Les Préludes is a symphonic poem by the Hungarian composer Franz Liszt. The piece was originally composed in 1848 as an introduction to the secular choral work "Les Quatre Élémens (Autran)", however Liszt revised the piece in the 1850s, and it subsequently premiered in 1854 in Weimar. It is the most celebrated of Liszt's symphonic poems. The undercurrent of the work is defined by Liszt in a "preface" of his own, which reads: "What is our Life but a series of Preludes to that unknown chant, the first solemn note of which is sounded by Death?" Liszt originally wrote the work as an introduction to a larger choral composition, but eventually dropped this idea and turned it into a freestanding piece of program music partially based on the Méditations Poétiques by Alphonse de Lamartine; the score's four sections correspond to divisions in Lamartine's poem. This tone is Episode 1, Dawn of Existence. Heard in Flash Gordon Conquers the Universe (1940).
