A Dictionary of Music and Musicians/Preghiera

PREGHIERA, a prayer. A name which some modern writers for the pianoforte (Rubinstein among them) have chosen to prefix to drawing-room pieces, consisting, as a rule, of a well-defined melody, adorned with more or less showy passages. The form of piece is, as its name implies, supposed to be solemn in character, but the display which for some unaccountable reason is seldom separate from it quite destroys any devotional feeling which may have given rise to the piece and to its name.

[ J. A. F. M. ]