Prélude à l'après-midi d'un faune

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Faun by Magnus Enckell, 1914. According to Debussy, the prelude à l'après-midi d'un faune is intended to evoke the erotic mood of the listener in a state of twilight.
Performance of an arrangement for chamber ensemble.

Prélude à l'après-midi d'un faune ( French for prelude to the afternoon of a Faune ), L. 86, is a symphonic poem by Claude Debussy , based loosely on Stéphane Mallarmé's poem L'Après-midi d'un faune . It was premiered on December 22, 1894 in Paris.

Debussy's Prelude is considered a major work of musical impressionism and is a turning point in the development of modern music . Together with Mallarmé's poetry, it served as inspiration and musical accompaniment for Vaslav Nijinsky's ballet L'Après-midi d'un faune . All three works take a central position in their respective art genre and in the development of artistic modernism .

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Prélude à l'après-midi d'un faune is an instrumental work in 110 bars with a playing time of around ten minutes. Debussy's nomenclature of the instrument includes 3 flutes, 2 oboes, English horn, 2 clarinets, 2 bassoons, 4 horns, 2 harps, 2 cymbales antiques or crotales and a symphonic string quintet. As a symphonic poem, the prelude sets Mallarmé's well-known poem to music , but, according to Debussy, basically lacks any narrative. This commented:

«La musique de ce Prelude est une très libre illustration du beau poème de Mallarmé. Elle ne désire guère résumer ce poème, mais veut suggérer les différentes atmères, au milieu desquelles évoluent les désirs, et les rêves de l'Egipan, par cette brûlante après-midi. Fatigué de poursuivre nymphes craintives et naïades timides, il s'abandonne à un sommet voluptueux qu'anime le rêve d'un désir enfin réalisé: la possession complète de la nature entière. »

“The music of this prelude depicts Mallarmé's beautiful poem in a very free way; she doesn't really want to retell it, but rather to awaken the various moods in the midst of which the Faun's desires and dreams develop. Tired of chasing the timid nymphs and shy naiads, he indulges in a climax of pleasure to which the dream of a wish finally fulfilled: the perfect possession of all of nature. "

Emergence

Claude Debussy at the piano, 1893

Stéphane Mallarmé wrote his poem L'après-midi d'un faune in 1865, but was only able to publish it in 1876. It gained some recognition in Impressionist circles and was also illustrated by Édouard Manet . The poem, like Mallarmé's works in general, is characterized by extremely suggestive symbolism . The musical quality of Mallarmé's language made important composers occupy themselves with him, including Claude Debussy in the Prélude à l'après-midi d'un faune of 1894. In 1913 Debussy set Mallarmé to music again, strangely enough, almost at the same time as Maurice Ravel and also the same poems ( Soupir and Placet futile ) as this one. According to Debussy, L'Après-midi d'un faune served as a mere inspiration for his prelude .

Debussy probably first became aware of Mallarmé's poem through a review by Theodor de Wyzewas in the symbolist magazine La Vogue and recommended it to Paul Dukas with great enthusiasm in 1887 . Apparently there was no intention to set it to music at this point in time. The first drafts for the piece date from the turn of the year 1890/91 and were to serve as music to accompany a reading of Mallarmé's poem, which was scheduled for February 27, 1891. But the performance did not take place, nor was the music completed. Debussy resumed work on it a year later and intended to compose a three-part suite Prélude, Interlude et Paraphrase finale sur l'Après-midi d'un faune . It never came to that, but this project gave the piece, which was realized on its own, its name.

Debussy played the not yet finalized version of the Prelude to a few friends and Mallarmé in a piano version in 1893 and 1894. He even made final changes to the orchestration during rehearsals for the premiere. This took place on December 22, 1894 at the Société Nationale de Musique in Paris, and was repeated the next day.

reception

Debussy made his artistic breakthrough with Prelude à l'après-midi d'un faune . The response from the audience was good, while the criticism from the professional world was mixed. Paul Dukas praised himself, others advised Debussy that he should return to greater simplicity. So judged z. B. Camille Saint-Saëns : “The prelude sounds nice, but you won't find the slightest musical idea in it. It is as much a piece of music as a painter's palette is painting. Debussy did not create a style: he cultivated the lack of style, logic […]. ”In retrospect, Pierre Boulez named the piece the starting point of modern music; With reference to the faun motif (one whole step and four half steps down to the tritone and the return to the starting note via two whole steps and two half steps), one of the most famous musical passages, he remarked: «  C'est avec la flûte du faune que commence une respiration nouvelle de l'art musical […], on peut dire que la musique modern commence avec L'après-midi d'un faune.  »(German:" With the Flute des Faunes, the music began to draw new breath [...], one can say that modern music begins with L'Après-midi d'un Faune . ")

Mallarmé's music and poem later served as the basis for a ballet of the same name by Vaslav Nijinsky from 1912, which is also considered a milestone in artistic modernism (in this case that of dance). In 1938 Roberto Rossellini made a short documentary with the same title. The Italian draftsman Bruno Bozzetto used Prelude à l'après-midi d'un faune for his animated film Allegro non troppo from 1976, which was based on Walt Disney's Fantasia , giving the story a humorous and melancholy touch.

The Nijinsky choreography was for many years by the troops Ballets Russes de Monte Carlo (1933–1955) and Rambert Dance Company (1931–1983). Reconstructed versions were presented in 1976 at the Opéra National de Paris (with Charles Jude as Faun), in 1989 at the Teatro San Carlo in Naples and in 2008 at the Festival d'Avignon .

L'après-midi d'un faune has been on the schedules of numerous ballet ensembles since the 1980s and has been reinterpreted by a number of well-known choreographers, including Richard Wherlock ( Komische Oper Berlin 2001, Ballett Basel 2003), Boris Nebyla ( Volksoper Vienna 2012) and Sasha Waltz ( State Opera in the Schiller Theater 2013).

literature

  • Hendrik Lücke: Mallarmé - Debussy. A comparative study of art perception using the example of “L'Après-midi d'un Faune”. Hamburg 2005, ISBN 3-8300-1685-9 ( Studies in Musicology. Volume 4).
  • Thomas Munro: 'L'Après-midi d'un faune' et les relations entre les arts. In: Revue d'Esthétique. Volume 5, 1952, pp. 226-243.
  • Jean-Michel Nectoux: L'Après-midi d'un faune. Mallarmé, Debussy, Nijinsky. Paris 1989 ( Les Dossiers du Musée d'Orsay. No. 29). German Translator: Mallarmé - Debussy - Nijinskij - de Meyer, Afternoon of a Faun. Documentation of a legendary choreography . Schirmer-Mosel, Munich 1989, ISBN 3-88814-336-5

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