Edition Eulenburg No. 1116

DEBUSSY PRÉLUDE à l’après midi d’un faune for Orchestra

Eulenburg CLAUDE DEBUSSY

PRÉLUDE à l’après-midi d’un faune for Orchestra

Edited by/Herausgegeben von/Édition de Jean-Paul C. Montagnier

Ernst Eulenburg Ltd London · Mainz · Madrid · New York · Paris · Prague · Tokyo · Toronto · Zürich CONTENTS

Preface ...... III

Vorwor t ...... VII

Préface ...... XIII

Textual Notes ...... XVIII

L’Après-midi d’un faune Églogue par Stéphane Mallarmé ...... XXII

Prélude à l’après-midi d’un faune ...... 1

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etp1116_content.pmd2 5/20/2007, 8:39 PM III PREFACE

Not only is the Prélude à l’après-midi d’un orchestra entitled Prélude, Interlude et Para- faune the first masterpiece by the young phrase finale sur L’Après-midi d’un faune.2 Achille-Claude Debussy, but it may also be However, being busy with the completion considered one of the most – if not the of his string quartet (premiere December most – important starting points of mod- 1893) and the composition of his opera ern music, anticipating some characteristic Pelléas et Mélisande, he finally changed his and colourful instrumental touches that he mind and reduced the planned tryptique to himself would employ in his later works.1 its initial Prélude. The score was finalized By 1890, Debussy and many other during the summer of 1894, and on 23 Oc- Parisian artists were delighted by Stéphane tober of that year Debussy signed a receipt Mallarmé’s quest for an Ideal, in which ex- for 200 francs from the publisher Georges treme refinement of language and blank Hartmann, assigning him all the rights for verse lead to a diffuse syntactical order. In the full score and the 2-piano reduction. the latter, words transcend their literal Hartmann, of Bavarian origin, patronized meaning to become themselves genuine most of the young French composers of musical sounds. Mallarmé’s eclogue L’Après- the time (including Bizet, Saint-Saëns, midi d’un faune – which in its first draft, Lalo, Franck and more particularly Mas- Monologue d’un faune, dates from 1865 – senet), but got entangled in financial set- was completed and published in 1876. backs which forced him to sell his company Debussy probably became acquainted with in 1891 with the interdiction of another the poem after his return to Paris from the publishing house. However, he quickly re- Italian capital in March 1887, where he sumed his business thanks to an authorized had spent almost two years after having agent, Eugène Fromont.3 The printed score won the coveted Prix de Rome in June 1884 was dedicated to Debussy’s lifelong friend with his cantata L’Enfant prodigue. Raymond Bonheur, whom he had met at As has recently been established, the the Conservatoire de Paris in 1878. The two artists met for the first time in the fall publisher Jobert bought both the plates of 1890 through A.-Ferdinand Hérold, and the autograph MS in 1922. grandson of Louis-Joseph-Ferdinand Hér- The Prélude à l’après-midi d’un faune old, composer of the successful opéra- was first performed in the Salle d’Harcourt comique, Le Pré aux clercs (1832). By that on Saturday 22 December 1894, by the time, Mallarmé was looking for a com- Société Nationale de Musique. According poser able to write some incidental music to Pierre Louÿs, the orchestra conducted for a production of his Après-midi d’un 2 François Lesure, Claude Debussy. Biographie critique faune at the Théâtre des arts. The premiere (Klincksieck: Paris, 1994), pp115–16 and 130 was to take place on 27 February 1891, but 3 Lesure, Claude Debussy, p155. Debussy’s signed re- was postponed for unknown reasons, and ceipt from Hartmann is reproduced in Jean eventually cancelled. Debussy, however, did Barraqué, Debussy (Seuil: Paris, 1962), p93. The 2- piano reduction did not receive full attention from not give up the project, carried on the work the composer, and its first edition contains several on his own, and undertook a triptyque for unclear details; see Muvres pour deux pianos, ed. Noël Lee, in: Muvres complètes de Claude Debussy, 1 See Pierre Boulez, Notes of an Apprenticeship, transl series I, vol. 8 (Durand-Costallat: Paris, 1986), Herbert Weinstock (Knopf: New York, 1968), p345 pXVII.

etp1116_engl.pmd 3 5/20/2007, 8:39 PM IV by Gustave Doret did not play satisfacto- follows the ascending shape of the rily: ‘the horns stank, and the rest were poem – there is all the marvellous hardly better’, he wrote to the composer scene-painting of the text with the the following day.4 Nonetheless, the piece added human element brought to it was encored and repeated on Sunday 23rd. by 32 violinists who have got up too After these two performances, Mallarmé early in the morning! The ending is a sent a letter-card to Debussy, acknowledg- prolongation of the last line: ‘Fare- ing that the score went ‘further, indeed, well the pair of you, I’ll see just the into the nostalgia and the light, with finesse, shadow you have become.’7 with languour, with richness’.5 However, Since then, the Prélude spread all over according to a letter Debussy sent to Georges the world, sometimes conducted by the Jean-Aubryon dated 25 March 1910, Mal- composer himself. On 29 May 1912, larmé had become enthusiastic about the Diaghilev’s Ballets Russes produced a fa- score as soon as he heard it played on the mous and controversial choreography, in piano: ‘I was not expecting anything like which Vaslav Nijinsky danced the Faun in this! The music prolongs the emotion of the well-known spotted costume designed my poem and evokes the scenery more viv- by Léon Bakst.8 The performance, how- idly than colour could’.6 The work was per- ever, which took place at the Théâtre du formed again on 13 October 1895 at the Châtelet, did not meet with the expected Concerts Colonne. Three days earlier, on success. Debussy’s refined music jarring too the 10th, Debussy had written to the jour- much with Diaghilev’s dionysiac approach nalist Willy (Henri Gauthier-Villars), who to the piece. The Russian company none- was to review the concert, his wittiest testi- theless commissioned the composer to write mony about the score: a new score, Jeux. The Prelude to ‘L’après-midi d’un If Mallarmé’s eclogue is rather forgot- faune’, cher Monsieur, might it be ten today, the Prélude à l’après-midi d’un the leftovers of the dream at the bot- faune remains without any doubt Debussy’s tom of the faun’s flute? Put more most popular work – it has since been tran- simply, it is a general impression of scribed several times for various instru- the poem, because to follow it more mental combinations9 – and a work which closely, the music would be panting eventually inspired many other composers along like a cabhorse running against such as Jacques Ibert, whose suite, Escales a thoroughbred in the Grand Prix. (1922), particularly in its first movement, It’s also a rebuff to that analytical spirit which encumbers our finest 7 Debussy, Correspondance 1884–1918, pp113–114 minds, so it shows no respect for key, 8 See the photography in The New Grove Dictionary of preferring a mode that seeks to en- Music and Musicians, ed Stanley Sadie (Macmillan: compass all the nuances, as can be London, 1980), vol.5, p209 9 In addition to Debussy’s own transcription for 2 pianos quite logically demonstrated. Still, it published by Fromont, see: Prélude à l’après-midi d’un 4 Edward Lockspeiser, ‘Pierre Louÿs, Neuf lettres à faune. Transcription pour piano à quatre mains par Debussy (1894–1898)’, Revue de musicologie 48 Maurice Ravel (Fromont: Paris, 1910); Transcription (1962), p62 (letter dated 23 December 1894) pour piano seul par Léonard Borwick (Fromont: 5 Quoted from Lesure, Claude Debussy, p158 Paris, 1914); Transcription pour flûte et piano par 6 Claude Debussy, Correspondance 1884–1918, ed. Gustave Samazeuilh (Jobert: Paris, 1925); Transcrip- François Lesure (Hermann Éditeurs des sciences et tion pour orgue par Alexandre Cellier (Jobert: Paris, des arts: Paris, 1993), p265 1925).

etp1116_engl.pmd 4 5/20/2007, 8:39 PM V recalls the delicate and colourful atmos- tress from 1890 to 1898) in October phere of the Prélude. 1899, the same month that he mar- ried Rosalie Texier. Gabrielle Sources Dupont (Madame Lhéry) subse- quently presented the score to the The history of the score is well-documented pianist and collector Alfred Cortot. thanks to the surviving sources supervised by the composer himself: AUT Original title (dedication in green pencil): ‘– à Raymond Bonheur –/ AFD No title in original Prélude “à l’apres midi d’un Six numbered folios inscribed recta Faune”/Claude Debussy/92’. only Extent: 26 + 2pp of blank staves Autograph of the final draft Location: F-Pn Grande Réserve (‘particell’) with instrumental direc- Ms.17.685 tions: property of the Robert Owen Lehman Foundation, and now de- Autograph MS of the complete posited at the Pierpont Morgan Li- score from which the Fromont print brary, New York. The Foundation was engraved. (This AUT formerly financed the publication, in 1963, of belonged to Madame Jobert- a facsimile edition of this source, Georges.) with an introduction by Roland- Inscription, p26: ‘Septembre 1894’ Manuel.10 Barlines and rehearsal numbers in Inscription: green pencil; tempo indications in fol.1r top right-hand corner, in blue ink. Debussy’s hand: ‘à ma chère et tres PED Original title (p1): ‘Prélude/à/ bonne petite Gaby/la sûre affection l’après-midi d’un faune/CLAUDE de/son dévoué/Claude Debussy/ DEBUSSY’. Octobre 1899.’ Extent: 31pp fol.1r top left-hand corner, in Location: US-R Sibley Music Rare Dupont’s hand: ‘Offert à Mr Books, M3.3.D28 A.Cortot/par Mme G.Lhéry’. Inscriptions: Instrumental directions in red ink p1, top right-hand corner: ‘Epreuve (and occasionally in pencil), bar corrigée/[engraver’s signature:] L.Pa- numbers and other details in green rent/26 juillet 95’; bottom right- pencil. hand corner: ‘[Debussy’s monogram]/ Debussy dedicated this draft to Mercredi 3 Juillet 95’. Gaby (Gabrielle Dupont, his mis- p31, printer’s name added in pencil: 10 Claude Debussy, Prélude à l’après-midi d’un faune ‘Dupré’. (The Robert Owen Lehman Foundation: Washing- Proofs of the Fromont edition cor- ton; Lahure: Paris, 1963). Max Pommer described this source and used it as the basis of his edition of rected and dated by Debussy 3 July the work; see Max Pommer, ed, Claude Debussy, 1895, now deposited at the Sibley Prélude à l’après-midi d’un faune/Vorspiel zum Music Library, Eastman School of Nachmittag eines Faun (Edition Peters: Leipzig, Music, University of Rochester (New [1970]). Yo r k ) .

etp1116_engl.pmd 5 5/20/2007, 8:39 PM VI OED Claude Debussy, ‘À Raymond RDC is the basis (copy-text) of the BONHEUR/Prélude/À/“l’après- present edition. midi d’un faune” ’. Paris: Eugène Fromont, s.d. Editorial Method Extent: 31pp It is well-known that Debussy was rather Original edition of 189511 careless in writing down the details of his Plate number: E.1091F. music and in correcting proofs: accidentals, dynamics, slurs, etc., are occasionally con- RDC Claude Debussy, ‘À Raymond BON- flicting in similar passages, or even simply HEUR/Prélude/À/“l’après-midi forgotten.14 The directions ‘div.’ and ‘unis’, d’un faune” ’. in particular, indicating the division within Paris: Eugène Fromont, s.d. the respective string desks are extremely Extent: 31pp confused, even contradictory, in all sources. Location: Collection François Lang, They are faithfully reproduced here, the re- Abbaye de Royaumont, Réserve 712 alization of the ambiguous places being left to the performer. Moreover, he often revised Debussy’s own copy of OED with ad- his scores, and more particularly details of ditions and corrections in red (occa- their instrumentation, upon hearing them sionally in black) ink, and in blue performed.15 The present score faithfully re- (occasionally in black) pencil. produces all the revisions Debussy inserted Inscription, title-page: ‘Claude in ink and blue pencil into his own perform- Debussy./64 [crossed out and cor- ing copy of the Fromont edition (RDC). rected to ‘80’ in blue pencil] avenue OED’s misprints and omissions that evaded du Bois de Boulogne/Paris’13 the composer’s detection on the proofs (PED) RDC was obviously in practical use: have been corrected here in accordance with Debussy’s corrections were origi- the autograph MS (AUT) and the autograph nally entered in pencil, and eventu- final draft (AFD), and are documented in the ally erased and rewritten in red ink. Textual Notes below. Editorial additions are Thus, RDC is very likely the copy placed in square brackets without further Debussy used when he conducted comment. Missing ties and slurs have been the work all over Europe between restored and are indicated by broken liga- February 1908 and April 1913. tures. Bar numbers are editorial. 11 Numerous copies are extant. The title-page of the copy deposited at the Music Department of the Jean-Paul C. Montagnier Bibliothèque nationale de France (Rés. Vma 321) is inscribed thus in Debussy’s hand: ‘à Raoul Pugno./ en souvenir bien affectueux/de/Claude Debussy./ 14 The famous b played by the first bassoon on the Oct. 95’. From this annotation, it can be ascertained down-beat of b91 of the Prélude is a case in point: that the print was available by October 1895. the engraver, Parent, had it right in the proofs, but 12 A description of the volume is available in: Collec- Debussy erroneously changed it to an a-sharp in PED tion musicale François Lang. Catalogue établi par (p26). There can be no serious doubt that b is the Denis Herlin (Klincksieck: Paris, 1993), p59 (no. correct note: it appears thus in AUT, and the down- 200). Vincent d’Indy’s copy of OED is also preserved beat of b91 is clearly identical to that of b90 where in this collection (no. 201). the third horn and cellos play b. 13 Debussy moved to this apartment with Emma 15 For instance the delicate punctuation of harp 1 in Bardac in the autumn of 1904, and stayed there for b73, the four staccato semiquavers of viola 2 in b93, the rest of his life. Emma sold RDC to François Lang and various dynamic changes were likely added af- on 1 December 1933. ter the first performance of the Prélude.

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