You don't need me to tell you it's raining – and being from Seattle, I don't feel rain the same as normal humans – but rain always makes me think of Chopin, especially his "Raindrop" Prelude.''
Frédéric Chopin, seen above opposite lover George Sand in an unfinished portrait by Delacroix that was later cut in two and sold separately... that's a story for another time. Anyway, suffice it to say that Fred and George's relationship was passionate and turbulent.
The Preludes, Opus 28, were composed at a monastery in the island of Majorca, Spain, on an out-of-tune upright with missing keys and broken strings. Chopin was broken himself, and near death, but his spirit soared above his state, propped up by a secret poésie.
In this beguiling Prelude, the raindrops come slow and steady, with a single repeated A-flat (later G-sharp) for nearly seven minutes! It's absolutely mesmerizing. The beginning is full of innocence and naiveté, then out of nowhere comes a solemn funeral procession (perhaps his own?), and then out of nowhere the original melody returns, this time looking backwards nostalgically, no longer innocent, bittersweet and mournful.
And life-affirming.
Here's a go at it, on another out-of-tune piano with a broken key or two... but on the other side of the Atlantic, on a rainy day in Pinehurst, NC.
If you like broadway as much as Chopin, or vice versa, there are still tickets available for the 3pm Matinee of This Saturday's "A Night on Broadway"
Click Here for Tickets
(there are no online fees, and tax is included.)
You may also get tickets at our Box Office (5 Market Square, Pinehurst, open weekdays 10am-4pm), by calling the ever-friendly Sherry at 910-687-0287.
General admission tickets (seats pre-assigned) – cash or check only – are available by visiting any of our outside vendors around our local communities:
Heavenly Pines Fine Jewelry, 5 Dowd Circle, Pinehurst
Artist League of the Sandhills, 129 Exchange St, Aberdeen
Arts Council of Moore County, 482 E Connecticut Ave, Southern Pines
Nature’s Own, 95 Bell Avenue, S. Pines
Sandhills Winery, 1057 7 Lakes Dr, West End
The Country Bookshop, 140 NW Broad St, Southern Pines
The Given Outpost, 95 Cherokee Road, Given Outpost, Pinehurst