"Research On The Performance Version Of "Debussy's Prelude"First Collection

Debussy believes that the second collection of the Prelude is not good enough, compared with the first one. The songs of the second collection are uneven in music quality, which could be proven by Debussy's attitude that he was reluctant to play the two collections consistently as a whole. As far as concerned, the first collection is more popular and is played much more than the second one. However, the research on Debussy's Prelude at the moment mainly focuses on the creative analysis and performance practice. There is rare research on the performance versions. On the basis of the acoustic materials about Debussy's piano Prelude in hand, this paper chooses Gieseking, Samson Francois, Michelangeli and Gulda to start its research. Firstly, I will introduce the styles of the players and their performance to help the reader acquaint themselves with it, which can also be a basis for the following research. Secondly, I will compare and analyze the classical compositions and sections on account of the main technologies of piano performance (speed, intensity, pedal, touch keys and expressions terminology). Last part is the evaluation about these four performance version. Meanwhile, I will bring up some mistakes that a few players have made and promote my view. This paper hopes to give some help in practical playing from a comparison angle.