Prélude (Pièces de clavecin, Book 1)
Jean-Philippe Rameau (1683–1764) · sheet music
- Time 12/8
- Levels 9
- Passages 1
Your turn · both hands
Preparing your passage…
Jean-Philippe Rameau, French baroque (1683–1764). The reading release has 1 passage from this piece at level 9; the reader above opens on the easiest, bars 21–24 for both hands together.
The hardest stretch is bars 21–24 at level 9.
Your practice path
Learn it the way teachers do: each hand on its own, then together, then the hard bars. Each step is a real graded passage of Prélude (Pièces de clavecin, Book 1).
- Hands together · bars 21–24 level 9
How to play Prélude (Pièces de clavecin, Book 1)
- Tempo:Count the 12/8 as four slow beats, each divided into three. A lively but controlled speed lets the leaps in the right hand speak clearly.
- Right hand:The right hand plays streams of eighths that hop between a low and a high register. Practice each hop as a separate pair of notes before connecting them.
- Left hand:The left hand plays quarter notes that jump from a low bass note up to the middle register and then step down, in a repeating pattern. Keep them even and a little softer than the right hand.
- Hands together:Put the hands together by pairing each left-hand quarter with a group of three right-hand eighths. Counting one-and-a, two-and-a helps keep them aligned.
- Practice:Repeat the first one or two beats of the line until the leaps feel automatic, then add the next beat. This chaining method keeps accuracy as you speed up.
- Fingering:Plan the right-hand fingering around the leaps and write it in. A consistent choice avoids last-second decisions on the high notes.
- Reading:There is no key signature on this page, but sharps appear as accidentals in the passage. Name them aloud on the first read-through.
Common mistakes
- Treating all eighths with the same weight so the line sounds like a drill. Fix: Lean lightly on the first of each group of three eighths.
- Missing the leaps by moving the whole arm too late. Fix: Release the hand toward the target note before the beat.
- Playing the left-hand quarters too loudly. Fix: Aim for an even, soft sound that supports without covering the top line.
Structure: unmeasured prelude followed by a dancelike section
The Prélude begins in free rhythm with no fixed bar lengths, in the manner of the unmeasured preludes of earlier French harpsichordists. It then turns into a decidedly dancelike, measured section that points toward the theater. The page's 12/8 passage comes from that second part.
- Part 1 · Unmeasured opening (A minor)
- A free, improvisatory beginning written without a fixed meter. Not on this page, but it is the piece's opening gesture.
- Part 2 · Dancelike measured part
- A measured, quick section; on this page, streams of eighth notes in the right hand that leap an octave inside a running line, over quarter notes stepping down in the left. New to read: wide leaps inside a running line.
About Prélude (Pièces de clavecin, Book 1)
Jean-Philippe Rameau (1683 to 1764) published his Premier livre de pièces de clavecin in Paris in 1706, during his first stay in the city; it contains his earliest-known compositions. A recording booklet calls it his visiting card: a single suite in A minor and major that opens with this Prélude and continues with dances such as the Allemande, Courante, Gigue, Sarabande, Vénitienne, Gavotte and Menuet.
The Prélude has two parts. The first is written as an unmeasured prelude, free in rhythm in the manner of earlier French harpsichordists such as Louis Couperin and Jean-Henry d'Anglebert, and it is the only unmeasured prelude Rameau wrote. The second part is decidedly dancelike and moves toward a more theatrical sound, a manner that returns in the Courante, Gigue and Gavotte later in the suite.
The page's passage, in 12/8, comes from the measured second part: a rolling right-hand line over a left hand that steps down in quarter notes. The same booklet imagines Rameau, in this Prélude, telling his listeners to just wait and see what he can do, a hint of the composer who would later transform French opera.
- The Prélude is Rameau's only unmeasured prelude.
- The term unmeasured prelude (prélude non mesuré) is a 20th-century label, not one Rameau would have used, according to a note in a recording booklet.
- IMSLP lists the 1706 first edition as published in Paris by the author, with Roussel and Foucaut named on the imprint.
- Rameau later reused some of his solo keyboard pieces in his operas.
Why the first passage is level 9
That passage is level 9 rather than 8 because it leaps a octave plus an octave.
The page's 12/8 passage has no key signature but many accidentals. Each group of three eighths is a unit; read shapes and watch the leaps.
Questions about Prélude (Pièces de clavecin, Book 1)
- How hard is Prélude (Pièces de clavecin, Book 1) to play?
- Its passages grade from level 9 on Real Sight Reader's ten-level reading scale, so the full piece is intermediate to advanced reading. The hardest stretch is bars 21–24 at level 9.
- Is there an easy part of Prélude (Pièces de clavecin, Book 1) for beginners?
- Its easiest passage is level 9, so it suits a reader past the beginner stage. Start with bars 21–24 for both hands together, the level-9 passage in the reader at the top of this page; it is level 9 because it leaps a octave plus an octave.
- What key and time signature is Prélude (Pièces de clavecin, Book 1) in?
- The engraving on this page is in 12/8 time.
- Who composed Prélude (Pièces de clavecin, Book 1)?
- Jean-Philippe Rameau, French baroque (1683–1764). Jean-Philippe Rameau (1683 to 1764) published his Premier livre de pièces de clavecin in Paris in 1706, during his first stay in the city; it contains his earliest-known compositions.
- Can I practice Prélude (Pièces de clavecin, Book 1) online for free?
- Yes. The reader on this page plays any of the one graded passage from Prélude (Pièces de clavecin, Book 1) in your browser, with an on-screen keyboard or a MIDI keyboard, and marks every note as you play. No signup.
- What is an unmeasured prelude?
- It is a prelude written without a fixed meter, so the performer shapes the rhythm freely. The name is a modern label for the older French harpsichord tradition.
- What else is in Rameau's Premier livre?
- IMSLP lists nine pieces: Prélude, two Allemandes, Courante, Gigue, two Sarabandes (counted as one item), Vénitienne, Gavotte and Menuet. A recording booklet counts ten.
- When was the Premier livre published?
- In Paris in 1706; IMSLP lists the author, Roussel and Foucaut on the first edition's imprint.
Every passage, easiest first
The reading release grades one passage of this piece. Open any of them in the reader:
- Level 9
- bars 21–24 both hands
More pieces to sight-read
Score: public-domain engraving from the corpus (pdmx), graded by the piano-reading-v2-20261023-identity-audit reading release.