postlude

English

Etymology

From post- +‎ Latin lūdus (“play”) (modelled on prelude).

Pronunciation

• (UK) IPA^(key): /ˈpəʊstluːd/

Noun

postlude (plural postludes)

1. (music) The final part of a piece; especially music played (normally on the organ) at the end of a church service.
   • 2023, Gustav Djupsjöbacka, The Songs of Jean Sibelius: Poetry, Music, Performance, page 81:

     In the Sibelian world of song, then, postludes would inevitably sound redundant or extraneous.

2. A concluding passage of text or speech; an epilogue or afterword.
   • 1995, Richard Powers, Galatea 2.2, Vintage (2019), page 313:

     This was Nabokov’s postlude to Lolita, where he relates the book’s genesis.

Translations

final part of a musical piece

Catalan: postludi m French: postlude (fr) m German: Postludium (de) n, Nachspiel (de) n Hungarian: utójáték (hu)

Verb

postlude (third-person singular simple present postludes, present participle postluding, simple past and past participle postluded)

1. (rare) To form a postlude (to); to end with a postlude.
   • 2003, Clive James, ‘Larkin Treads the Boards’, The Meaning of Recognition, Picador, published 2005, page 95:

     Mercifully never preceded by a drum-roll or postluded by a curtsey for applause, each poem seemed to arise from the surrounding prose, which Courtenay was successfully endeavouring to make sound as if it was being thought up on the spot.

Further reading

• Postlude in the 1905 edition of the New International Encyclopedia.