven and a half minutes of the ten and a half minutes in the segment showing paintings of Vincent van Gogh in an art gallery, slightly more than halfway through the movie. During the marketing campaign of Halo 3 in 2007, the piece was used in the “Halo: Believe.” advertisement video as music accompanying diorama depictions of the Human-Covenant war.[8] It appears extensively throughout Ridley Scott's Prometheus in both its original form and as quotations in the score.[9] Frédéric Chopin's "Raindrop prelude" (1838) is also featured in the film.[10][11] In 2022, the video game Fall Guys revealed a trailer for Halo skins, in which developer Mediatonic used the Raindrop prelude in a parody of the Halo 3 "Believe" trailer.[12] In the 2022 video game Signalis, a snippet of Prelude, Op. 28, No. 15 plays during the opening cutscene, as well as later in the game. It is also used in the game's announcement trailer.[13] The same section of the song is covered in the track "The Promise" by 1000 Eyes and Tom Schley on the Signalis Original Soundtrack for the game.[14] References
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