Prelude
An introductory piece, often before a fugue.
What it means
A prelude (German Präludium) is an introductory instrumental piece. The name means foreplay and points to the original practice: before a main piece, the player checked instrument and tuning and at the same time introduced key and character — improvising. From this a genre of its own arose, often paired with a fugue, which complements the free with the strict. Preludes exist for keyboard instruments, lute, guitar, and, in suites, as the opening movement.
Musical use
Musically preludes are built very differently. Some consist of continuous figuration over a harmonic progression and seem like written-out improvisation; others are strictly worked, use imitation, or have a song-like character. In the suite, the prelude takes on the task of the opening and is often the weightiest movement. In the nineteenth century the genre detaches itself from the introductory function: preludes appear as independent character pieces, often in collections running through all the keys. The prelude differs from the prelude in worship in that it is not necessarily related to a particular melody. Scriabin and Rachmaninoff continued the series of independent piano preludes after Chopin.
Performance practice
Clarify the type first: figural preludes demand evenness and clear harmony changes, strictly worked ones demand clarity of the voices. If a fugue follows, plan both as a unit and orient the ending toward its beginning. Keep the basic tempo stable, even though the improvisatory character suggests freedom. Use the pedal sparingly, so that figurations stay clear. With collections covering all keys, it is worthwhile to consider the order and the key characters.
Bear in mind that preludes in collections covering all keys have a task of their own: they show the character of every key, and with unequal temperament this difference becomes audible. Check this on the instrument you are playing. In the seventeenth century, Buxtehude wrote preludes for organ that alternate free and fugal sections. Practise broken chord figures first as block chords, to grasp the harmonic progression.
Check whether the piece originally belongs to a fugue, because many editions separate the two parts.