Debussy: Girl With The Flaxen Hair

Debussy's two books of preludes for solo piano, composed between 1907 and 1910, seem at first glance to be rife with richly programmatic music. Fireworks, goldfish, woodland sprites, and pedantic musicians are all musically "depicted" in the preludes. In the movement we just heard, we "see" a girl's fair hair and. But, as it turns out, Debussy was notoriously fuzzy regarding whether or not these pieces were even supposed to be programmatic at all! While some were undoubtedly composed as depictions, others seem to have been given titles long after they were composed, almost as an afterthought. In this regard, it is fascinating that Debussy specifically instructed his publisher to put the title of each prelude at the end of the piece, rather than at the beginning!