Raindrop Prelude

Chopin's Raindrop Prelude is a class favorite and one of the first pieces we studied in preparation for the music listening contest. I first played the piece without giving the title and asked them...

• What did the music sound like to you? 
• After a few suggestions and answers we moved on to a power point about Chopin.
• HERE IS A GOOD LINK: There is a good radio show and a handout.
• I then played the song again, this time I drew four pictures on the board while the music played. The music can be broken into four segments, and if you draw these pictures it helps the students to see and feel  the change in the music. Very fun.
• If you are a techie... I use a Inexpensive but LOUD Bluetooth Speaker and my favorite ipad app Musical Masterpieces. I use it religiously because it has ALL my Listening exam music on it, and they are good- clear- quality.
• Toward the end of class we read this book Come on Rain- Karen Hesse. I stopped halfway through and had the students write a one paragraph continuation of the story, (what they thought would happen.) They were cute stories, they wrote about what they would have done in a rainstorm after a long drought. Fun LITERACY exercise. 

Composer Summary-

Frédéric Chopin (1810–1849)

• HOW TO SAY THE NAME:

  ‘Chopin’ is said like Show-pan. ‘Frédéric is said like ‘Fre-der-ric’.

  BORN:

  22nd February 1810 in Żelazowa Wola (near Warsaw), Poland.

  
  

  Chopin’s grave in Paris

  DIED:

  17th October 1849 in Paris, France.

  BURIED:

  Père Lachaise Cemetery in Paris (although his heart is buried in Holy Cross Church, Warsaw).

  TYPE OF MUSIC:

  Classical music from the romantic period.

  SOME FAMOUS PIECES:

  • ‘Minute Waltz’ (Waltz in D flat major, Op. 64, No. 1)
  • Funeral March (third movement from the Piano Sonata No. 2 in B-flat minor, Op. 35)

  SOME GREAT PIECES:

  • Piano Concertos Nos. 1 and 2.
  • Études Op.10 and Op. 25. (See below for a video.)
  • Berceuse.
  • Plus many waltzes, mazurkas, polonaises and nocturnes. (See below for a video of one well-known nocturne.)

  SOME INTERESTING FACTS:

  • He started composing when he was only 7 years old!
  • He played the piano for the Tzar (like a king) of Russia when he was 15. The Tzar liked it so much that he gave Chopin a diamond ring.
  • Most of his music is written for the piano.
  • His piano music was so new that he needed to write his own piano exercises to help him learn how to play it! These exercise are his Études.
  • Much of Chopin’s music is very beautiful . However it can also be very angry as well.