Debussy’s “Prelude to the Afternoon of a Faun”
Notes by TŌN flutist Wen-Hsiu (Angela) Lai
Imagine a young faun, half-human and half-goat, just waking up from a nap on a grassy hill. Still lingering between sleep and reality, he picks up his flute to continue the melody from the sweet dream he was just having…
This is how Vaclav Nijinsky’s 1912 ballet begins, and this image is hard to separate from Debussy’s music, composed in 1894 and inspired by the poem L’après-midi d’un faune by French symbolist poet Stéphane Mallarmé. Debussy’s Prelude is one of the most magical works in the flute repertoire. He focused on capturing the poem’s atmosphere and mood, designed to bathe the audience in its setting and scene. He often moves away from traditional western music theory, where every chord must resolve in a predictable way. Instead, he allows the music to suspend and float, creating a hazy environment that invites the listener to adventure into the movement.
Debussy was also a master of orchestral blending. When the harp enters after the initial flute line, it sounds like sunlight shimmering above the water. It gives the music a sense of warmth and softness, just like a lazy afternoon. As the horns join in, the harp provides gentle waves of sound that gradually fill the space, while the strings create a fluid, linear undercurrent.
The piece slowly fades away after reaching its fullest sonority. It doesn’t end with a big flourish. Instead, the texture becomes softer and more transparent until it is gone, almost as if the dream is dissolving back into the quiet of the afternoon dream. For these few minutes, we weren’t just an audience, we were brought into the faun’s world by Debussy’s music.