Notes for: August 2, 2016
This evening we hear Debussy’s Prelude to the Afternoon of a Faun, not the familiar orchestral version, but a transcription for piano four-hands by Maurice Ravel published in 1910. The Debussy original and the Ravel arrangement were both creations by rebellious young French composers at key points in their career development.
Debussy in 1894: At the age of 32, he had not yet produced any of the masterpieces of impressionism for which he is known today. The premiere performance of Prelude to the Afternoon of a Faun changed his future. Only ten minutes long, this unique symphonic poem for orchestra was based on an equally revolutionary poem published in 1876 by the French symbolist poet Stéphane Mallermé. In a dreamlike monologue, the poem describes the sensual experiences of a faun who, after waking from a nap, encounters several woodland nymphs. In its subtle orchestral color and radical departures from tonality, Debussy’s musical interpretation of the poem set a new standard for the French musical world.
During the 19th century, when Wagner’s restless search for new forms of musical expression was influencing Western music, Debussy found Wagner’s emotionalism displeasing. Debussy sought a more congenial approach. He turned to the paintings of the French impressionists — Monet, Manet, and Renoir — and to the poetry of the French symbolists — Verlaine, Baudelaire and Mallarmé. Their works led him to a new type of music, of understatement rather than heated emotion, ambiguity and atmosphere rather than blunt expression. He featured the play of instrumental colors rather than developing musical ideas. To identify this new music, the term “impressionism” was taken from the world of painting.
Debussy’s Prelude to the Afternoon of a Faun was the first full-blown work of musical impressionism, and its premiere performance was a major event in Paris’s cultural life. The audience was ecstatic, and the orchestra joyfully repeated that work despite the rule forbidding encores. Further, in the audience were some of Paris’s leading writers, artists, and musicians. Mallermé himself attended the concert and was overwhelmed by the experience.
Ravel in 1910: At the age of 35, Ravel was also a leading musical rebel, an active member of two Paris organizations — Les Apaches and Société Musicale Indépendente (SMI), — that encouraged the composition of new music. The founding of SMI was a turning point in Ravel’s career. He now had a sympathetic audience for his new music. In fact, public interest in Ravel’s music was so great that SMI selected his Ma Mѐre L’Oye (Mother Goose Suite) for its opening concert in April 1910.
Ravel’s four-hand transcription of Debussy’s Prelude to the Afternoon of a Faun probably was first performed sometime in 1910 at an SMI concert. Ravel’s version should be appreciated as a distinctly different work from the original for orchestra. Just as Debussy could develop orchestral color, Ravel was a master of the piano’s colors and technical resources.
For example, the famous arabesque — Debussy’s own term — which opens the orchestral version, is played by an unaccompanied flute. Thus he suggests the piping of the faun as it pursues the desires and dreams that stir in the afternoon heat. In the fifth and eighth measures, Debussy seasons the flute melody with two ascending glissandos for the harp. In contrast, Ravel assigns the opening melody and its seasoning to the first pianist against trills for the second pianist. In measure 11 of the Debussy version, the flute’s arabesque is repeated, whereas Ravel gives it to the second pianist, thus introducing a duet. In both versions, the instruments proceed with subtle variations in harmony and tone color. There is a contrasting middle section, which is really a sensuous transformation of the original opening arabesque melody. And in each case, the music eventually fades off into thin air.