Preludes (Debussy)

Claude Debussy's Préludes are 24 pieces for solo piano, divided into two books of 12 preludes each. Unlike previous collections of preludes, such as those of J.S. Bach and Chopin's Op. 28, Debussy's does 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 I was written between December 1909 and February 1910, and Book II between the last months of 1912 and early April 1913.

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 Charles Baudelaire's poem Harmonie du soir ("Evening Harmony"). «Les fées sont d'exquises danseuses» is from J. M. Barrie's 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.

An important precedent was set on 3 May 1911 by the pianist Jane Mortier (to whom works were dedicated by Bohuslav Martinů and Erik Satie) who played the entire first book of preludes at the Salle Pleyel in Paris. The German-English pianist Walter Morse Rummel, a student of Leopold Godowsky, gave the premiere of the entire second book of preludes in 1913 in London.

Initially, Debussy and other pianists who gave early performances of the works (including Ricardo Viñes) played them in groups of three or four 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.

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