Prelude and Fugue

In classical music, the combination of prelude and fugue is one with a long history. Many composers have written one or, usually, multiple such works. The use of this format is generally inspired by Johann Sebastian Bach's two books of preludes and fugues — The Well-Tempered Clavier — completed in 1722 and 1742 respectively. Bach, however, was not the first to compose such a set: Johann Caspar Ferdinand Fischer wrote a 20-key cycle in his 1702 work Ariadne musica.

A number of composers wrote sets of pieces covering all 24 major and minor keys. Many of these have been sets of 24 preludes and fugues, or 24 preludes.