Classical Music | Piano Music

Recorded on 11/23/2016, uploaded on 05/29/2017

Musician's or Publisher's Notes

Claude Debussy composed his two books of preludes during a remarkably brief period—the first, between December 1909 and February 1910; and the second, during roughly the same period in 1912-13. Though totaling twenty-four in number between the two books, Debussy’s preludes do not follow the precedent established by J. S. Bach’s ubiquitously known Well-Tempered Clavier (namely, a prelude in each of the major and minor keys) and imitated by several other composers, including Frédéric Chopin, Charles-Valentin Alkan, and Sergei Rachmaninoff. However, this does not mean that Debussy’s preludes are without order, and the relationships that can be found among them indicate that their published order was, to a certain extent, quite purposeful, yet also designed with a degree of inherent flexibility. Debussy, in keeping with the artistic philosophy of his day, also composed each prelude with specific scene or image in mind. Yet, to partially disguise these intents from the listener and to allow his audience to discover them of their own accord, Debussy craftily placed his titles at the end of each prelude. Performance practice of the preludes varies. Early performances, even by Debussy himself, established a precedent of grouping the prelude in threes or fours, allowing performers to pick those in which they perhaps are most comfortable. However, some performers also choose to perform each book in their entirety.  

Among the most popular and well-known of Debussy’s piano works is the eight prelude of Book I: La fille aux cheveux de lin, meaning roughly “The Girl with the Flaxen Hair.” A quaint little piece, its title comes from the fourth poem of Chansons écossaises (“Scottish Songs”) from Charles Leconte de Lisle’s Poemes antiques (“Ancient Poems”). In fact, nearly three decades earlier, Debussy had set this very same poem for voice and piano, which he dedicated to the singer Marie Blanche Vasnier. This setting, however, remained unpublished. 

Set in the key of G-flat major, the prelude opens with delicate and sweet-sounding motif outlining the tones of a minor seventh chord, before coming to a rest on the tonic. The melody maintains throughout the prelude its lyrical quality, even in the more animated sections that appear. Debussy alternates between these calm and animated sections as a means of portraying the flaxen-haired girl, the subject of Lisle’s poem, and her anxious suitor who is the narrator. Taking a cue from the title of Lisle’s collection, Debussy also gives the entire prelude a subtle archaic feel with his use of modes, and certainly in the passage of parallel fourths and fifths that occurs towards the end.       Joseph DuBose

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La fille aux cheveux de lin: (The Girl with the Flaxen Hair) is probably the composer’s best known prelude. It was completed in January 1910 and was first published in April of that same year. The title was inspired by Leconte de Lisle's poem, the first performance was by pianist Franz Liebich in June of the same year.

Courtesy of International Music Foundation.