Debussy, La fille aux cheveux de lin

Claude Debussy wrote his two books of Piano Preludes between the end of 1909 and the first months of 1913. Both collections consist of twelve preludes, presenting at the time the editorial novelty that the delicate descriptions with which they are known today were placed by Debussy at the end of the pieces and not at the beginning, as was usual. Perhaps the purpose was that these brief and somewhat picturesque descriptions would work as a reflection, a second thought inspired by the music and not the other way around.

La fille aux cheveux de lin is the description Debussy added to the end of Prelude No 8, from Book I. A mere two pages of delicate, superbly designed music that, in terms of popularity, are on a par with the renowned Moonlight from the Bergamasque Suite from 1890, or the symphonic poem Prelude to the Afternoon of a Faun from 1894.

The Innocence or the Candor
Debussy took the title from the homonymous poem by his compatriot Leconte de Lisle, one of his Chansons écossaises that outlines the image of a flaxen-haired girl, which the aesthetics of the time associated with innocence, or candor. Very much in tune with this portrayal, Debussy's piece is surprising for its melodic and harmonic simplicity, far removed from his own style for the time and rather close to the character of his early compositions.

(Among these youthful compositions, there is a melody with the same title, never published, dedicated to Madame Vasnier, a soprano with whom Debussy was romantically attached between 1880 and 1884, and to whom he dedicated about twenty songs, all inspired by poems of French authors).

The first public performance of the piece took place, along with the rest of the preludes from Book I, in London on June 2, 1910.

The superb version presented here is by the German pianist Katharina Treutler.