Crossword-Solution: PRELUDIAL 9 letters, 2 clues 🏆 scrabble score: 12

After a good deal of preludial matter the plot centres in the rivalry of Chénier the poet and Gérard, a revolutionary leader, for the hand of Madeleine.

The work opens with three spasmodic syncopated[194] chords, and then follow twenty-four measures (lento and at first pianissimo) of a preludial nature with suggestions of the Manfred theme.

But after the double bar and repeat, this first theme is developed in a free preludial manner as if it were continually leading up to a climax.

Some preludial measures, expanding the material presented, bring us at B[283] to a premonitory statement of the second theme _pp_ (in wood-wind and pizzicato strings) over a muffled roll of the kettle-drums on C-sharp, _e.g._ [Music] [Footnote 283: The indication by letters is the same in the full score as in the version for two pianofortes.] Then follows a long rhapsodic presentation of the first theme for pianoforte solo--the melody in octaves and the accompaniment in the widest arpeggios possible.

The structure, as a whole, is divided into three main portions: the first preludial, the second sombre and often meditative--largely in the minor--the third entirely in the major and of extraordinary brilliance and vivacity.