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Preludes (Debussy)
Encyclopedia
Claude Debussy
's Préludes are two sets of pieces for solo piano
. They are divided into two separate livres, or books, of twelve preludes
each. Unlike previous collections of preludes, like those of JS Bach and Chopin
, Debussy's do not follow a strict pattern of key signature
s.
Each book was written in a matter of months, at an unusually fast pace for Debussy. Book one was written between December 1909 and February 1910, and book two between the last months of 1912 and early April 1913.
Two of the titles were set in quotation mark
s by Debussy because they are, in fact, quotations: «Les sons et les parfums tournent dans l'air du soir» is from Baudelaire's poem Harmonie du soir ("Evening Harmony"). «Les fées sont d'exquises danseuses» is from the book Peter Pan in Kensington Gardens
, which Debussy's daughter had received as a gift.
An important precedent was set on 3 May 1911 by the pianist Jane Mortier (to whom works were dedicated by Martinu and Satie) who played the entire first book of preludes at the Salle Pleyel
in Paris. The German-English pianist Walter Morse Rummel
, a student of Leopold Godowsky
, gave the premier of the entire second book of preludes in 1913 in London.
Initially, Debussy and other pianists who gave early performances of the works (including Ricardo Viñes
) played them in groups of 3 or 4 preludes, which remains a popular approach today. This allows performers to choose preludes with which they have the strongest affinity, or those to which their individual interpretive gifts are most suited.
There is a strong tonal relationship between the preludes that suggests that the published order of the preludes is not arbitrary. For example, the first three preludes in the first book (Danseuses de Delphes, Voiles
, and Le Vent dans la Plaine) revolve around the key of B. In these first three preludes, allusions to the key of B disappear and reappear, yet a strong sense of fluidity and connection between the preludes is still maintained.
However, the order of the preludes is not considered imperative, as is the case with Chopin's preludes, for example. Several pianists have performed the set out of order, and at least one recent recording, by Ivan Ilić
, changes the order of the set entirely.
The titles may have been given by the composer to create images or sensory associations for the listener. For example, the first prelude in the second book, Brouillards
, translated to English is "fog" or "mists". The title is well adapted to the piece's tonal ambiguity, and helps enhance the enigmatic quality of the piece.
At least one of the titles is poetically vague: the exact meaning of Voiles, the title of the second prelude of the first book, is impossible to determine for certain, since the noun's gender
is unknown (in French, voiles can mean either "veils" or "sails" depending on the gender).
In addition to the visual effects the titles invoke among listeners, Debussy used visual elements in the physical layout of the piano writing to create a unique visual experience for the performer. For example, in Brouillards Debussy plays all white keys with his left hand and all black keys with his right. The visual contrast between black and white keys added a new sensorial element to Debussy's composing of the preludes that transcended aural perception, helping to characterize his unique style. A similar device is used in Feux d'artifice.
to the tumultuous, unrestrained virtuosity of Ce qu'a vu le vent d'ouest
, and from the mysterious Brouillards, to the explosive Feux d'artifice.
Perhaps the most famous two preludes are from the first book; La fille aux cheveux de lin
is a brief but harmonically complex Pre-Raphaelite expression of beauty. La cathédrale engloutie alludes to the legend of the submerged city of Ys
in which the cathedral was allowed to rise once a day as a reminder of the glorious city that was lost.
, Luc Brewaeys
, and Hans Henkemans
, and Sean Osborn
has orchestrated the first book.
Claude Debussy
Claude-Achille Debussy was a French composer. Along with Maurice Ravel, he was one of the most prominent figures working within the field of impressionist music, though he himself intensely disliked the term when applied to his compositions...
's Préludes are two sets of pieces for solo piano
Piano
The piano is a musical instrument played by means of a keyboard. It is one of the most popular instruments in the world. Widely used in classical and jazz music for solo performances, ensemble use, chamber music and accompaniment, the piano is also very popular as an aid to composing and rehearsal...
. They are divided into two separate livres, or books, of twelve preludes
Prelude (music)
A prelude is a short piece of music, the form of which may vary from piece to piece. The prelude can be thought of as a preface. It may stand on its own or introduce another work...
each. Unlike previous collections of preludes, like those of JS Bach and Chopin
Frédéric Chopin
Frédéric François Chopin was a Polish composer and virtuoso pianist. He is considered one of the great masters of Romantic music and has been called "the poet of the piano"....
, Debussy's do not follow a strict pattern of key signature
Key signature
In musical notation, a key signature is a series of sharp or flat symbols placed on the staff, designating notes that are to be consistently played one semitone higher or lower than the equivalent natural notes unless otherwise altered with an accidental...
s.
Each book was written in a matter of months, at an unusually fast pace for Debussy. Book one was written between December 1909 and February 1910, and book two between the last months of 1912 and early April 1913.
Premier Livre
- Danseuses de Delphes (Dancers of DelphiDelphiDelphi is both an archaeological site and a modern town in Greece on the south-western spur of Mount Parnassus in the valley of Phocis.In Greek mythology, Delphi was the site of the Delphic oracle, the most important oracle in the classical Greek world, and a major site for the worship of the god...
): Lent et grave - VoilesVoilesVoiles, a composition for solo piano, is the 2nd piece of Claude Debussy's first book of preludes. The title of the piece may mean either veils or sails; both connotations were intended by Debussy. Except for some mild localized chromaticism and a short pentatonic passage, the entire piece uses...
(Veils or sails): Modéré - Le vent dans la plaine (The Wind in the Plain): Animé
- «Les sons et les parfums tournent dans l'air du soir» ("The sounds and fragrances swirl through the evening air"): Modéré
- Les collines d'Anacapri (The Hills of AnacapriCapriCapri is an Italian island in the Tyrrhenian Sea off the Sorrentine Peninsula, on the south side of the Gulf of Naples, in the Campania region of Southern Italy...
): Très modéré - Des pas sur la neigeDes pas sur la neigeDes pas sur la neige is the sixth of Claude Debussy's first set of preludes for piano. It evokes a stark, glacial landscape of resigned sadness and solitude. The melancholy of the fragmented melody is superimposed by plodding ostinato figures.Maurice Hinson considered this piece the saddest and...
(Footsteps in the Snow): Triste et lent - Ce qu'a vu le vent d'ouestCe qu'a vu le vent d'ouestCe qu'a vu le vent d'ouest is the 7th piece in Claude Debussy's first set of preludes. This piece is supposed to evoke the destructive power of the wind as opposed to Le vent dans la plaine, which only evokes bursts of wind. This piece is unrestrained in virtuosity...
(What the West Wind has seen): Animé et tumultueux - La fille aux cheveux de linLa fille aux cheveux de linLa fille aux cheveux de lin is a musical composition by French composer Claude Debussy. It is the eighth number from the composer's Préludes, Book I . The title is in French and translates roughly to "The Girl with the Flaxen Hair". The piece is 39 bars long and has a running time of about two and...
(The Girl with the Flaxen Hair): Très calme et doucement expressif - La sérénade interrompue (Interrupted SerenadeSerenadeIn music, a serenade is a musical composition, and/or performance, in someone's honor. Serenades are typically calm, light music.The word Serenade is derived from the Italian word sereno, which means calm....
): Modérément animé - La cathédrale engloutieLa cathédrale engloutieLa cathédrale engloutie is a prelude written by the French composer Claude Debussy for solo piano. It was published in 1910 as the tenth prelude in Debussy’s first of two volumes of twelve piano preludes each...
(The Submerged Cathedral): Profondément calme - La danse de Puck (PuckPuck (Shakespeare)Puck, also known as Robin Goodfellow, is a character in William Shakespeare's play A Midsummer Night's Dream that was based on the ancient figure in English mythology, also called Puck. Puck is a clever and mischievous elf and personifies the trickster or the wise knave...
's Dance): Capricieux et léger - Minstrels: Modéré
Deuxième Livre
- BrouillardsBrouillardsBrouillards or "Mists" or "Fog" is the first prelude of Claude Debussy's second set of preludes. It can be considered as the most harmonically complex of the entire series of preludes, hinting at polytonality...
(Mists): Modéré - Feuilles mortes (Dead Leaves): Lent et mélancolique
- La puerta del Vino (The Wine Gate): Mouvement de Habanera
- «Les fées sont d'exquises danseuses» ("Fairies are exquisite dancers"): Rapide et léger
- Bruyères (Heather but also the name of a town in Eastern France): Calme
- Général Lavine - eccentric: Dans le style et le mouvement d'un CakewalkCakewalkThe Cakewalk dance was developed from a "Prize Walk" done in the days of slavery, generally at get-togethers on plantations in the Southern United States. Alternative names for the original form of the dance were "chalkline-walk", and the "walk-around"...
- La terrasse des audiences du clair de lune (The Terrace of Moonlit Audiences): Lent
- Ondine (Undine): Scherzando
- Hommage à S. Pickwick Esq. P.P.M.P.C.Hommage à S. Pickwick Esq. P.P.M.P.C.Hommage à S. Pickwick Esq. P.P.M.P.C. is the 9th piece in Claude Debussy's second set of preludes. It is characteristic for its eccentric shifts in expression and often melancholy or sentimental tone. It is also notable for incorporating the opening refrain from "God Save the Queen."The prelude's...
(Homage to S. PickwickThe Pickwick PapersThe Posthumous Papers of the Pickwick Club is the first novel by Charles Dickens. After the publication, the widow of the illustrator Robert Seymour claimed that the idea for the novel was originally her husband's; however, in his preface to the 1867 edition, Dickens strenuously denied any...
): Grave - Canope (Canopic jarCanopic jarCanopic jars were used by the Ancient Egyptians during the mummification process to store and preserve the viscera of their owner for the afterlife. They were commonly either carved from limestone or were made of pottery...
): Très calme et doucement triste - Les tierces alternées (Alternating Thirds): Modérément animé
- Feux d'artifice (Fireworks): Modérément animé
Two of the titles were set in quotation mark
Quotation mark
Quotation marks or inverted commas are punctuation marks at the beginning and end of a quotation, direct speech, literal title or name. Quotation marks can also be used to indicate a different meaning of a word or phrase than the one typically associated with it and are often used to express irony...
s by Debussy because they are, in fact, quotations: «Les sons et les parfums tournent dans l'air du soir» is from Baudelaire's poem Harmonie du soir ("Evening Harmony"). «Les fées sont d'exquises danseuses» is from the book Peter Pan in Kensington Gardens
Peter Pan in Kensington Gardens
Peter Pan in Kensington Gardens is a novel by J. M. Barrie, published in 1906; it is one of four major literary works by Barrie featuring the widely known literary character he originated, Peter Pan.-Plot summary:...
, which Debussy's daughter had received as a gift.
Performance Practice
There is no proof that Debussy necessarily intended the preludes to be performed as a cycle, although the musical language throughout each book is so consistent that performers often do so. There is also a pragmatic reason why performers play the preludes as a set: each book of 12 preludes lasts between 35 and 40 minutes, about half the duration of a typical piano recital.An important precedent was set on 3 May 1911 by the pianist Jane Mortier (to whom works were dedicated by Martinu and Satie) who played the entire first book of preludes at the Salle Pleyel
Salle Pleyel
The Salle Pleyel is a concert hall in Paris, France. The resident ensembles are the Orchestre de Paris and the Orchestre Philharmonique de Radio France.-History and Design:...
in Paris. The German-English pianist Walter Morse Rummel
Walter Morse Rummel
Walter Morse Rummel was a prominent pianist, especially associated with Claude Debussy's works, as well as a composer and music editor. He was of German-English descent and active mainly in France....
, a student of Leopold Godowsky
Leopold Godowsky
Leopold Godowsky was a famed Polish American pianist, composer, and teacher. One of the most highly regarded performers of his time, he became known for his theories concerning the application of relaxed weight and economy of motion in piano playing, principles later propagated by Godowsky's...
, gave the premier of the entire second book of preludes in 1913 in London.
Initially, Debussy and other pianists who gave early performances of the works (including Ricardo Viñes
Ricardo Viñes
Ricardo Viñes was a Spanish pianist. He first publicly performed many important works by Maurice Ravel, Claude Debussy, Erik Satie, Manuel de Falla, Déodat de Séverac and Isaac Albéniz. He was also the piano teacher of composer Francis Poulenc and pianist Léo-Pol Morin.He was born in Lleida,...
) played them in groups of 3 or 4 preludes, which remains a popular approach today. This allows performers to choose preludes with which they have the strongest affinity, or those to which their individual interpretive gifts are most suited.
There is a strong tonal relationship between the preludes that suggests that the published order of the preludes is not arbitrary. For example, the first three preludes in the first book (Danseuses de Delphes, Voiles
Voiles
Voiles, a composition for solo piano, is the 2nd piece of Claude Debussy's first book of preludes. The title of the piece may mean either veils or sails; both connotations were intended by Debussy. Except for some mild localized chromaticism and a short pentatonic passage, the entire piece uses...
, and Le Vent dans la Plaine) revolve around the key of B. In these first three preludes, allusions to the key of B disappear and reappear, yet a strong sense of fluidity and connection between the preludes is still maintained.
However, the order of the preludes is not considered imperative, as is the case with Chopin's preludes, for example. Several pianists have performed the set out of order, and at least one recent recording, by Ivan Ilić
Ivan Ilic
Ivan Ilić is an American pianist of Serbian descent. He is currently living in Paris.-Biography:Born on August 14, 1978, in Belgrade, Yugoslavia, Ilić attended the University of California, Berkeley where he took degrees in mathematics and music...
, changes the order of the set entirely.
The Titles
The titles of the preludes are highly significant, both in terms of their descriptive quality, and in the way they were placed in the written score. The titles are written at the end of each work, allowing the performer to experience each individual sound world with fresh ears, without being influenced by Debussy's titles beforehand.The titles may have been given by the composer to create images or sensory associations for the listener. For example, the first prelude in the second book, Brouillards
Brouillards
Brouillards or "Mists" or "Fog" is the first prelude of Claude Debussy's second set of preludes. It can be considered as the most harmonically complex of the entire series of preludes, hinting at polytonality...
, translated to English is "fog" or "mists". The title is well adapted to the piece's tonal ambiguity, and helps enhance the enigmatic quality of the piece.
At least one of the titles is poetically vague: the exact meaning of Voiles, the title of the second prelude of the first book, is impossible to determine for certain, since the noun's gender
Grammatical gender
Grammatical gender is defined linguistically as a system of classes of nouns which trigger specific types of inflections in associated words, such as adjectives, verbs and others. For a system of noun classes to be a gender system, every noun must belong to one of the classes and there should be...
is unknown (in French, voiles can mean either "veils" or "sails" depending on the gender).
In addition to the visual effects the titles invoke among listeners, Debussy used visual elements in the physical layout of the piano writing to create a unique visual experience for the performer. For example, in Brouillards Debussy plays all white keys with his left hand and all black keys with his right. The visual contrast between black and white keys added a new sensorial element to Debussy's composing of the preludes that transcended aural perception, helping to characterize his unique style. A similar device is used in Feux d'artifice.
A Great Diversity of Moods
The moods of the pieces vary wildly, from the "profound calm" of La cathédrale engloutieLa cathédrale engloutie
La cathédrale engloutie is a prelude written by the French composer Claude Debussy for solo piano. It was published in 1910 as the tenth prelude in Debussy’s first of two volumes of twelve piano preludes each...
to the tumultuous, unrestrained virtuosity of Ce qu'a vu le vent d'ouest
Ce qu'a vu le vent d'ouest
Ce qu'a vu le vent d'ouest is the 7th piece in Claude Debussy's first set of preludes. This piece is supposed to evoke the destructive power of the wind as opposed to Le vent dans la plaine, which only evokes bursts of wind. This piece is unrestrained in virtuosity...
, and from the mysterious Brouillards, to the explosive Feux d'artifice.
Perhaps the most famous two preludes are from the first book; La fille aux cheveux de lin
La fille aux cheveux de lin
La fille aux cheveux de lin is a musical composition by French composer Claude Debussy. It is the eighth number from the composer's Préludes, Book I . The title is in French and translates roughly to "The Girl with the Flaxen Hair". The piece is 39 bars long and has a running time of about two and...
is a brief but harmonically complex Pre-Raphaelite expression of beauty. La cathédrale engloutie alludes to the legend of the submerged city of Ys
Ys
Ys , also spelled Is or Kêr-Is in Breton, and Ker-Ys in French , is a mythical city that was built on the coast of Brittany and later swallowed by the ocean...
in which the cathedral was allowed to rise once a day as a reminder of the glorious city that was lost.
Media
Orchestrations
Various orchestrations have been made of the various preludes, mostly of La fille aux cheveux de lin and La cathédrale engloutie. Complete orchestrations of all 24 preludes include versions by Colin MatthewsColin Matthews
Colin Matthews OBE is an English composer of classical music.-Early life and education:Matthews was born in London in 1946; his older brother is the composer David Matthews. He read classics at the University of Nottingham, and then studied composition there with Arnold Whittall, and with Nicholas...
, Luc Brewaeys
Luc Brewaeys
Luc Brewaeys is a Belgian composer, conductor, pianist and recording producer at the VRT...
, and Hans Henkemans
Hans Henkemans
Hans Henkemans was a Dutch pianist, teacher, composer of classical music and psychiatrist....
, and Sean Osborn
Sean Osborn
Sean Osborn is a former clarinetist of the Metropolitan Opera Orchestra, and is a regular substitute in the clarinet section of the Seattle Symphony Orchestra. A student of Stanley Hasty, Frank Kowalsky, and Eric Mandat. Osborn has traveled Europe, Japan, and North America as a soloist and...
has orchestrated the first book.
Sources
- Lesure, François and Howat, Roy. "Debussy, Claude." Grove Music Online. Oxford Music Online, accessed 14 December 2009
- Roberts, Paul (1996). Images: The Piano Music of Claude Debussy. Portland, Oregon: Amadeus Press
Further reading
- Guido, Gatti M., Frederick H. Martens, and Claude Debussy. "The Piano Works of Claude Debussy." The Musical Quarterly 7.3 (1921): 418-60. Print.
External links
- Watch a performance of the Bruyères
- Performances of selected preludes including "Voiles”, Ce qu'a vu le vent d'ouest”, and "La puerta del vino" by Jeremy DenkJeremy DenkJeremy Denk is an American classical pianist. He has performed with numerous orchestras and presented world premieres by Jake Heggie, Libby Larsen, Kevin Puts, and Ned Rorem. He frequently performs with violinists Joshua Bell and Soovin Kim. He has recorded several chamber works as well as a solo...
from the Isabella Stewart Gardner MuseumIsabella Stewart Gardner MuseumThe Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum or Fenway Court, as the museum was known during Isabella Stewart Gardner's lifetime, is a museum in the Fenway-Kenmore neighborhood of Boston, Massachusetts, located within walking distance of the Museum of Fine Arts and near the Back Bay Fens...