The 24 Preludes, Op. 34 is a set of short piano pieces written and premiered by

Dmitri Shostakovich Dmitri Dmitriyevich Shostakovich, , group=n (9 August 1975) was a Soviet-era Russian composer and pianist who became internationally known after the premiere of his Symphony No. 1 (Shostakovich), First Symphony in 1926 and was regarded throug ...

in 1933. They are arranged following the

circle of fifths In music theory, the circle of fifths is a way of organizing the 12 chromatic pitches as a sequence of perfect fifths. (This is strictly true in the standard 12-tone equal temperament system — using a different system requires one interval ...

, with one prelude in each major and minor key.

Composition

Shostakovich began composing the preludes in December 1932, shortly after finishing composition of the opera '' Lady Macbeth of the Mtsensk District''. He completed the cycle in March 1933, and premiered it in Moscow himself in May of the same year. He composed the preludes largely in order to return to public performance. He had stopped performing in 1930, after his failure to place at the 1927 First International Chopin Piano Competition. The Preludes were first published by Muzgiz in 1935, two years after their premiere.

Arrangements

In the 1930s, violinist transcribed 19 of the preludes for violin and piano. Shostakovich stated, "When I hear the transcriptions, I forget meanwhile that I actually composed the Preludes for piano. They sound so violinistic." In 2000, composer and pianist

Lera Auerbach Lera Auerbach (russian: Лера Авербах, born Valeria Lvovna Averbakh, russian: Валерия Львовна Авербах; October 21, 1973) is a Soviet-born American classical composer and concert pianist.

made an arrangement of the remaining five preludes.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Preludes, 24 Compositions by Dmitri Shostakovich 1933 compositions

Shostakovich Dmitri Dmitriyevich Shostakovich, , group=n (9 August 1975) was a Soviet-era Russian composer and pianist who became internationally known after the premiere of his First Symphony in 1926 and was regarded throughout his life as a major compo ...