Prelude and fugue

A prelude and fugue is a musical form generally consisting of two movements in the same key for solo keyboard. In classical music, the combination of prelude and fugue is one with a long history. Many composers have written works of this kind. The use of this format is generally inspired by Johann Sebastian Bach's two books of preludes and fugues — The Well-Tempered Clavier — completed in 1722 and 1742 respectively. Bach, however, was not the first to compose such a set: Johann Caspar Ferdinand Fischer wrote a 20-key cycle in his 1702 work Ariadne musica.

A number of composers wrote sets of pieces covering all 24 major or minor keys. Many of these have been sets of 24 preludes and fugues, or 24 preludes.

The first movement may be alternatively titled, resulting in a Fantasy and Fugue, or a toccata and fugue, among others.

Works

The following works employ, sometimes loosely, the prelude-and-fugue format.

• Johann Caspar Ferdinand Fischer: Ariadne musica (1702)
• Johann Pachelbel : Prelude and Fugue in E minor, P.416
• Christoph Graupner
  • Prelude and Fugue in D minor, GWV 826 (1715-1716)
  • Prelude and Fugue in A minor, GWV 855 (1716)
• Johann Sebastian Bach:
  • Prelude (Toccata) and Fugue in E major, BWV 566 (ca. 1705)
  • Prelude and Fugue in A minor, BWV 543 (sometime around 1708–1717)
  • Prelude and Fugue in B minor, BWV 544
  • Prelude and Fugue in C minor, BWV 546
  • Prelude and Fugue in E minor, BWV 548
  • The Well-Tempered Clavier, Books I and II (1722 and 1742)
• Uncertain (formerly attributed to Johann Sebastian Bach) – Eight Short Preludes and Fugues
• Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
  • Prelude (Fantasy) and Fugue in C major K.394 (1782)
  • Adagio and Fugue in C minor K.546 (1788)
• Felix Mendelssohn: Preludes and Fugues, Op. 35 (1827/37)
• Franz Liszt:
  • Fantasy and Fugue on the chorale "Ad nos, ad salutarem undam" (1850)
  • Fantasy and Fugue on the Theme B-A-C-H (1855 rev. 1870)
• César Franck: Prélude, Choral et Fugue (1884)
• Max Reger: Introduction, Passacaglia and Fugue
• Paul Hindemith: Ludus Tonalis (1942)
• William Walton: Spitfire Prelude and Fugue (1942)
• Leonard Bernstein: Prelude, Fugue and Riffs (1949)
• Dmitri Shostakovich: 24 Preludes and Fugues, Op. 87 (1950–51)

Composers

The composers listed below, who lived and composed in the 19th and 20th centuries, employed this format.

• Mark Alburger, 12 Topical Preludes and Fugues
• Algernon Ashton
• Mario Castelnuovo-Tedesco
• David Cope, 48 Preludes and Fugues
• David Diamond, 52 Preludes and Fugues
• Hiroshi Hara
• Hans Huber
• Alexander Iakovtchouk
• Andersen Viana - Sinfonia Amerindia/Prelude and Fugue
• David Johnson, 12 Preludes and Fugues
• A. A. Klengel
• Trygve Madsen, 24 Preludes and Fugues for piano, Op. 101
• Henry Martin
• Felix Mendelssohn
• Bruce Cameron Munson
• Frank Tveor Nordensten
• Camille Saint-Saëns, 3 Preludes and Fugues, Opp. 99 & 109
• Vsevolod Zaderatsky, 24 Preludes and Fugues, 1937-39
• Dmitri Shostakovich, 24 Preludes and Fugues, Op. 87, 1950–51
• Dmitri Kabalevsky, 6 Preludes and Fugues for piano, Op. 61, 1958–59
• Rodion Shchedrin, 24 Preludes and Fugues for piano, composed in 1964 and 1970
• Igor Rekhin (b. 1941 in Tambov, Russia), 24 Preludes and Fugues for solo Guitar, 1990
• Sergei Slonimsky, 24 Preludes and Fugues for piano, 1994
• Nikolai Kapustin, 24 Preludes and Fugues, Op. 82, 1997