Prelude is a musical composition played as an introduction to other music, or before a play or an opera (see Overture). The first movement of a sonata or a suite may be called a prelude (see Sonata; Suite). In the Preludes and Fugues of the German composer Johann Sebastian Bach, each prelude prepares the listener for the fugue that follows. The preludes of the Polish-born composer Frederic Chopin and those of Claude Debussy of France and Sergei Rachmaninoff of Russia are self-contained compositions for solo piano.

