Dianne Goolkasian Rahbee

Preludes

This two-volume collection of preludes contains short character pieces with a wide range of emotional expression and a wide range of technical demands from intermediate to advanced. The performer may decide to program these preludes as single pieces or in groupings in any order.

While written in part as pedagogical exercises, these preludes are beautifully constructed miniatures that take an honored place among the preludes of Chopin, Bach, and Scriabin. They are written as single compositions rather than in cycles like the preludes of Bach and Chopin. Some reflect the rhythms and dance forms found in the music of modernists like Ginastera and Ligeti and many are neo-romantic in style with emotionally expressive melodic content.