Claude Debussy
The Prelude a l'apres-midi d'un faune received its first performance at the Salle d'Harcourt on 22 December 1894.
Salle d'Harcourt, 40 rue de Rochechouart
Standing, much changed
Outside only
Someone else
The modest concert hall where the Prélude à l'après-midi d'un faune was first performed on 22 December 1894 — a piece often treated as the beginning of modern music, premièred in a room almost nobody has heard of.
- 40 rue Marguerite-de-Rochechouart, 75009 Paris
- A Paris concert hall of the 1890s
The place, briefly
On 22 December 1894 the Société Nationale de Musique gave the first performance of Claude Debussy's Prélude à l'après-midi d'un faune in the Salle d'Harcourt. The audience reportedly demanded it again immediately, and it was played twice.
The piece is routinely described as the point at which twentieth-century music begins — the flute line at the opening drifting through a tonality that never quite commits, form organised by colour and atmosphere rather than by argument. Pierre Boulez later credited it with the awakening of modern music. It came out of Mallarmé's poem, and Mallarmé, who had been sceptical about the whole idea of setting his work, is said to have been won over.
The hall itself has gone, and the street has been renamed: what was the rue de Rochechouart is now the rue Marguerite-de-Rochechouart. The coordinate here is an approximation of the historic address and there is nothing on the site to see.
Key facts
- 40 rue de Rochechouart
- rue Marguerite-de-Rochechouart
- The première of the Prélude à l'après-midi d'un faune
- 22 December 1894
- The hall is gone; the location is approximate
Timeline
The Prélude à l'après-midi d'un faune is first performed here on 22 December.
On the map
Questions before you go
Where was Debussy's Prélude à l'après-midi d'un faune first performed?
At the Salle d'Harcourt, 40 rue de Rochechouart in the 9th arrondissement, on 22 December 1894. The hall no longer exists and the street has been renamed.
Why is the piece considered so important?
For its treatment of harmony and form — colour and atmosphere in place of clear tonal argument. It is widely treated as the point at which modern music begins.
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