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In a little article about this piece (see Debussy's
Prélude à l’après-midi d’un faun and the poem of Mallarmé
1 ) it is stated that this piece is ''never in a key'' , though keys
are suggested:
"The Prélude, however, was a breakthrough in musical composition:
with its inception, music was never to be the same
again. In it, Debussy abandoned the traditional harmonic, thematic, structural
and rhythmical rules which had governed
musical composition; and achieved, in his own words, "... music [that is]
truly freed from motifs, or constructed on only
one continuing motif which nothing interrupts, and which never goes back
on itself."
Despite frequent suggestions of particular keys, the work never really
settles in any; and does not belong to one.
Debussy had intended not to let the music rely on particular tonal centres,
but sought through an attenuated tonality
"... a mode that tries to contain all the nuances [of different keys]".
Pierre Boulez firmly believes that if modern music
had had a definite beginning, it must have been the opening bars of the
Prélude à l’après-midi d’un faune. The work’s
source of inspiration came from a poem by the French poet, Stéphane
Mallarmé, who was a friend of the composer and
an admirer of his music... "
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Show - for instance by compairing the beginning and the end of the piece
that this assumption is definitely wrong.
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Any idea what Debussy could have meant by "... a mode that tries to
contain all the nuances [of different keys]"?
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