Préludes

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Préludes. 2 books of pf. pieces by Debussy. Book I (1910): (1) Danseuses de Delphes (Dancing Women of Delphi), suggested by a pillar in the Louvre on which are sculptured 3 Bacchantes; (2) Voiles (Sails); (3) Le Vent dans la plaine (The wind in the plain); (4) Les Sons et les parfums tournent dans l'air du soir (Sounds and perfumes in the evening air); (5) Les Collines d'Anacapri (The hills of Anacapri); (6) Des Pas sur la neige (Footsteps on the snow); (7) Ce qu'a vu le vent d'Ouest (What the west wind saw); (8) La fille aux cheveux de lin (The girl with the flaxen hair), suggested by a poem of Leconte de Lisle; (9) La Sérénade interrompue (The interrupted serenade), Spanish in its idioms; (10) La Cathédrale engloutie (The submerged cathedral), based on the legend of the cath. of Ys, with its bell-tolling and chanting under the sea; (11) La Danse de Puck ( Puck's dance); (12) Minstrels—Negro or music-hall type. Book II (1912–13): (1) Brouillards (Mists); (2) Feuilles mortes (Dead leaves); (3) La Puerta del Vino—name of famous gate of Alhambra; (4) Les Fées sont d'exquises danseuses (Fairies are exquisite dancers); (5) Bruyères (Heaths); (6) General Lavine—eccentric—Paris mus.-hall performer; (7) La Terrasse des audiences du clair de lune (Terrace of Moonlight Audiences); (8) Ondine—the water-spirit maiden of the early 19th-cent. story of de la Motte Fouqué; (9) Hommage à S. Pickwick Esq., P.P.M.P.C.—with a touch of the Brit. nat. anthem; (10) Canope (Canopic vase), ancient Egyptian cinerary urn; (11) Les Tierces alternées (Alternating 3rds); (12) Feux d'artifice (Fireworks).

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