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 signatures.
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.
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Two of the titles were set in quotation marks 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.
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[1] and Satie[2]) who played the entire first book of preludes at the Salle Pleyel in Paris.[3] 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.[4]
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.[5] 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♭.[6] 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.[7]
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,[8] 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, 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).[9]
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.
The moods of the pieces vary wildly, from the "profound calm" of La cathédrale engloutie 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.
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 Matthews, Luc Brewaeys, and Hans Henkemans, and Sean Osborn has orchestrated the first book.