La fille aux cheveux de lin

La fille aux cheveux de lin ("the girl with the flaxen hair") is the eighth of Debussy's Book 1 Préludes (1909–10) — the most-played and most-loved miniature in the set. The title is borrowed from a poem by Leconte de Lisle; Debussy places it at the end of the score (rather than at the start, as in conventional titling) so the piece arrives without a programme — an image, not an illustration.

Technically the piece tests three things at concert standard. First, voicing across a delicate four-voice texture in G flat major, where the melody must sing clearly above sustained chords without forcing the tone. Second, pedal management: the harmony moves in subtle modal shifts that require a sostenuto or half-pedal technique to keep clear without losing the warm resonance. Third, dynamic restraint — the piece sits in p to mp with two brief lifts; a player who pushes the dynamic loses the still atmosphere.

Two pitfalls. First, students play the rubato too widely — Debussy's rubato is small and continuous, not large and occasional. Second, the modal colours are smoothed into a tonal reading; trust the score, the slightly shifted notes are part of the harmonic identity.

Listening: PD recordings of Debussy's Préludes are now widely available on Musopen and IMSLP audio (his music came out of copyright in the late 1980s and historical recordings followed). Walter Gieseking's historical readings (now PD) and Arturo Benedetti Michelangeli (in copyright) are the canonical references.