Prelude

Description

Written in the broad pulse of 6/4, this is a prelude Ravi Kumar composed in 2005. The prelude began as an introduction played before the main business, but since Chopin the name has also been widely used for independent short pieces. No reliable information has been found about the composer or the piece's origins, so what follows keeps to what the score data shows.

A bar of 6/4 holds six quarter notes and can be felt either as two beats of three or three beats of two, a broad and spacious metre. No key is given in the data. It lasts just over four minutes with 712 notes, a little under three a second on average. The range spans exactly four octaves, from G-sharp 1 to G-sharp 5.

With a fairly low density of notes, this intermediate piece asks less for speed than for keeping the broad 6/4 pulse flowing without a break. Listen at normal speed to hear how the beats group, check the roles of the hands with the hand colours, and then begin practising. Slowing the playback and repeating hard spots with A-B looping will steady them. The lowest note, G-sharp 1, lies below a 61-key range, so on such an instrument take that note up an octave.

A collection of preludes not tied to a specific set, featuring short, evocative works by composers from Bach to more modern voices.