In music,
especially since the contributions of Johann Sebastian Bach
(March 31,1685 - July 28,1750) in
The Well-Tempered Clavier books 1 and 2,
the prelude evolved from being an introductory movement to
eventually an independent composition. Franz Joseph Haydn owned
manuscript copies of The
Well-Tempered Clavier and Ludwig van Beethoven
spent several years in his youth playing and intensely studying
The Well-Tempered Clavier.
Among the composers who have been inspired are Frederic Chopin,
Claude Debussy, Dmitry Shostakovich (opus 87 is 24 preludes and
fugues; opus 34 is 24 preludes), Aleksandr Scriabin, Sergei
Rachmaninoff, Louis Couperin, Francois Couperin, Jean-Philippe
Rameau, Dieterich Buxtehude, Muzio Clementi, Johan Nepomuk
Hummel, Charles-Valentin Alkan, Ferrucio Busoni, Ignaz Moscheles
and Lera Auerbach. It is necessary to mention that Lera Auerbach
has composed THREE sets of preludes: Opus 41 is 24 preludes for
piano; Opus 46 is 24 preludes for violin and piano and Opus 47
is 24 preludes for violincello and piano. In addition, she
arranged Shostakovich's Opus 34 (24 preludes) once for
violincello and piano in 2008, and then for viola and piano in
2010. Of further fascination is opus 41 by the Swiss composer
Emile-Robert Blanchet (July 17, 1877 - March 27, 1943). This
work was published in 1926-7 and has 64 preludes described as
"contrapuntal etudes of transcendental technique".
Each
prelude here includes an image of musical notation describing a
theme from one of Blanchet's preludes; a hexagram from the
I Ching with name and meaning; a short text and a brief video. |