Classical Music | Piano Music

Recorded on 06/15/2011, uploaded on 01/21/2012

Musician's or Publisher's Notes

At the turn of the twentieth century in France, many composers became increasingly resistant to the dominance of Germanic music. Claude Debussy was one such composer. His compositions took a different path from nineteenth-century romanticism, his music tending to rely more on allusion and understatement. This particular writing approach was commonly known as Impressionism, though Debussy hated the term.

His Préludes (1909-1913) are programmatic in nature, as each prelude contains a descriptive title to evoke a particular mood. “La terrasse des audiences du clair de lune” (The terrace of moonlit audiences) conjures the imagery of complete stillness as one watches the moon and stars. “Ce qu’a vu le vent d’Ouest” (What the West Wind saw) stirs up a considerably different scene. At the beginning, one hears the quiet, rumbling arpeggios in the low register of the piano, which resembles the howling, faint winds. As the music progresses, the winds become more turbulent and violent as Debussy utilizes the resources of the instrument to create a virtuosic work for the pianist.     Frank Huang

Courtesy of International Music Foundation.