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'L’art de préluder. Quelques questions de taxonomie chez Debussy'

This builds on the article ‘En cherchant le LA’ (portfolio item) in suggesting how Debussy built upon Mallarmé’s L’Après-midi d’un faune in his ‘Prélude’ but also upon Banville’s ‘Diane au bois’, set as a cantata by Debussy. It focuses on a complete reading of Banville’s poem and concludes that the Hellenistic content was transferred into Debussy’s Prélude, incorporating the age-old French tradition of ‘trying out’ a flute in a Prelude. It concludes that the three instruments crucial to the Ancient Greek soundscape: the flute, the harp and distant horns, played by Diana’s nymphs were Debussy’s inspiration for this famous Prelude.