Les sons et les parfums (Préludes, Book 1 No. 4)
Les sons et les parfums tournent dans l'air du soir, No. 4 of Debussy's first book of Préludes (1909–1910), is an advanced piece, Octotune grade 7 of 8: soft, shifting chords and changing meters that paint an evening full of sound and scent.
At a glance
| Composer | Claude Debussy (1862–1918) |
|---|---|
| Difficulty | Advanced: grade 7 of 8 |
| Key | Key signature: 3 sharps (F♯, C♯, G♯) |
| Time | 5/4 |
| Tempo | 84 quarter-note beats a minute, as the app starts it (it can go slower) |
| Length | 54 measures, about 2:10 |
| Hands | both hands |
| Right hand | A2 to G♯7 |
| Left hand | A0 to D♯5 |
It reaches past the staff: see ledger lines explained.
Levels in the app
| Version | Grade | Levels |
|---|---|---|
| Les sons et les parfums (Préludes, Book 1 No. 4), L. 117 | 7 of 8 | Melody, Melody and bass, Full |
Practice notes
Claude Debussy's two books of Préludes are twenty-four pieces, each with a title that suggests a picture. Book 1 dates from 1909–1910. No. 4 takes its title from a line of Baudelaire's poem Harmonie du soir: "the sounds and the scents turn in the evening air". Debussy printed each title at the end of its piece, as if to let the music speak first.
How it is built. Slow, soft and dreamy, with a key signature of three sharps that the harmony wanders far from, and a stretch in four flats. The meter shifts between 5/4, 3/4 and 4/4 from phrase to phrase, so the music floats rather than marches. Both hands play dense chords that slide into each other, with a melody drifting through them, and the texture spreads from the lowest bass to the top of the keyboard.
The tricky parts
- Changing meters. Count each measure fresh. Mark every change in pencil.
- Accidentals. Everywhere. Read the chords slowly, as shapes.
- Soft, even chords. Every note of a chord down together, quietly.
- Wide spacing. The hands leap and spread across the whole keyboard.
Practice plan
- Listen to it first, following the sheet, to learn how it should sound.
- A few measures at a time, the loop set to them, each hand alone in Wait for me.
- Both hands very slowly; the piece is slow anyway, so the goal is calm, not speed.
Before you start: the whole Octotune path, and slow intermediate pieces with rich chords, such as Chopin's Prelude in E minor.
Questions
Where does the title of Debussy's prelude come from?
From a line of Baudelaire's poem Harmonie du soir: the sounds and the scents turn in the evening air. Debussy wrote the titles of his Préludes at the end of each piece, not at the start.
Is Les sons et les parfums hard?
Yes. It is an advanced piece, Octotune grade 7 of 8: soft, dense chords, many accidentals, wide leaps and meters that change from measure to measure.
Credits and license
- Music: Claude Debussy (1862–1918)
- Typeset by Knute Snortum for the Mutopia Project
- License: Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0
- Source and printable sheet music: the Mutopia Project’s page for this piece