Pruden's engagement with the twilight world of Wagner and Debussy is revealed in the Adagio (1940) and Prelude (1941), two juvenile works for violin and piano (possibly performed by a violin student at New Plymouth Boys' High School); the Prelude is a transcription by the young composer of his song "O for the Lost Voice", set to an impressionistic poem by North Dakota poet Thomas McGrath (1916–1990). One senses a boyish thrill in these pieces – a heady feeling of liberation. Intense yet unrestrained, they inform our understanding of Pruden's development as a composer whose ambition was to enter the world of intuition, innocence and possibility.