Comments on l'après-midi d'un faune

Debussy: L'après-midi d'une faune Loo Liang Jie

Climax Point 1: Bar 17-20, (1:49-2:07)
Starts off with chromatic line to A-sharp, until the clarinet staccato part.
Achieved by thickening of texture by using octaves (1st violins & oboe), theme also played by clarinets. Use of high register and increase in dynamics also. Strings are bowed normally also.

Climax Point 2: Bar 23-25, (2:31-2:47)
Climax at the high C note (1st note of bar 25), played by the flute.
Achieved by strong dissonant chord on that note: C by flute
(err I’m not very sure about this part.. =D) E, C by clarinet in G
F# by bassoons
G# by French horns
A-C-A-B by strings
Also, by ascending chromatic line in violins (bar 23-24) and crescendo by all the playing instruments to help build up to the climax (strings also play in unison for that part to achieve this).

Climax Point 3: Bar 42-51, (4:22-5.04)
Starts with the question and answer sequence by the flutes & clarinets, and the violins (which play in octaves), then the main theme goes up a semi-tone to start on C, played by the flutes and bassoons. The violins imitate, but in minor. At the end (, there is a chromatic movement by the strings (B-C-Dflat) for 2 bars, which then goes into a tonal motion resolving on the G of the A-flat major-7 chord (Harp and flutes also do some whole-tone scale thingy at bar 50). And of course, with most climaxes, are the strong contrasting dynamics (usually from p to F) and use of wide register, with the main motifs being in the higher regions.
All of these together help to make up the special effect which causes the climax. =D

Climax point 4: Bar 59-63 (5:42-6:00)
Achieved by sudden detached notes after the A in bar 61 (note: all the woodwind play the notes detached), followed by diminution of the rhythm so give a sense of speed. And the register and dynamics are pretty high, I guess…

Climax point 5: Bar 69-72, (0:17-0:35)(of part 2)
Achieved by very thick texture caused by all the strings bowing in unison/octaves (with the exception of the basses). The rest of the instruments play in very high register, especially the harp and the flute. Also, the presence of the ff helps to achieve something very special. It then dies down in texture and volume, drops to a lower register and ends in B-flat minor.





Possible Factors contributing to Static moments

I think that what would probably contribute to the static moments would be having very little change in dynamics. This can be seen from bar 51-54, where everything is just p, so one doesn’t know where all this is going.

Also, when the melody line moves very little, like in bars 1-3, where it just moves in a chromatic line down and up again (the furthest point was the G)(maybe the faun was lazy and wanted to sleep), whereas the harp went from a low A# to a very high G#, so the register goes great distances.

Finally, absence of quick, running notes makes everything seem like nothing’s moving.
From bar 74 to 78, everything seemed to be very still until the harp came in at bar 79, then everything started to become more flowing and moving.