Classical Music | Piano Music

Recorded on 06/15/2011, uploaded on 01/21/2012

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.

Beginning the second half of Book II is La terrasse des audiences du clair de lune (“The Terrace of the Audiences of Moonlight”). A subtle piece requiring great sensitivity on the part of the performer, it begins slowly in the key of F-sharp major with one of its principal motives answered by mysteriously descending scales and gentle chords that seem to magically evoke the soft moonlight. The tempo of the prelude has its own ebb and flow—at times becoming quicker and more lively; at others returning to the gentle and slow tempo of the beginning—which ultimately leads to an animated section (En animant) in C major that marks the climax. Slowly, the piece recedes back to the mysterious quality of the opening measures and closes with ethereal parallel fifths before the final two soft and moonlit F-sharp major chords.      Joseph DuBose

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La terrasse des audiences du clair de lune, from Préludes, Book II     Claude Debussy

At the turn of the twentieth century in France, many composers became increasingly resistant to the dominance of Germanic music. Claude Debussy was one such composer. His compositions took a different path from nineteenth-century romanticism, his music tending to rely more on allusion and understatement. This particular writing approach was commonly known as Impressionism, though Debussy hated the term.

His Préludes (1909-1913) are programmatic in nature, as each prelude contains a descriptive title to evoke a particular mood. “La terrasse des audiences du clair de lune” (The terrace of moonlit audiences) conjures the imagery of complete stillness as one watches the moon and stars. “Ce qu’a vu le vent d’Ouest” (What the West Wind saw) stirs up a considerably different scene. At the beginning, one hears the quiet, rumbling arpeggios in the low register of the piano, which resembles the howling, faint winds. As the music progresses, the winds become more turbulent and violent as Debussy utilizes the resources of the instrument to create a virtuosic work for the pianist.     Frank Huang

Courtesy of International Music Foundation.