How do I download copies of music from Prelude?

Prelude helps you plan your music ministry more quickly and more easily than ever, thanks to its huge Library and the smart search tools that help you explore quickly and flexibly. Watch the Tutorial Videohere.

It’s all found on the Planner Page. All of the search tools are found on the left side, on the tab labelled Library. If you know a lectionary day you’re wanting to explore, just find the date using the calendar or find the lectionary day using the drop-downs, both found at the top. Or, enter a title, keyword, voicing, or theme into the basic search box just below that. The Composers search box, just below this, searches for anybody associated with a musical work, whether that’s the composer, arranger, text writer, translator. or other contributor. You can get more finicky by using any of the Advanced Search tools below this, under the heading “Refine Your Search.” Read more about these here.

Your search results show up on the right. Click on any title to see a preview of the files Prelude offers for download, plus all of the data for that work. If there aren’t any files offered for download it’s because the copyright owner hasn’t given us permission to include them yet.

To download any musical work, click on the Get Music button on the right side of that work’s listing. This panel lists all of the files the Prelude Library offers for download. (There are some works in the Library that don’t have files, but they’re included as suggestions for your planning.) Some works require that you use some of the ‘points‘ that you have; that’s shown here, too. Simply enter the number of copies you’ll need to make and then click the Download button.

Files come to you in a “zip” file — it’s a common technology that reduces the size of the download so it all comes to you more quickly. Double-click or right-click on the zipped folder that you receive and expand (“unzip”) the folder to see the files waiting for you to use.