After working on the opera Pénélope (1907–1912), Fauré composed very few solo piano pieces, with the exception of his Nocturnes and Barcarolles. In this context, the 9 Préludes, composed between 1909 and 1910, can be considered a representative collection of his late piano works. Although no direct creative connection has been pointed out, it coincidentally overlaps with the period when Debussy composed his Préludes, Book 1 (1909–1910).

The nine pieces were composed in two distinct periods. Nos. 1 to 3 were completed in early January 1910 and published by Heugel in 1910. Their premiere took place on May 17, 1910, at a Société Musicale Indépendante concert, performed by Marguerite Long. The subsequent Nos. 4 to 9 were composed between the summer and autumn of 1910 and published by the same company in 1911. In 1923, they were compiled into a single collection titled 9 Préludes, published by Heugel, and dedicated to Mlle Élisabeth de Lallemand.

Other preludes for piano written by Fauré include the Prélude (1869, E minor, unpublished), composed in Rennes where he moved after graduating from the École de Musique Classique et Religieuse (Niedermeyer School), and a mere 16-bar Prélude (1897, C major). However, the 9 Préludes marks his first concentrated effort and compilation in this genre.

Nectoux classifies these nine pieces into three types (*1):

• (1) those with a rich, nocturne-like sonority (Nos. 1, 3, 7),
• (2) those that are technically demanding, like études (Nos. 2, 5, 8),
• (3) and those that are polyphonic (Nos. 4, 6, 9).

The writing for each piece is highly diverse, making this collection a distillation of Fauré's pianism during this period.

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*1 Jean-Michel NECTOUX, Gabriel Fauré. Les voix du clair-obscur, 2e éd., Paris, Fayard, 2008, p. 490.