Righteous Classical Music: Prelude to the Afternoon of a Faun by Claude Debussy

Claude Debussy is sort of the musical equivalent of an impressionist painter. This piece doesn't work the way normal classical music does, it's a lot more vague sounding, and has a very heavenly feel. The sound is very warm, and light. When I close my eyes while listening to it, the colors gold, light pink, and green come to mind, or the image of sunlight filtering through trees.
Afternoon of a Faun has terrific parts for the entire orchestra, the woodwind section especially. The piece starts out with a flute playing a haunting melody all by itself, and there are a lot of neat oboe and clarinet solos, too.
I'm kind of sad that We had to cut this piece from our program last semester. I mean sure, I wouldn't have gotten the solo, but there are some parts that are just transcendent and the one rehearsal we played this all the way through, I totally lapsed into a trance around the 4:20-6:00 minute mark. That's where the metaphorical bird takes flight and the song is SO beautiful! Thanks, Claude Debussy!


Next on the agenda: Danse Macabre by Camille Saint-Saens!