Claude Debussy Achille Claude Debussy (; 22 August 1862 – 25 March 1918) was a French composer. He is sometimes seen as the first Impressionism in music, Impressionist composer, although he vigorously rejected the term. He was among the most influe ...

's ''Préludes'' are 24 pieces for solo

piano A piano is a keyboard instrument that produces sound when its keys are depressed, activating an Action (music), action mechanism where hammers strike String (music), strings. Modern pianos have a row of 88 black and white keys, tuned to a c ...

, divided into two books of 12 preludes each. Unlike some notable collections of preludes from prior times, such as Chopin's Op. 28 preludes, or the preludes from

Johann Sebastian Bach Johann Sebastian Bach (German: Help:IPA/Standard German, �joːhan zeˈbasti̯an baχ ( – 28 July 1750) was a German composer and musician of the late Baroque music, Baroque period. He is known for his prolific output across a variety ...

's ''

The Well-Tempered Clavier ''The Well-Tempered Clavier'', BWV 846–893, consists of two sets of preludes and fugues in all 24 major and minor keys for keyboard by Johann Sebastian Bach. In the composer's time ''clavier'' referred to a variety of keyboard instruments, ...

'', Debussy's do not follow a strict pattern of tonal centers. Each book was written in a matter of months, at an unusually fast pace for Debussy. Book I was written between December 1909 and February 1910, and Book II in 1911 and 1912.

Pieces

Performance

On 3 May 1911, pianist Jane Mortier premiered the first book of preludes at the

Salle Pleyel The Salle Pleyel (, meaning "Pleyel Hall") is a concert hall in the 8th arrondissement of Paris, France, designed by the acoustician Gustave Lyon together with the architect Jacques Marcel Auburtin, who died in 1926, and the work was completed i ...

in Paris. German-English pianist Walter Morse Rummel, a student of

Leopold Godowsky Leopold Mordkhelovich Godowsky Sr. (13 February 1870 – 21 November 1938) was a virtuoso pianist, composer and teacher, born in what is now Lithuania to Jewish parents, who became an United States of America, American citizen in 1891. He ...

, premiered the second book in 1913 in London. Debussy and other pianists who gave early performances of the preludes (including

Ricardo Viñes Ricardo Viñes y Roda (, , ; 5 February 1875 – 29 April 1943) was a Spanish pianist. He gave the premieres of works by Ravel, Debussy, Satie, Falla and Albéniz. He was the piano teacher of the composer Francis Poulenc and the pianists M ...

) played them in groups of three or four, which remains a popular approach today. This allows performers to choose preludes with which they have the strongest affinity, or those to which their particular gifts are most suited. There is a strong tonal relationship between the preludes that suggests that their published order is not arbitrary. For example, the first three preludes of the first book (''Danseuses de Delphes'', ''

Voiles Voiles is a musical composition for solo piano by French composer Claude Debussy that was composed in 1909. It is the second piece in Debussy's first book of Préludes (Debussy), préludes, published in 1910. The title may be translated as either ' ...

'', and ''Le Vent dans la Plaine'') make continued references to the key of B. Although these references come and go, it creates a strong sense of fluidity and connection between these preludes. The order of the preludes is not considered imperative (as it is with Chopin's preludes, for example). Several pianists have performed them out of order; and at least one recording, by Ivan Ilić, changes the order entirely. The first complete recording of both books was made in England in 1938 by South African pianist Adolph Hallis.

Titles

In the original editions, Debussy had the titles placed at the end of each work, allowing performers to experience each prelude without being influenced by its titles beforehand. Two of the titles were set in

quotation mark Quotation marks are punctuation marks used in pairs in various writing systems to identify direct speech, a quotation, or a phrase. The pair consists of an opening quotation mark and a closing quotation mark, which may or may not be the sam ...

s by Debussy because they are, in fact, quotations: ''«Les sons et les parfums tournent dans l'air du soir»'' is from

Charles Baudelaire Charles Pierre Baudelaire (, ; ; 9 April 1821 – 31 August 1867) was a French poet, essayist, translator and art critic. His poems are described as exhibiting mastery of rhythm and rhyme, containing an exoticism inherited from the Romantics ...

's poem ''Harmonie du soir'' ("Evening Harmony"), from his volume ''

Les Fleurs du mal ''Les Fleurs du mal'' (; ) is a volume of French poetry by Charles Baudelaire. ''Les Fleurs du mal'' includes nearly all Baudelaire's poetry, written from 1840 until his death in August 1867. First published in 1857, it was important in the ...

''. ''«Les fées sont d'exquises danseuses»'' is from

J. M. Barrie Sir James Matthew Barrie, 1st Baronet, (; 9 May 1860 19 June 1937) was a Scottish novelist and playwright, best remembered as the creator of Peter Pan. He was born and educated in Scotland and then moved to London, where he wrote several succe ...

's book '' Peter Pan in Kensington Gardens'', which Debussy's daughter had received as a gift. At least one title is poetically vague: The exact meaning of ''Voiles'', the first book's second prelude, is impossible to ascertain; in French, ''voiles'' can mean either "veils" or "sails".

Orchestrations and adaptations

Numerous

orchestration Orchestration is the study or practice of writing music for an orchestra (or, more loosely, for any musical ensemble, such as a concert band) or of adapting music composed for another medium for an orchestra. Also called "instrumentation", orch ...

s 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 Pavica Gvozdić,

Peter Breiner Peter Breiner (born 3 July 1957) is a Slovak pianist, conductor, and composer. Biography Early life and studies Breiner, born in Humenné, Czechoslovakia, began to play the piano at age four. When he was nine, he enrolled at the conservatory i ...

Luc Brewaeys Luc Brewaeys (25 October 1959 in Mortsel, Belgium – 18 December 2015 in Antwerp, Belgium) was a Belgian composer, conductor, pianist and recording producer at the VRT (Flemish Radio & Television). He studied composition with André Laporte in Br ...

, Hans Henkemans and Colin Matthews. Sean Osborn and conductor Noam Zur have orchestrated the first book. Some of the ''Préludes'' were adapted to form the dynamic soundtrack of '' Untitled Goose Game''.

References

Sources *

External links

*
Debussy's ''Préludes'' – A Beginners' Guide – Overview, analysis and the best recordings
The Classic Review *Performances o
Book 1
an
Book 2
of the Preludes by Paavali Jumppanen from the

Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum The Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum is an art museum in Boston, Massachusetts, which houses significant examples of European, Asian, and American art. Its collection includes paintings, sculpture, tapestries, and decorative arts. It was found ...

MP3 MP3 (formally MPEG-1 Audio Layer III or MPEG-2 Audio Layer III) is a coding format for digital audio developed largely by the Fraunhofer Society in Germany under the lead of Karlheinz Brandenburg. It was designed to greatly reduce the amount ...