preluding

They included "preluding" -- that is, offering an improvised beginning to a work or movement.

What Music Has Lost James F. Penrose 2008

Forth now, Erato! and I will unfold who were the kings, what the tides of circumstance, how it was with ancient Latium when first that foreign army drew their fleet ashore on Ausonia's coast; I will recall the preluding of battle.

The Aeneid of Virgil 70 BC-19 BC Virgil

But this operation should not be performed in presence of the public; and, moreover, every instrumental noise -- every kind of preluding between the acts -- constitutes

The Orchestral Conductor Theory of His Art Hector Berlioz 1836

It was one of those brilliant days preluding summer.

New Carpet 2010

To be fair, the #21 cover is Carlos Pacheco, and the “villains winning” idea fit in pretty thematically with Final Crisis, which it was preluding.

I’m starting to detect a pattern… 2009

So she took the lute and, preluding after the goodliest fashion, sang these couplets,

The Book of The Thousand Nights And A Night 2006

So I bade the servant bring him a new lute and he tuned it and preluding in a mode I knew not began to sing, improvising these couplets,

The Book of The Thousand Nights And A Night 2006

Mr. Hamilton explains that preluding, in a concert hall or salon, had the effect of settling the audience and of reminding it, along the way, that the pianist was a creative artist and not an automaton.

What Music Has Lost James F. Penrose 2008

Then she took her lute and, preluding thereon in manifold modes, lastly returned to the first and sang these couplets,

The Book of The Thousand Nights And A Night 2006

The folk rejoiced in her song with exceeding joy and my gladness redoubled, so that I took the lute from the damsel and preluding after the most melodious fashion, sang these couplets,

The Book of The Thousand Nights And A Night 2006