Expectation

The "Prelude to the Afternoon of a Faun" was the breakthrough for Claude Debussy in 1894, both for musical Impressionism and modern music in general. For a "symphonic poem," the roughly ten-minute work is quite short. It is introduced by an ascending and descending flute melody and becomes the nucleus of the piece. What was new about it was the dissolution of conventional tonality. Debussy was inspired to create this by a Javanese gamelan orchest...