Prelude a l'apres-midi d'un faune - 1894

Orchestra

Full compliment of strings. 10 woodwinds - with one solo flute representing the Faun’s pipe. 4 horns. 2 harps. ANTIQUE CYMBALS - these are tuned on E and B.

How is the orchestra used

Strings use a lot of mutes. Most strings parts are frequently divided. Tremolo used in strings. Sur la touche. Pizzicato and arco techniques. Harp glissandi. Woodwind are often given solo lines which focus on their individual timbres. Doubling is used in upper wind. Muted horns.

Texture

Opening flute solo monophonic. Common doubling of instruments. Pedal notes. Homorythmn used.

Structure

Often described as a tone poem. It is a ternary form piece with a coda. Reprise of A section much shorter than its first appearence. Moments of tonal clarity are important to the structure.

Tonality

Hazy. Moments of tonal clarity are important to the structure. Final bars are most defined of the whole piece - settling on E major. Opening of piece has chromatic melody outlining a tritone - no sense of key. Persistent C sharps in melody give the note a feeling of importance but only emerge properly later on with the E major chord.

Harmony

Final bars have a perfect cadence to establish E major. Added note harmony. Chords are used in a non-functional way - to only create colour. Moves from a C sharp 7 chord to an E6 chord. Lots of use of 7th chords. Lots of chord extentions - e.g 9th, 11th and 13th. Non-resolving dominant 7th chords. Pedals. Chromatic harmony. Half diminished chords.

Melody

Has a lot of use of whole tone scale. Melody is a chromatic combination of tones and semitones, Cover the range of a tritone. Expands to cover the range of an octave eventually. Demonstrates his concept of melody evolution - so the opening bars return with the first note elongated, opening bar not repeated and the opening theme is transposed a major 3rd lower - now spanning a perfect 4th interval instead of a tritone.

Rhythm and metre

Difficult to get the pulse or metre throughout the piece. Opening theme designed to create sense of freedom and rhythmic flexibility. Opening metre is compound triple. Frequent changes. B section is more stable - remaining in simple triple throughout. Many triplets, tuplets, cross rhythms and syncopation.