Debussy: Prélude à l'après-midi d'un faune (Prelude to the Afternoon of a Faun)

Debussy's ten-minute tone poem for orchestra takes its inspiration from the eponymous poem by Stephane Mallarme, and was meant to be the prelude to a ballet choreographed by Valery Nijinsky. Though the ballet is rarely performed, Debussy's prelude has proven to be nothing short of one of the most important watershed works in modern music history. Ambiguous in its meter, capricious in tonality, and full of the impressionistic colors which were Debussy's unique legacy, the prelude is a loose montage of scenes from a torpid afternoon in which the mythical faun vainly pursues a pair of elusive wood nymphs. He reaches them only in a sensual, dream-filled slumber in which he is united with them and nature. The language in both the textual and musical poems is suffused in light, unrealized passion, and vivid languor.

The famous opening flute solo is representative of the faun, who plays his pan-pipe in the woods. From the beginning our sense of tonality is tricked and tricked again, as the flute oscillates between the two notes of a tritone; the melody hints briefly at E-major, but then the orchestra enters in B-flat major, the most unexpected key possible. There is a silent bar as the music seems to ponder this turn of events, before trying again. Wandering interjections from horns and harp wreathe the flute, padded by soft strings. The harmonies wander, but every time it seems to be reaching a point of arrival, of realization or resolution, the goal shifts or evaporates altogether.

With the entrance of a solo clarinet and muttering celli, the shadows of the nymphs appear, and the consequent pursuit and flight are shown by fleeting, unresolved scales, muted brass, and tantalizing pizzicati. As the music grows more animated and passionate, the orchestration grows lush and colorful, but the sweetest moments are also the most hushed and delicate, undulating just underneath the surface. This is the ethereal world that persists to the end of the piece, drifting in between enchanted yearning and fleeting luxuriousness. And what to make of the resolution: clear, unambiguous E Major, a certainty which has eluded us the entire piece? The faun escapes to sleep, forsaking his pursuit, but realizes his desires in the other world of slumber: “Farewell to you... I go to see the shadow you have become.”