A comparative analytical study of the preludes of Johann Sebastian Bach and Luis de Freitas Branco

Baroque music was influenced by some features of Renaissance music, then gradually began to separate from it, as instrumental music separated from vocal music and acquired its own style and character that combined the monophonic style and the polyphonic style. The Baroque era is considered an era of abundant production and changing conditions, as several artistic changes appeared in this era that its authors realized, as they realized the nature of the difference between the style of writing for choral singers and writing for instrumental music.

During the second half of the 17th century, German composers began to associate the prelude with the fugue, Johann Sebastian Bach being one of the first to do so. At the beginning of the 18th century, the prelude was a prelude preceding the fugue. In the 19th century, interest in writing preludes decreased and they appeared with romantic characteristics. In the 20th century, the prelude appeared as an independent work as small pieces, each with its own character. Therefore, the researcher decided to conduct a comparative analytical study of the preludes of both Johann Sebastian Bach and Luis De Freitas Branco in an attempt to identify their style in composing the preludes, and to reach the similarity and difference in the style of each of them in formulating the musical characteristics used in constructing those pieces through general and detailed analysis.