I have to prepare 50-100 words programme note of the following pieces:

1. Pathetique Sonata Op 13, 1st movt. - Beethoven
2. Impromptu Op 90 No. 4 in Ab - Schubert
3. Prelude & Fugue in D, BWV 850 Book 1 - Bach
4. 3 Fantastic Dances - Shostakovich

I have been searching from libraries but I only got some information on Pathetique and Impromptu and that is it. Please help!! Appreciated!!!

You could give the nutritional value of the Prelude & Fudge!

To avoid violating any copyrights, you should look at biographies of the composers and paraphrase what they may say about the pieces. There may not be anything specific about those pieces, other than things like "The 3 Fantastic Dances are Shostakovich's first piano pieces." In that case, you could write about about what the composers were doing when they wrote the pieces.

You could also do your own analysis of the music, what it means to you. You could discuss the Prelude & Fugue form, its origin from Bach's predecessors, other pieces by Bach that use the forms, like the organ toccatas. You could link Bach with Beethoven and Shostakovich, explaining how they wrote their own versions of the WTC. There are lots of options. I bet you will find that 100 words is way too little.

(If you have a Mac using OS X, play with the Summarize service!)

Do you mean that you play these pieces and do not know what to say about them ?

You are joking, aren't you ?

Imagine you read a novel, like Harry Potter or the Three Musketeers or Oliver Twist and you would not know what to say about them.

Just say what "you" feel and think. You are doing your teacher a favor by sharing with him what you are.

Good luck.

Get involved with the music emotionally and then come up with your comments. Play the pieces and listen to some good recorded versions before writing about them.