Introduction

Prélude à l’Après-Midi d’un Faune, or Prelude to the Afternoon of a Faun, is one of the most famous orchestral works of the French com­poser, Claude Debussy (1862-1918). Flutists, both professional and amateur, are very familiar with the famous opening solo, and of course the many other beautiful passages that the flute is given throughout the work.

In A Full Day of the Faun, I’ve written out the main solo and the other important passages, then written them out in every key, up and down the entire practical range (and a fair bit of the not-very-practical range!) of the flute. Why? With such a well-known and well-loved work, we already have in mind a certain tone color and quality that these passages “ought” to have, when performed as written by Debussy. The challenge I present to you here is this: Try to play each of these examples as if it were the way he had actually written it, and try to create the exact same tone color and quality it would have in the original. It’s not too difficult a semitone or two re­moved from the original, but how about an octave higher or a ninth lower? Oh, that’s different! Of course, it’s best to start out practicing the examples only a semitone or two higher or lower. Choose one and see if you can play it in such a way that it might fool a listener (one who does not have perfect pitch!). Start the famous solo on a D or a C natu­ral and see how convincing you can make it. Keep working your way out toward the extremes, and see how you do. You’ll find it gets quite interesting!

Obviously, you’re not likely to achieve quite the same light, airy, transparent quality if you’re starting on third octave F# or G, but practice is training. It’s not about what you sound like now. It’s about strengthening and refining; it’s about security and polish.

Still, you might wonder, “Why?”, and “Why Afternoon of a Faun?” There are already plenty of tutorials and books filled with tone study out there, right? (My own Tone Study for the Lifelong Flutist springs to mind!) But many of those exercises are abstract. One is not going to already have a particular tone quality or color in mind ahead of time when using those meth­ods.

There is more here than the famous solo, giving many more opportunities to work on these tone challenges, and some fingering and articulation work, too. This is more than merely an Afternoon; it’s a Full Day of a Faun! In­deed, as a way of keeping track of which example one is working on, I’ve used times of the day to name each of the different sections.

A few notes on all of these notes: You will see some interesting spellings – perhaps more interesting than a reasonable person would care for! The reason for this is that I made a point of transposing each example using the exact same intervalic relationships as Debussy’s original. I felt this was a good opportunity to prac­tice reading all sorts of odd intervals and accidentals while playing passages whose sound is familiar. They’re in different keys and/or in a differ­ent part of the range, but we’ll know if something doesn’t sound right.

Also, there are a couple modulations which in the original go from E Major to C Major. Because of my “spell things exactly as Debussy did, just different” rule, I have kept the intervalic relationships the same, no matter which key the specific example starts in. So, I have some pretty crazy look­ing modulations happening. For example, in the section called Five AM, ex. 3a, I have it modulating from G flat Major (six flats) to the “theoretical” key of E double-flat Major. Right after that, in ex. 3b, I have the enharmonic equivalent of F# Major going to D Major. I’ve written things out in these unusual keys as exercises for the brain and for the eye.

There are good finger workouts in Five PM, Six PM, Eleven PM, and Eleven Fifty-Nine PM. Five PM and Six PM combine the 1st and 2nd flute parts. In the actual piece, of course, the two players trade these runs back and forth. I’ve knitted them together for exercise’s sake. Of course, most anything can be made into a finger exercise if played quickly. You might try that with Four AM. I have that one laid out alternating the three octaves, which can make for some good flexibility work for the embouchure as well.

In Seven AM, Seven-Thirty AM, Eight AM, Eight-Thirty AM, Nine AM, and Nine-Thirty AM, I’ve given you a chance to practice the light, staccato p and pp passages from the 1st, 2nd, and 3rd parts in all registers. Trust me; if you can make them sound light and soft all the way up to C7, C#7, and D7, you’ll have an easier time making them sound that way in the original key! And if you can keep it crisp and clear right down to C4 and B3, you’ll find the normal range a breeze.

I hope you’ll have as much faun…oops, I mean fun working through this book as I have had assembling it. More than that, I hope it will play some small role in helping you develop as a flutist and as an artist.

Leonard E. Lopatin

Mannington, WV USA

May 2024