The Prélude aux Chants d’amour was written after the shocking news of the death of Yodit, wife of my friend Martin Anderson. Since I was busy composing the final part of my song-cycle Chants d’amour, on love poems that the Belgian poet Émile Verhaeren had written for his wife (Les heures), I thought straightaway that a purely instrumental prelude might introduce the thematic elements developed in these songs and that it could be played independently as a memorial piece. The work begins with a modal, Ravelian harmonic sweetness and grows more and more chromatic before ending in a mood of peace.