Musical work and musical form
A
prelude
(
German
:
Praludium
or
Vorspiel
;
Latin
:
praeludium
;
French
:
prelude
;
Italian
:
preludio
) is a short
piece
of
music
, the
form
of which may vary from piece to piece.
[1]
[2]
While, during the
Baroque era
, for example, it may have served as an introduction to succeeding movements of a work that were usually longer and more complex, it may also have been a stand-alone piece of work during the
Romantic era
. It generally features a small number of rhythmic and melodic
motifs
that recur through the piece. Stylistically, the prelude is improvisatory in nature. The term may also refer to an
overture
, particularly to those seen in an
opera
or an
oratorio
.
History
[
edit
]
The first preludes to be
notated
were
organ pieces
that were played to introduce church music, the earliest surviving examples being five brief
praeambula
in the
Ileborgh Tablature
of 1448.
[3]
These were closely followed by freely composed preludes in an
extemporary
style for the
lute
and other
Renaissance
string instruments, which were originally used for warming up the fingers and checking the instrument's tuning and sound quality, as in a group of pieces by
Joan Ambrosio Dalza
published in 1508 under the heading
tastar de corde
(in Italian, literally, "testing of the strings").
[3]
[4]
Keyboard
preludes started appearing in the 17th century in
France
:
unmeasured preludes
, in which the
duration of each note
is left to the performer, were used as introductory movements in
harpsichord
suites
.
Louis Couperin
(c.1626?1661) was the first composer to embrace the genre, and harpsichord preludes were used until the first half of the 18th century by numerous composers including
Jean-Henri d'Anglebert
(1629?1691),
Elisabeth Jacquet de la Guerre
(1665?1729),
Francois Couperin
(1668?1733) and
Jean-Philippe Rameau
(1683?1764), whose very first printed piece (1706) was in this form. The last unmeasured preludes for harpsichord date from the 1720s.
The development of the prelude in 17th century
Germany
led to a sectional form similar to keyboard
toccatas
by
Johann Jakob Froberger
or
Girolamo Frescobaldi
. Preludes by northern German composers such as
Dieterich Buxtehude
(c.1637?1707) and
Nikolaus Bruhns
(c.1665?1697) combined sections of free improvised passages with parts in strict
contrapuntal
writing (usually brief
fugues
). Outside Germany,
Abraham van den Kerckhoven
(c.1618?c.1701), one of the most important
Dutch
composers of the period, used this model for some of his preludes. Southern and central German composers did not follow the sectional model and their preludes remained improvisational in character with little or no strict counterpoint.
During the second half of the 17th century, German composers started pairing preludes (or sometimes
toccatas
) with fugues in the same
key
;
Johann Pachelbel
(c.1653?1706) was one of the first to do so, although
Johann Sebastian Bach
's (1685?1750) "prelude and fugue" pieces are much more numerous and well-known today. Bach's organ preludes are quite diverse, drawing on both southern and northern German influences. Most of Bach's preludes were written in the
theme and variation
form, using the same theme motif with imitation, inversion, modulation, or retrogression of the theme as well as other techniques involved in this baroque form.
Johann Caspar Ferdinand Fischer
was one of the first German composers to bring the late 17th-century French style to German harpsichord music, replacing the standard French ouverture with an unmeasured prelude. Fischer's
Ariadne musica
is a cycle of keyboard music which consists of pairs of preludes and fugues; the preludes are quite varied and do not conform to any particular model.
Ariadne musica
served as a precursor to Johann Sebastian Bach's
The Well-Tempered Clavier
, two books of 24 "prelude and fugue" pairs each. Bach's preludes were also varied, some akin to Baroque dances, others being two- and three-part contrapuntal works not unlike his
inventions and sinfonias
. Bach also composed preludes to introduce each of his
English Suites
.
The Well-Tempered Clavier
influenced many composers in the coming centuries, some of whom wrote preludes in sets of 12 or 24, sometimes with the intention of utilizing all 24
major
and
minor
keys as Bach had done.
Frederic Chopin
(1810?1849) wrote
a set of 24 preludes, Op. 28
, often composed in a simple ternary form, which liberated the prelude from its original introductory purpose and allowed it to serve as an independent concert piece. While other pianist-composers, including
Muzio Clementi
,
Johann Nepomuk Hummel
and
Ignaz Moscheles
, had previously published collections of preludes for the benefit of pianists unskilled at improvisatory preluding, Chopin's set renewed the genre.
[5]
Chopin's set served as a model for other collections of 24 or 25 piano preludes in the major and minor keys,
[3]
including those by
Charles-Valentin Alkan
(
Op. 31 for piano or organ
),
Ferruccio Busoni
(Op. 37, BV 181),
Cesar Cui
(Op. 64),
Stephen Heller
(Op. 81), and
Alexander Scriabin
(
Op. 11
).
Claude Debussy
(1862?1918) wrote two books of
impressionistic
piano preludes which, unusually in this genre, carry descriptive titles.
[3]
Chopin's conception of the prelude as an unattached
character piece
expressing a mood rather than a specific
musical programme
extended into the 20th century with works by composers such as
George Antheil
,
George Gershwin
,
Alberto Ginastera
,
Dmitry Kabalevsky
,
Bohuslav Martin?
,
Olivier Messiaen
,
Sergei Rachmaninoff
(who also completed
an entire set
),
Giacinto Scelsi
and
Karol Szymanowski
.
[3]
Preludes were also incorporated by some 20th-century composers into Baroque-inspired
suites
: such "attached" preludes include
Maurice Ravel
's
Le tombeau de Couperin
(1914/17) and
Arnold Schoenberg
's
Suite for piano
, Op. 25
(1921/23), both of which begin with an introductory prelude (Schoenberg's choral introduction to the
Genesis Suite
is a rare case of an attached prelude written in the 20th century without any
neo-baroque
intent
[3]
). As well as a series of unattached piano preludes (Op. 2),
Dmitri Shostakovich
composed a set of
24 Preludes and Fugues
in the tradition of Bach's
The Well Tempered Clavier
.
Some
avant-garde
composers have also produced unattached preludes.
John Cage
's brief
Prelude for Meditation
is written for
prepared piano
, while
Francois-Bernard Mache
's
Prelude
(1959) and
Branimir Saka?
's
Aleatory Prelude
(1961) call on
electronic
resources and
aleatoric
techniques.
[3]
Notable collections of preludes
[
edit
]
- Charles-Valentin Alkan
(1813?1888) wrote a set of 25 preludes, Op. 31, published in 1847. His key scheme differs from Chopin's in that the major keys ascend chromatically and are followed by their respective minor
subdominants
, though Alkan also starts on C major. The last piece returns to C major, hence the additional prelude (a device Alkan repeated in the
Esquisses, Op. 63
, and that
Cesar Cui
employed in his own 25 Preludes, Op. 64). As a further distinction between his and Chopin's sets, Alkan provides programmatic titles for several of his preludes, including the most famous of the set,
La chanson de la folle au bord de la mer
(
The Song of the Madwoman by the Seashore
).
- Lera Auerbach
(born 1973) wrote three full sets of 24 preludes, which cycle through all of the major and minor keys, for piano solo, violin and piano, and cello and piano respectively (2003).
- Johann Sebastian Bach
(1685?1750) wrote the two volumes of
The Well-Tempered Clavier
(1722, 1744). Both volumes contain 24 preludes (and associated fugues) proceeding up the
chromatic scale
with alternating
parallel
major and minor keys (C major and C minor; C
♯
major and C
♯
minor; D major and D minor; etc.).
- Ludwig van Beethoven
(1770?1827) wrote two preludes, Op. 39, as a teenager; each one cycles through all of the major keys of the piano.
- Felix Blumenfeld
(1863?1931) composed a set of 24 preludes, Op. 17 in 1892, following Chopin's key scheme, as well as a set of four, Op. 12.
- York Bowen
(1884?1961) wrote a set of 24 preludes, his Op. 102, in 1938. It is in all major and minor keys and was published posthumously.
- Julian Cochran
(born 1974) wrote three volumes of preludes, many with an
impressionistic
character, and increasing in complexity and length through each volume.
[6]
[
self-published source
]
- Frederic Chopin
(1810?1849) wrote
24 Preludes, Op. 28
, which cycle through all of the major and minor keys. The odd numbered preludes are in major keys, starting with C major, and each is followed by a prelude in the
relative
minor key. The paired preludes proceed through the
circle of fifths
(C major and A minor; G major and E minor; D major and B minor; etc.). Most can be played as stand-alone pieces.
- Claude Debussy
(1862?1918) wrote two books of
12 Preludes
, Book 1 (1910) and Book 2 (1913), for a total of 24 preludes. The title of the prelude is given at the end of the piece, while a Roman numeral serves as the heading.
- Johann Caspar Ferdinand Fischer
(c. 1656 ? 1746)'s
Ariadne musica
(1702), contained 20 preludes and fugues in 19 different keys.
- Alberto Ginastera
(1916?1983) wrote a cycle of 12 American Preludes (
Doce Preludios Americanos
; 1946).
- Paul Hindemith
(1895?1963) wrote
Ludus Tonalis
(1940), a prelude, 11 interludes, and a postlude, all separated by 12 fugues.
- Dmitry Kabalevsky
(1904?1987) wrote many preludes for piano, op. 1, op. 5, op. 20, op. 38, op. 61 (1943?1944).
- Nikolai Kapustin
(1937?2020) wrote 24 Preludes in Jazz Style, Op. 53, and later a set of 24 Preludes and Fugues, Op. 82.
- Olivier Messiaen
(1908?1992)'s set of eight piano preludes (1929) developed from the
Impressionism
of Debussy's piano music.
- Casimir Ney
(1801?1877) wrote a collection of 24 preludes in all major and minor keys for solo
viola
from 1849?53.
- Heitor Villa-Lobos
(1887?1959) wrote 5 preludes for guitar (1940), which have become popular repertory pieces. A sixth prelude is lost.
- Sergei Rachmaninoff
(1873?1943) wrote a prelude, Op. 3, No. 2, in 1892 followed by
10 preludes, Op. 23
(1903) and
13 preludes, Op. 32
(1910) for a total of 24 preludes in all the major and minor keys; he also composed
a prelude in D minor
, without opus number, in 1917 (there is yet another among his early unpublished works).
- Florent Schmitt
(1870?1958) wrote two books of preludes, book 1, 3
preludes
op. 3 (1890 - 95), book 2,
10 Preludes
op. 5 (1896).
- Alexander Scriabin
(1872?1915) wrote
24 Preludes, Op. 11
in 1896, and numerous shorter sets of preludes. He followed the same pattern as the Chopin preludes.
- Dmitri Shostakovich
(1906?1975) wrote a cycle of
24 Preludes and Fugues
, Op. 87 in 1951, as well as an earlier set of
24 Preludes, Op. 34
(1933), for piano.
- Matthias Vanden Gheyn
(1721?1785) composed 11 preludes, possibly
off-the-cuff
, for performance on a
carillon
, a musical instrument of bells. They are festive pieces featuring virtuosic progressions and effects to a propulsive bass rhythm. They are additionally the earliest known compositions specifically for the instrument. Citing his preludes,
carillonneurs
refer to Vanden Gheyn as "the
Bach
of the carillon".
[7]
See also
[
edit
]
References
[
edit
]
Further reading
[
edit
]
- Howat, Roy. The Art of French Piano Music: Debussy, Ravel, Faure, Chabrier. 2009. Print.
- A.B. Wenk : Claude Debussy and Twentieth-Century Music (Boston, 1983)