prelude

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“
Full of imaginative lift, caprice and stormy dynamics, this prelude is the darling of the virtuoso.

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Definitions (24)

Toggle American Heritage definitions American Heritage Dictionary (8)

  1. noun An introductory performance, event, or action preceding a more important one; a preliminary or preface.
  2. noun Music A piece or movement that serves as an introduction to another section or composition and establishes the key, such as one that precedes a fugue, opens a suite, or precedes a church service.
  3. noun Music A similar but independent composition for the piano.
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Examples

  • Or, to be less figurative, this prelude is a study in arpeggio, with double notes interspersed, and is too short to make more than a vivid impression No. —  Chopin: The Man and His Music
  • Full of imaginative lift, caprice and stormy dynamics, this prelude is the darling of the virtuoso. —  Chopin : the Man and His Music
  • Powerful, repellant, this prelude is almost infernal in its pride and scorn. —  Chopin : the Man and His Music
  • Or, to be less figurative, this prelude is a study in arpeggio, with double notes interspersed, and is too short to make more than a vivid impression. —  Chopin : the Man and His Music
  • I find myself at middle life with comfortable means (owing to that bit of rock and mud of grandma's on the old Bloomingdale road that father persistently kept through thick and thin), either obliged to compromise myself, alter my dress and habits, go to luncheons where the prelude is a cocktail, and the after entertainment to play cards for money, contract bronchitis by buzzing at afternoon teas, make a vocation of charity, or -- stay by myself, -- these being the only forms of amusement left open, and none offering the intimate form of social intercourse I need. —  People of the Whirlpool
 

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Roget's II Roget's II: The New Thesaurus

Allen's Allen's Synonyms and Antonyms

Used in the same context Used in the Same Context

interlude ·  prologue ·  symphony ·  colouring ·  overture ·  accompaniment ·  peroration ·  duet ·  preface ·  aria ·  climax ·  concerto
Roget's II: The New Thesaurus, Third Edition by the Editors of the American Heritage® Dictionary. Copyright © 2003, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

Etymologies (3)

Toggle American Heritage etymologies American Heritage Dictionary (1)

  1. Medieval Latin praelūdium, from Latin praelūdere, to play beforehand : prae-, pre- + lūdere, to play; see leid- in Indo-European roots.

Toggle Century etymologies Century Dictionary (2)

  1. from Old French preluder, French préluder = Italian preludere, prelude (in music) (cf. Spanish Portuguese preludiar, prelude (in music); from the noun), from Latin præludere, play beforehand by way of practice or rehearsal, sing beforehand, premise, preface, from præ, before, + ludere, play: see ludicrous. Cf. allude, collude, elude, illude. The English verb is in part from the noun: see prelude, n.
  2. Formerly also preludium (from Middle Latin); from Old French prelude, French prélude = Spanish Portuguese Italian preludio, from Middle Latin *præludium, a playing or performing beforehand, from Latin præludere, play beforehand by way of practice or trial, premise, preface: see prelude, v.
 

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/ˈpriljud/
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