Orchestration
2 Flutes (2nd doubling Piccolo), 2 Oboes, 2 Clarinets, 2 Bassoons
4 Horns in F, 2 Trumpets in Bb, 3 Trombones, Tuba, Timpani, Percussion - 4 players (Cymbals, Side drum, Tambourine, Tam-tam, Triangle, Tubular Bells, Glockenspiel, Vibraphone, Xylophone), Harp
Strings (Violin 1, Violin 2, Viola, Cello, Bass)
Debussy wrote two sets of twelve Preludes for solo piano between 1909 and 1913. The Danseuses de Delphes suggests the slow and stately movement of dancers from Delphi, at the foot of Mount Parnassus, as illustrated on ancient Greek vases and is the very first of the twenty-four preludes. The musical world which it inhabits - with its hauntingly-beautiful chromatically-rising augmented chords - is, nevertheless, much more straightforward than the mysteriously exotic language of La terrasse des audiences du clair de lune, taken from Book two. The inspiration for latter is said to have been an article in the magazine Le Temps in which the author describes the moonlit coronation of King George V as Emperor of India in 1912. Debussy always wistfully placed the titles of his individual preludes in brackets at the end of the pieces - as if to merely offer a clue as to the initial inspiration and as an indication that not too much weight should be attached to the them. The third prelude here General Lavine - eccentric, also from Book two, is a light-hearted portrait of a popular contemporary vaudeville juggler, Ed Lavine.
Two other Debussy Preludes orchestrated by Peter Lawson are also available in the Goodmusic Concert Classics series and either or both could be combined with the three here to form a longer suite. They are "La fille aux cheveux de lin" (GMCL141) and "La cathedrale engloutie" (GMCL146).
Duration: 9 minutes
A PACK comprises an A4 sized full score plus a complete set of parts including strings 4/4/3/4/2.
- ISMN: 9790222267114 (M222267114)
