Preludes!!!

[Chitch]

I'm thinking of buying some preludes by various artists but don't know where to begin. Please post a list as large as you can recall that contains relitavely nice preludes (Op's and No's please!)

[meiting]

I'm not exactly sure what you mean... different preludes by different composers? recordings thereof? music?
music-wise, obviously the Chopin, the Bach WTC, bach organ preludes, the bach-busoni choral preludes (rather nice actually, despite the fact that I hate busoni most of the times, his transcriptions of bach's not bad.. except for the chaconne), the Rachmaninoff.. op. 23 and 32. I like 23 better as a group, but 32 has some of the most beautiful piano writing.. etc.
Debussy...

umm.. I know I'm forgetting some, but in my sickly state I'm not even going to attempt to remember. Somebody else fill them in please

(sign of a great leader - delegation of labour )

[bernhard]

Preludes:

Baroque
JS Bach – 48 preludes & fugues in two volumes
Eberlin – Prelude and fugue in E minor

Romantic

Alkan – 25 preludes op. 25
Arensky – 12 preludes op.63
Chopin – 24 preludes Op.28
Conconne – 24 Brilliant preludes op. 37 (these are actually etudes in all keys).
Delius – Three preludes (no op. numbers – These are very nice, flowing arpeggios and impressionist)
Heller – 24 Preludes Op. 81. Also 32 preludes op. 119  (these were written for children)
Mendelssohn – 6 Preludes and fugues op. 35

Modern
Allende-Saron – Deux preludes
Amirov – 2 preludes
Lee Anderson – 3 preludes
Bashmakov – 6 preludes
Bowles – Folk preludes (these are very easy, high quality arrangements of American folk tunes). For more advanced stuff by the same composer, try his “Six preludes”.
Casadesus – 24 preludes
Chavez – Ten preludes (good for small hands)
Crawford – 4 preludes
Creston – Six preludes Op. 38
Debussy – 24 preludes in two volumes.
Ducasse – 6 preludes
Faure – 9 preludes op. 103
Franck – Prelude, chorale & fugue; Prelude , aria & finale, Prelude, fugue & variation.
Galindo – Five preludes (good for small hands)
Gershwin – 3 Preludes for piano
Ginastera – 12 American preludes
Gliere – 25 preludes op. 30
Griffes – Three preludes (perhaps the only American impressionist)
Hart – 3 preludes
Ireland – 4 preludes.
Kabalevsky – 24 preludes, Op. 38 (follows Chopin’s key progression) also, 6 preludes and fugues op. 61
Legros – Trois preludes (Impressionistic)
Luening – 8 preludes
Maykapar – 20 pedal preludes (written as exercises for use of the pedal)
Moore - Prelude
Muczynski – 6 preludes op. 6
Palmer – 3 preludes
Prokofiev – Prelude Op. 12 no. 7
Rachmaninoff – Prelude op. 3 no. 2, 10 preludes op. 23 and 13 preludes op. 32 (making twenty four in all, covering all keys)
Ravel – Prelude
Reger – 6 preludes and fugues op. 99
Respighi – 3 preludes on Gregorian melodies.
Rieger - Prelude
Rieti – 12 preludes (this guy should be better known!)
Scriabin – Preludes op. 2, op. 11, op. 13, op. 17, op.22, op.31, op. 37 and op. 74
Shostakovitch – Preludes op. 34 and Preludes and fugues op. 87 (both sets of 24 covering all keys), plus Five preludes (written when Shostakovitch was 14).
Tansman – 4 preludes.
Thomson – Prelude
Valen – Prelude and fugue op. 28
Zabrack – Preludes.

I know, I should get a life...

[allchopin]

Congratulations to Bernhard for the longest posts award!

Oh, and before you decide to buy music for these prelude, you'd be wise to check www.sheetmusicarchive.net first, where music is free.

[Chitch]

I'm not exactly sure what you mean... different preludes by different composers? recordings thereof? music?

Everything listed, actually. Lol

umm.. I know I'm forgetting some, but in my sickly state I'm not even going to attempt to remember.

Super Fun Happy Pianist's sick!!!!!!!!!

I know, I should get a life...

No! It's because you don't have a life that I got this list of Preludes (lol, j/k )

thx thx thx! Get well Mei-Ting !

[Chitch]

Congratulations to Bernhard for the longest posts award!

Oh, and before you decide to buy music for these prelude, you'd be wise to check www.sheetmusicarchive.net first, where music is free.

I have Everything by Rachmaninoff downloaded onto a seperate hard drive from that site

[Rach3]

Awesome, Bernhard, have you played them all?  

I don't exactly understand the request, is there anything particularly interesting about prelude-form, if there is such a thing? Isn't a prelude a kind of free-form piece sort of?

[Chitch]

Isn't a prelude a kind of free-form piece sort of?

*Faints*

[Rach3]

Ok, I'm sorry, I don't know what I am talking about, I have only played a bunch of the the Chopin ones and read a few of the Rach, and I have not yet attended a Conservatory or any serious formal stuff, but my understanding of a oh wait interrupt thought

[Rach3]

Ok, from definition (1) from New Harvard Dictionary of Music (my piano-top reference):

"A composition establishing the pitch or key of a following piece ... all feature an idiomatic virtuosity, rhythmic freedom, and loose thematic construction, reflecting frequent contemporaneous observations that they were usually improvised, particulary when serving a preludial function. "

[chopiabin]

It's already been said, but SCRIABIN SCRIABIN SCRIABIN!

[bernhard]

Awesome, Bernhard, have you played them all?  

I wish!

This is just  part of my New Year's resolution list!

[bernhard]

Congratulations to Bernhard for the longest posts award!

[eddie92099]

I was pleased to see the Ginastera mentioned, but you missed out Rautavaara ,
Ed

[bernhard]

Tell me (us) about it. I know nothing about him (her?)  :-[although I saw it mentioned a number of times in the   forum.

[L.K.]

Einojuhani Rautavaara!!!
Finally somebody mentioned a Finnish composer!!!
I don't really like his preludes but most of the other pieces he has written are great.

[meiting]

thx thx thx! Get well Mei-Ting !

Thanks. feeling much better already (two days? too short for flu. But my back's still killing me).

Bernhard, nice job! How long did that take you btw?

Regarding recordings of preludes - WTC by Edward Aldwell, highly recommended. Chopin preludes by Cortot, but he's recorded three complete sets and some not-so-complete ones, and you have to dig around to find the best one for each prelude. There's one of the G major that is out of this world.

I actually haven't listened to anybody's Rachmaninoff preludes recording - though i'll be putting mine up on my site in about a week (op. 23 only unfortunately). With regards to Debussy preludes, by far, the best were done by Gieseking. It's amazing how the best French music is played by a German

Scriabin, ask Thracozaag.

Have fun with them. Good resolution!

[eddie92099]

My personal recommendations for recordings of preludes:

Bach: Swiatoslaw Richter
Chopin: Martha Argerich
Debussy: Krystian Zimerman
Rachmaninov: Vladimir Ashkenazy

Ed

[cziffra]

can someone please explain to me why pianists make a habit of playing a prelude as a main piece, or even worse,a set of preludes in one go?  if you play a prelude, shouldn't you follow it with a much larger, MAIN piece, thus actually making use of the prelude?  

isn't that what it's for?

[thracozaag]

Thanks. feeling much better already (two days? too short for flu. But my back's still killing me).

Bernhard, nice job! How long did that take you btw?

Regarding recordings of preludes - WTC by Edward Aldwell, highly recommended. Chopin preludes by Cortot, but he's recorded three complete sets and some not-so-complete ones, and you have to dig around to find the best one for each prelude. There's one of the G major that is out of this world.

I actually haven't listened to anybody's Rachmaninoff preludes recording - though i'll be putting mine up on my site in about a week (op. 23 only unfortunately). With regards to Debussy preludes, by far, the best were done by Gieseking. It's amazing how the best French music is played by a German

Scriabin, ask Thracozaag.

Have fun with them. Good resolution!

 As far as the Preludes, the usual Scriabin suspects are in effect: Sofronitsky, Horowitz and Richter.  Kuerti has a wonderful recording of the last Preludes, Op. 74 (the last pieces Scriabin wrote).  Can't comment on complete sets, though.

[bitus]

The most beautiful prelude i ever played was Ravel - Prelude from Tombeau de Couperin. It's in the repertoire i'm working on right now. It might not be as pleasing for amateur's ears to hear, but it is a hipnotizing piece to play.
Bitus

[ebubu]

Preludes:

....
Ducasse – 6 preludes
....

You might note, just to be precise, that his name is Roger-Ducasse and not just Ducasse (first name Jean, and not Roger)....
Cheers !

[nikolasideris]

There's the newly published Seven Diverse Preludes by Scott Aaron Miller and no opus number!

There's 3 youtube videos with 3 preludes out in our youtube channel

I know that this kind of post seems rather spamm-ish, but to be honest it IS preludes, it IS honest, and... oh well... :-/

And a tiny bit something about the preludes from the webpage:

Composer Scott Aaron Miller has created a collection of seven short preludes, for solo piano, in different styles. Some follow a style close to Scriabin while others go further back to even reach Rameau. However, each one holds the individual personality that Mr. Miller has acquired over the years as a seasoned composer.