Préludes (Debussy)
24 pieces for solo piano composed by Claude Debussy, divided into two books of 12 preludes each
Claude Debussy's Préludes are 24 pieces for solo piano, divided into two books of 12 preludes each. Unlike some notable collections of preludes from prior times, such as Chopin's Op. 28 preludes, or the preludes from Johann Sebastian Bach's The Well-Tempered Clavier, Debussy's do not follow a strict pattern of tonal centers. Each book was written in a matter of months, at an unusually fast pace for Debussy. Book I was written between December 1909 and February 1910, and Book II was written between 1911 and 1912.
Performance history
On 3 May 1911, pianist Jane Mortier premiered the first book of preludes at the Salle Pleyel in Paris. German-English pianist Walter Morse Rummel, a student of Leopold Godowsky, premiered the second book in 1913 in London.
Debussy and other pianists who gave early performances of the preludes (including Ricardo Viñes) played them in groups of three or four, which remains a popular approach today. This allows performers to choose preludes with which they have the strongest affinity, or those to which their particular gifts are most suited.
There is a strong tonal relationship between the preludes that suggests that their published order is not arbitrary.
“Préludes (Debussy)” enters the record as 24 pieces for solo piano composed by Claude Debussy, divided into two books of 12 preludes each. Crown Archives preserves that source wording while asking what Préludes, Debussy and pieces can confirm, complicate or overturn.
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Named sources, stable identifiers and responsible institutions provide the strongest route from overview to verifiable evidence. The source revision retrieved here is dated Jun 17, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q512715. VIAF identifies the subject as 203031510. 1 of 2 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1909, 1910, 1911 and 1912.
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This entry incorporates text from “Préludes (Debussy)” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.