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25-528: The precise liturgical function of a chorale prelude in the Baroque period is uncertain and is a subject of debate. One possibility is that they were used to introduce the hymn about to be sung by the congregation, usually in a Protestant , and originally in a Lutheran , church. This assumption may be valid for the shorter chorale preludes (Bach's setting of 'Liebster Jesu, wir sind hier, BWV 731, for example), but many chorale preludes are very long. It could be

50-518: A melody independent of the cantus firmus, though in principle it is familiar in obbligato arias, is here unusually complete." Julian Mincham (2010) sees an asymmetry here that is possibly rooted in the chorale itself “with its slightly puzzling mixture of different phrase lengths”: Two melodic ideas from the chorale, labelled (a) and (b) above are embedded in the obbligato line: Mincham says that while “theme and chorale are not designed to begin and end together… [they] fit together perfectly. Get to know

75-405: 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

100-609: Is written for prepared piano , while François-Bernard Mâche 's Prélude (1959) and Branimir Sakač 's Aleatory Prelude (1961) call on electronic resources and aleatoric techniques. Eleven Chorale Preludes Eleven Chorale Preludes , Op. 122, is a collection of works for organ by Johannes Brahms , written in 1896, at the end of the composer's life, immediately after the death of his beloved friend, Clara Schumann, published posthumously in 1902. They are based on verses of nine Lutheran chorales , two of them set twice, and are relatively short, compact miniatures. They were

125-582: The Genesis Suite is a rare case of an attached prelude written in the 20th century without any neo-baroque intent ). As well as a series of unattached piano preludes (Op. 34), Dmitri Shostakovich composed a set of 24 Preludes and Fugues in the tradition of Bach's Well-Tempered Clavier , though arranged by key not chromatically, like Bach's, but using the circle of fifths, as Chopin had done. Some avant-garde composers have also produced unattached preludes. John Cage 's brief Prelude for Meditation

150-494: 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), Élisabeth Jacquet de la Guerre (1665–1729), François Couperin (1668–1733) and Jean-Philippe Rameau (1683–1764), whose very first printed piece (1706)

175-513: The form of which may vary from piece to piece. 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,

200-532: 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"). Keyboard preludes started appearing in the 17th century in France : unmeasured preludes , in which

225-620: The benefit of pianists unskilled at improvisatory preluding, Chopin's set renewed the genre. Chopin's set served as a model for other collections of 24 or 25 piano preludes in the major and minor keys, including those by Charles-Valentin Alkan ( Op. 31 for piano or organ ), Ferruccio Busoni (Op. 37, BV 181), César 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. Chopin's conception of

250-482: The case that these were played during special services in churches or in cathedrals. Chorale preludes are typically polyphonic settings, with a chorale tune, plainly audible and often ornamented, used as cantus firmus. Accompanying motifs are usually derived from contrapuntal manipulations of the chorale melody. Notable composers of chorale preludes during the Baroque period include Dieterich Buxtehude , Johann Pachelbel and Johann Sebastian Bach . After this period,

275-544: The chorale and ritornello melodies well and the apparently effortless ways in which they inter-relate will become obvious. The important point is that they seem not to fit; but they do.” There are several examples of 19th- and 20th-century chorale preludes, such as the Eleven Chorale Preludes by Johannes Brahms , César Franck , Max Reger 's and Samuel Barber 's. Works such as these continue to be produced nowadays such as Helmut Walcha 's four volumes and

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300-477: The chorale melody in the upper part is supported by a closely woven and harmonically subtle counterpoint in three parts: Peter Williams (1972, p. 27) says of the Orgelbüchlein : “Each approach to Bach’s organ chorales – their beauty, their ‘symbolism’, their mastery- is rewarding.” Williams continues (1972, p29) “One of the most remarkable features of most of the settings is that the accompaniment and

325-415: The chorale preludes BWV 700 , 724 , 1091, 1094, 1097, 1112, 1113 and 1119 . In Bach's early Orgelbüchlein (1708-1717), the chorale melody is usually in the upper part and the accompanying lower parts, while being highly elaborate in their harmonic and contrapuntal detail, the beginnings and endings of phrases generally coincide with those of the chorale. An example is "Jesu, meine Freude", where

350-554: 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. Frédéric 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

375-513: The early Baroque period. Chorale preludes also appear in the works of Dieterich Buxtehude and Georg Böhm . Over 40 chorale preludes by Buxtehude have survived to this day. Johann Pachelbel 's compositions are another example of the form, with many of his chorale preludes elaborating upon Protestant chorale melodies. The best-known composer of chorale preludes is Johann Sebastian Bach . His earliest extant compositions, works for organ which he possibly wrote before his fifteenth birthday, include

400-408: The form fell out of favour and virtually none were written by subsequent composers, such as Stamitz, J C Bach, Haydn and Mozart, until examples from the late 19th century, including works by Johannes Brahms and Max Reger . Among the old masters who wrote chorale preludes is Samuel Scheidt . His Tabulatura Nova , containing several such works, was published in 1624. Sweelinck is also typical of

425-476: The last compositions Brahms ever wrote, composed around the time that he became aware of the cancer that would ultimately prove fatal; thus the final piece is, appropriately enough, a second setting of "O Welt, ich muß dich lassen." Preludes 4, 5, and 8–11 were transcribed for solo piano by Ferruccio Busoni in 1902 as BV B 50 . These transcriptions have been recorded by Paul Jacobs , Wolf Harden , Lydia Artymiw , and Igor Levit . This article about

450-440: 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)

475-420: The motifs from which it is composed are newly invented and are not related thematically to the melody.” By contrast, in the prelude on Wachet auf, ruft uns die Stimme (BWV 645) from the set of six Schübler Chorales , taken from earlier cantata movements, the accompaniment is a free-flowing obbligato which both derives from the chorale melody, yet seems to float independently over it. "The achieving of

500-729: 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 Martinů , Olivier Messiaen , Sergei Rachmaninoff (who also completed an entire set ), Giacinto Scelsi and Karol Szymanowski . 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

525-497: The prelude is improvisatory in nature. The term may also refer to an overture , particularly to those seen in an opera or an oratorio . 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. These were closely followed by freely composed preludes in an extemporary style for

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550-419: The seven volumes of Flor Peeters . See Eleven Chorale Preludes . Reger composed, among others, 52 chorale preludes, Op. 67 , Chorale Preludes for Organ, Op. 79b (1900–04) and 30 small chorale preludes, Op. 135a (1914). Prelude (music) A prelude ( German : Präludium or Vorspiel ; Latin : praeludium ; French : prélude ; Italian : preludio ) is a short piece of music ,

575-490: 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

600-556: 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

625-405: 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

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