prelude
/ˈprɛljuːd
/noun
1An action or event serving as an introduction to something more important: a ceasefire had been agreed as a prelude to full peace negotiations...
- A contest and talent hunt will be held as a prelude to the event.
- As a prelude to the main event, the team will walk the 25 km from Changi Prison to Tanjung Pagar Railway Station in Singapore.
- I think of Thanksgiving as a prelude to the big event of December and all the wonderful foods I will undoubtedly be consuming.
Synonyms
preliminary, overture, opening, preparation, introduction, start, beginning, curtain-raiser, lead-in, precursor, forerunner, harbinger, herald
informal opener
formal commencement
rare prolusion
2An introductory piece of music, most commonly an orchestral opening to an act of an opera, the first movement of a suite, or a piece preceding a fugue.His surviving output consists solely of instrumental music, including organ preludes and fugues, concertos for two harpsichords, and trio sonatas, much of it strongly influenced by Bach....
- From the opening orchestral prelude, the depth and intensity of Bloch's vision of the Old Testament roll over the listener.
- After the Brahms and the Haydn he learned three preludes and fugues of Bach, two Beethoven sonatas, a nocturne by Chopin, and pieces by Schumann and Ravel.
Synonyms
overture, introductory movement, introduction, opening, voluntary
rare verset
2.1A short piece of music of a style similar to a prelude, especially for the piano.He's also found time to be the pianist on this unusual release, which includes seventeen of his short works for saxophone and twelve equally short preludes for piano....
- British composer Colin Matthews is orchestrating all 24 of Debussy's piano preludes, a project which many will find either foolhardy or sacrilegious.
- Accompanied by Debussy piano preludes interpreted by Steve Gosling, the dancers took wing, as though they were laughing through the air.
2.2The introductory part of a poem or other literary work.But the prelude tantalises in what it reveals, and represses....
- The unnamed mistress, of whom the first eight lines are prelude, is finally addressed, but not until line nine- ‘As I meet thee.’
Synonyms
introduction, preface, prologue, foreword, preamble
informal intro
rare proem, exordium, prolegomenon, prodrome
verb [with object]
Serve as a prelude or introduction to: the bombardment preluded an all-out final attack...
- It was preluded by part of a different ballet called Ellipse, and I really liked those dances too.
- Each visit to her mother was preluded by a mental perfection check list - Kelly dressed in one of her grandmother's latest frou-frou proper girl dresses, which usually included lace or frills or both.
- When performed live this song was often preluded by descriptions of the harrowing experience many faced simply trying to find a tolerant and peaceful home, away from their places of birth.
Derivatives
preludial
- This forty-minute work's four-movement structure opens with a preludial, expository movement which presents the basic material.
- A young Vixen, in this preludial scene played by a child, frisks in, startling a frog, who leaping to safety, lands on the forester's nose.
- If we could hear music only after an exhausting sequence of preludial actions I am sure it would suffer neglect.
Origin
Mid 16th century: from French prélude, from medieval Latin praeludium, from Latin praeludere 'play beforehand', from prae 'before' + ludere 'to play'.