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Karoo Plainsong

Inspiration for the book

The Music

The Karoo

The Town of Cradock

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Barbara Mutch

The author of Karoo Plainsong

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About the Music

The music that inspires Ada in Karoo Plainsong is the Prelude no 15, by Chopin.
Composed in the winter of 1838/39 when Chopin was in his late twenties, it is an extraordinarily beautiful piece. It opens with a deceptively simple melody that deepens to a stormy, complex heart before returning to the original theme. The repeating A-flat that echoes throughout has always reminded listeners of falling raindrops - hence the popular name ‘Raindrop’ Prelude.

Franz Liszt called Chopin’s Preludes “compositions of an order entirely apart...they are poetic...analogous to those of a great contemporary poet, who cradles the soul in golden dreams”.

For Ada, the prelude becomes a metaphor for her life: simplicity and turmoil, light and shade, beauty and cruelty.

Click on the music player below to listen to the Raindrop Prelude.