20th century
Baroque
Classical
Romantic
20th century
21st century
Solo repertoire
Piccolo
Alto flute
Bass flute
Debussy Claude
Aitken, Robert
Amirov, Fikret
Amlin, Martin
Amram, David
Andriessen, Jurriaan
Arnold, Malcolm
Arrieu, Claude
Auric, Georges
Babbit, Milton
Bacchus, Peter
Bacri, Nicolas
Baker, Michael Conway
Baksa, Robert
Barber, Samuel
Barrere, Georges
Bartók, Béla Viktor János
Baton, René-Emmanuel
Beaser, Robert
Bennet, Richard Rodney
Berg, Gunnar
Berio, Luciano
Bernofsky, Lauren
Bernstein, Leonard
Bloch, Ernest
Bolling, Claude
Bon, Maarten
Bonis, Mel
Boughton, Rutland
Boulanger, Marie-Juliette
Boulez, Pierre
Bourdin, Roger
Bournonville, Armand
Bowen, Edwin York
Bozza, Eugène Joseph
Bréville, Pierre
Brings, Allen
Brotons, Salvador
Brown, Elizabeth
Brun, Georges
Burkhard, Willy
Burton, Eldin
Büsser, Henri
Camus, Pierre
Carmichael, John
Carter, Elliott
Casella, Alfredo
Chaynes, Charles
Clarke, Ian
Colgrass, Michael
Colquhoun, Michael
Copland, Aaron
Corigliano, John
Cortese, Luigi
Currier, Sebastian
Dahl, Walter Ingolf Marcus
Damase, Jean-Michel
Davidovsky, Mario
De Lorenzo, Leonardo
Debussy, Claude
Del Tredici, David
DeLaney, Charles Oliver
Delerue, Georges
Denisov, Edison
Dèsbriere, Jacques
Dick, Robert
Dinicu, Grigoraș
Dodgson, Stephen
Dohnányi, Ernő
Dubois, Pierre Max
Dukas, Paul
Durey, Louis
Dutilleux, Henri
Enescu, George
Farkas, Ferenc
Feld, Jindřich
Ferroud, Pierre-Octave
Flothuis, Marius
Folio, Cynthia
Foote, Arthur
Foss, Lukas
Françaix, Jean
Fukushima, Kazuo
Gade, Jacob
Gál, Hans
Gaubert, Philippe
Genzmer, Harald
George, Thom Ritter
Ghidoni, Armando
Gieseking, Walter
Glass, Philip
Glière, Reinhold
Golovin, Andrei
Gordeli, Otar
Grier, Lita
Griffes, Charles Tomlinson
Grinblat, Romuald
Grovlez, Gabriel
Guarnieri, Mozart Camargo
Gubajdulina, Sofia
Hahn, Reynaldo
Hailstork, Adolphus
Halphen, Fernand
Hanson, Howard Harold
Harberg, Amanda
Harbison, John
Harsányi, Tibor
Harty, Hamilton
Heiss, John
Heith, David
Henze, Hans-Werner
Higdon, Jennifer
Hindemith, Paul
Holliger, Heinz
Holmboe, Vagn
Honegger, Arthur
Hoover, Katherine
Hosokawa, Toshio
Hovhaness, Alan
Hüe, Georges Adolphe
Hurel, Philippe
Ibert, Jacques
Ichiyanagi, Toshi
Ittzés, Gergely
Ives, Charles
Jacob, Gordon
James, Bob
Jemnitz, Sándor
Jirák, Karel Boleslav
Jóhannsson, Magnús Blöndal
Jolivet, André
Jongen, Joseph
Karg-Elert, Sigfrid
Kay, Ulysses
Kelterborn, Rudolf
Ķeniņš, Tālivaldis
Kennan, Kent Wheeler
Kennedy, Martin
Kernis, Aaron Jay
Khachaturian, Aram
Kocsár, Miklós
Kodaly, Zoltan
Koechlin, Charles
Kornauth, Egon
Kraft, Leo
Krzywicki, Jan
Kupferman, Meyer
La Montaine, John
Lauber, Joseph
Lavista, Mario
Lee, Eugene
Leeuwen, Ary van
Levinson, Gerald
Liebermann, Lowell
Loudova, Ivana
Mack, Dieter
Mahler, Gustav
Maresz, Yan
Martin, Frank
Martino, Donald
Martinů, Bohuslav
Meltzer, Harold
Messiaen, Olivier
Mihalovici, Marcel
Milhaud, Darius
Mouquet, Jules
Mower, Mike
Muczynski, Robert
Nielsen, Carl
Norby, Erik
Nordenstrom, Gladys
Offermans, Wil
Olsen, Carl Gustav Sparre
Paget, Daniel
Perle, George
Petrovics, Emil
Piazzolla, Astor
Piston, Walter
Poulenc, Francis
Prokofiev, Sergey
Rachmaninoff, Sergei
Ran, Shulamit
Raphael, Günter
Rautavaara, Einojuhani
Ravel, Maurice
Reynolds, Verne
Riegger, Wallingford
Rivier, Jean
Rodrigo, Joaquin
Rota, Nino
Rotaru, Doina
Rouse, Christopher
Roussel, Albert
Rutter, John
Saariaho, Kaija
Sancan, Pierre
Schmidt, Ole
Schocker, Gary
Schulhoff, Erwin
Schwantner, Joseph
Sciarrino, Salvatore
Shostakovich, Dmitri
Sibelius, Jean
Smit, Leo
Tailleferre, Germaine
Takemitsu, Tōru
Taktakishvili, Otar
Tansman, Alexandre
Tomasi, Henri
Tower, Joan
Uébayashi, Yuko
Varèse, Edgar
Vasks, Pēteris
Weigl, Vally
Weinberg, Mieczysław
Wilder, Alec
Williams, Ralph Vaughan
Yi, Chen
Yun, Isang
Zgraja, Krystof
"La fille au Cheveux de Lin" for flute and piano
Claude Debussy: "La fille au cheveux de lin" (The Girl with the Flaxen Hair) for flute and piano was written in early 1910, originally as the eighth prelude for piano in Debussy's Préludes, Book I. The whole set was dedicated to his second wife, Emma Bardac.
The composition was premiered by Debussy himself at the Société Musicale Indépendante in Paris on May 25, 1910.
The piece is a musical setting of a poem by Leconte de Lisle from his "Poèmes antiques" (1852). The poem describes a young girl sitting in the heather in the morning sun, singing. Debussy uses a pentatonic-inflected melody and parallel harmonies to evoke the "innocence" and "simplicity" of the girl.
By 1910, Debussy was the most famous living French composer. He was under pressure to follow up on the success of "Images" and the "Children’s Corner". The "Préludes" were his attempt to redefine piano literature through "sensory" titles rather than formal structures. This was the year Debussy began to feel the early symptoms of the colorectal cancer that would eventually take his life. This led to a period of "feverish productivity" as he felt the urgency to document his musical ideas.
While this specific piece wasn't composed for flute, 1910-1913 was the era when Debussy was most fascinated by the flute's timbre that produced Syrinx (1913) and the Sonata for Flute, Viola, and Harp just a few years later.
Claude Debussy (1862-1918) was a French composer, often regarded as the first impressionist composer, even though he rejected that association with impressionism. Debussy studied piano at the Conservatoire de Paris and composition with Ernest Guiraud, gradually developing his own style of composition which matured when he was nearly 40 years old and gained international success with his only opera Pelléas et Mélisande. At the age of 18, he started working as a pianist and tutor in the wealthy Russian household of Nadezhda von Meck, the longtime patroness of P.I.Tchaikovsky. Four years later he won Prix de Rome scholarship and spent two years at Villa Medici in Rome. Even though he was impressed by Wagner’s harmonies he was more influenced by Rimsky-Korsakov’s music which he was exposed upon returning to Paris.
Gradually his compositions gained recognition among his fellow composers. In 1983 Ysaÿe string quartet premiered his String Quartet, and the following year he started to compose Pelléas et Mélisande. In 1984 he gained some recognition with his symphonic poem Prélude à l'après-midi d'un faune, but his musical efforts were perpetually swept away with his controversial affairs in private life, turning supporters into enemies. Nevertheless, the success of his opera and the following compositions (e.g. La mer; Images) gained wider public recognition abroad than in France. Among his last works: Trio for flute, viola and harp (2015) was written when Debussy was suffering from his fatal illness.