Twenty-four Preludes and Fugues. Op. 87.

The following sources were used to prepare this edition:

- Author’s manuscript of the fair manuscript. The Glinka All-Russia Museum Association of Musical Culture (VMOMK), rec. gr. 32, f. 24.
- Author’s manuscript of the parts. Set of 19 fugues and fragments of two preludes written by parts. Dmitri Shostakovich’s Archive, rec. gr. 1, section 1, f. 160.
- Proofreading of Preludes and Fugues No. 7 in A major and No. 24 in D minor. VMOMK, rec. gr. 32, f. 24.
- First edition. Muzgiz Publishers, Moscow, 1952.

This publication is based on the author’s manuscript of the cycle. Additional sources are the author’s manuscript of 19 fugues and one of the preludes, all written by parts, and the author’s proofreading of two preludes and fugues. All of these sources have been collated with the first edition published during Shostakovich’s lifetime. Besides, when preparing the edition, archive audio recordings of 18 preludes and fugues performed by the author were used.

The original author’s text of 24 Preludes and Fugues, which differs in many details from the first edition of the preludes and fugues, which appeared in the composer’s lifetime, is being published for the first time in this edition. All of the discrepancies between the author’s manuscript and the text of the edition published during Shostakovich’s lifetime are specified in the Bar-by-Bar Comments—not only because it was the first, printed during the author’s lifetime, but also because all the subsequent editions—those published in Russia and abroad—essentially repeated this text with a few small changes.

The mistakes found in FE have been corrected in this edition; the discrepancies between the texts in author’s manuscript and first edition have been given in compliance with the original and described in detail in the Bar-by-Bar Comments. So this edition is not an Urtext, since corrections from previous publications were used during its preparation.