All 4 Uses of
prelude
in
Moby Dick
- On the grim Pequod's forecastle, ye shall ere long see him, beating his tambourine; prelusive of the eternal time, when sent for, to the great quarter-deck on high, he was bid strike in with angels, and beat his tambourine in glory; called a coward here, hailed a hero there!†
Chpt 25-27 *
- So still and subdued and yet somehow preluding was all the scene, and such an incantation of reverie lurked in the air, that each silent sailor seemed resolved into his own invisible self.†
Chpt 46-48
- Making so long a passage through such unfrequented waters, descrying no ships, and ere long, sideways impelled by unvarying trade winds, over waves monotonously mild; all these seemed the strange calm things preluding some riotous and desperate scene.†
Chpt 124-126
- At that preluding moment, ere the boat was yet snapped, Ahab, the first to perceive the whale's intent, by the crafty upraising of his head, a movement that loosed his hold for the time; at that moment his hand had made one final effort to push the boat out of the bite.†
Chpt 133-135
Definition:
-
(prelude) something that prepares for or introduces what is to follow
or:
music #1: an introductory piece of music -- such as might introduce an act of an opera
or:
music #2: a short independent piece of music -- typically for piano