The prelude danseuses de delphes is a single-movement composition lasting more or less 3

minutes, depending on the performance. It procedes gently in a slow pace (lent e grave), and by
bein the first one of the preludes, it projects an opening gesture for the whole series. This function
is supporte by the general characte of the Prelude and by the tonal lines connecting in to the next
two preludes. The temporal scope and nature of the prelude is such that it can be perceived as a
single, graspable form where Bb-mayor tonality and the initial quarter-note motion are gradually
departed from and finally, after a short culmination, returned to. The carcter of the prelude is
opening also in the sense, that it leaves an impression of something bein left open, i.e.
incompleted. The aim of my analysis is to find out how meter as projection contributes to the
forming of the characterisation

Structure of the prelude: Three dominant Beginnings; Three Periods

The prelude, as the fothcoming analysis will real, is composed of three periods nearly equal in
length. All periods are initiated by a prominent dominant beginning- in bars 1,11 and 21. In the firs
period (bs. 1-10) a structure of five bars is repeated in written out form, slightly varied. These five-
bar phrases are framed by a harmonic progression I-V, concluding with a short tonicization of the
dominant harmony

In the second period (bs. 11-20), in bars 16-17, there is an aim towards a resolution again a fifth
higher, in C-mayor (v/v). This resolution becomes thwarted, and is followed by a reestablishing of
dominant harmony at the end of the period. After this, in the thier period (bs 21-31), Bs mayor is
finally restored.

The second period is separated from the third by a clear metrical hiatus: a projective closure as we
shall se (section 2.2.2), supporte by a comma with a fermata. The dominante beginning in bar 21,
initiated by a Bb-mayor triad, begins a process of restoring tonic harmony. In regard to tonality,
this beginning is ambiguos, and thus the first four bars of the third period (bs 21-24) emerge as a
retransition (this shall be discussed more closely in secction 4.2.2.2). Tonic harmony is not clearly
re-established until bar 25, in which begins a referential recapitulation (bs 25-28). This
recapitulation is finally followed by a small codeta (bs 28-31)