Prelude (music)

A prelude, also praeludium (Latin praeludium, prelude) or prélude (French) and preludio (Italian and Spanish), is an instrumental work with an opening or introductory character.

Originally, the prelude, also called priamel (or older: praeambulum, also preamble), was a term used from the 16th century onwards for an introductory, formless and improvised prelude for organ or plucked instrument (lute, guitar, vihuela). In the 17th century, it was often a piece opening the suite and then a work for organ leading up to a chorale or opening a service, before it preceded a fugue, a fantasia, or another work as an independent form (e.g., Johann Sebastian Bach, Praeludien und Fugen für Orgel, or the two parts of the Well-Tempered Clavier). The introductory piece of music to an opera, operetta or other musical stage play, on the other hand, can be either a prelude (in German, however, it is then called Vorspiel) or an overture or Ital. Sinfonia.

In the 19th century the prelude for keyboard instruments developed into a character piece in its own right, in which the original opening function was lost.

Frédéric Chopin's 24 Préludes op. 28 are of great importance: the composer's compositional imagination ranged from short album pages and etude-like sketches to longer pieces in three-part song form reminiscent of the Nocturnes. He arranged all pieces according to the circle of fifths with a trailing minor parallel from C major to D minor. This cycle had a great influence on composers such as Alexander Scriabin and Sergei Rachmaninoff, who also composed Préludes.

In the course of time the prelude continued to develop - the great orchestral works Les Préludes by Franz Liszt or Prélude à l'après-midi d'un faune by Claude Debussy no longer have anything in common with the origin of a "prelude". Well-known preludes of more recent times are the five Préludes (1940) by Heitor Villa-Lobos for guitar.

See also

• Overture
• Intrada
• Interlude