Tomoko appreciates nature, and can hear its music in the
wind and rain. Many composers whom Tomoko enjoys have also been inspired by the
rain, as the following classical works demonstrate.
Chopin was supposedly moved by a dream in which he was drowning
– or by rain falling on his roof – to write his Prelude Opus 20 No. 15: “Raindrop
Prelude.”
Debussy leveraged new advances in the piano in his work Estampes:
“Gardens in the Rain” as he employed new types of finger to capture the
rapidity and frenetic sound of spring showers.
Schubert’s Winterreise: “Flood” is based on Wilhelm
Muller’s poems of loneliness journeying across a stormy landscape. The piece
combines piano and voice to set the desolate tone.
Also employing piano and voice, Grieg’s Six Songs: “Spring
Rain” shows how falling chords can imitate cascading raindrops.
Britten’s Canticle III: “Still Falls the Rain” uses piano,
horn and tenor to express the stormy horrors of London’s Blitz war. More well
known is Britten’s opera for children Noye’s Fludde, which includes
sound effects for rain.
We all need a little rain to appreciate the sunshine. And we
can enjoy the rain more with these piano pieces.
