Prelude in F-sharp minor

Prelude in F-sharp minor by Sergei Rachmaninoff, catalogued as Op. 23 No. 1, is a work for solo piano in F-sharp minor. Composed during the Late Romantic era, it forms part of the composer's enduring contribution to the keyboard repertoire and is freely available in the public domain through archives such as IMSLP.

Sergei Rachmaninoff carried the Romantic piano tradition into the twentieth century. His Préludes, Études-Tableaux, Moments musicaux, and two sonatas are huge, dense, lyrical works built for a hand the size of his own.

The work is suited to advanced-level pianists. As with all repertoire from this period, study editions vary; the public-domain engravings linked here are based on the most widely-circulated nineteenth- and early-twentieth-century editions and are sufficient for serious study, recital preparation, and recording.

About Sergei Rachmaninoff

Sergei Rachmaninoff carried the Romantic piano tradition into the twentieth century. His Préludes, Études-Tableaux, Moments musicaux, and two sonatas are huge, dense, lyrical works built for a hand the size of his own.

Key character — F-sharp minor

Intense and yearning. The emotional center of late Romantic and early modernist piano writing.

The Late Romantic Era

The late Romantic era extended Romantic intensity into chromatic, large-scale works by Rachmaninoff, Scriabin, Fauré, and the late Brahms. Harmonic ambiguity and dense layered textures begin to point toward the modern.

About the Prelude form

Originally a free improvisation to test the tuning of an instrument, the prelude grew under Bach into a fully-realized character piece — and under Chopin and Debussy into a self-contained miniature with the weight of a poem. The 24-prelude cycle (one in each major and minor key) became one of the canonical forms of the keyboard tradition.