Debussy
Pelléas et Mélisande, Prélude
The great liberator. He freed music from Germanic harmonic logic and opened it to color, timbre, and suggestion. Pelléas et Mélisande is opera as whispered dream; the Préludes for piano are miniature tone poems of shimmering delicacy.
Key works
- Pelléas et Mélisande1902— Opera dissolved into atmosphere
- Prélude à l'après-midi d'un faune1894— The beginning of modern music
- La Mer1905— The sea in three symphonic sketches