It’s one of those compare-and-contrast weeks.
Two preludes, both the first in a collection of two books of keyboard music. But there the similarity ends. The first was written in approximately 1722, while the second was composed sometime shortly before 1910, its date of publication.
The Bach we considered in little detail last week, this week it’s the turn of Debussy’s first Prélude, subtitled by the composer Danseuses de Delphes [Delphic Dancers]. As you can hear, in the nearly 200 years between the two preludes, much has changed in music.
and, while, sadly, we can’t hear Bach playing his prelude, we can, thanks to piano rolls, hear Debussy perform his:
Here is the entire Book 1 of Debussy’s Préludes:
00:00:00 1. Danseuses de delphes
00:02:54 2. Voiles
00:07:24 3. Le vent dans la plaine
00:09:49 4. ‘Les sons et les parfums tournent dans l’air du soir‘
00:13:49 5. Les collines d’Anacapri
00:16:46 6. Des pas sur la neige
00:19:58 7. Ce qu’a vu le vent d’ouest
00:23:10 8. La fille aux cheveux de lin
00:25:23 9. La sérénade interrompue
00:28:06 10. La cathédrale engloutie
00:34:14 11. La danse de Puck
00:36:48 12. Minstrels
Any copyrighted material on these pages is included as “fair use”, for the purpose of study, and critical analysis only, and will be removed at the request of the copyright owner(s).