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 and/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: Introduktion, Passacaglia und Fuge
• 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