ETYM Latin introductio: cf. French introduction. Related to Introduce.
1. A basic or elementary instructional text.
2. A new proposal.
3. The first section of a communication.
In music, a section preceding the main body of a work. Many symphonies of the 18th century featured a slow introduction (including works by Haydn, Mozart, and Beethoven), and this practice was sometimes transferred to quartets and keyboard works, as in Beethoven’s Sonata Pathétique 1799. The introduction may be related motivically or thematically to the rest of the work, as in the Pathétique, or it may be more independent, as in Elgar’s Introduction and Allegro 1905 for strings.