Although Stéphane Mallarmé’s poem, The Afternoon of a Faun, was a substantial piece

of art and literature by and of itself, other artists such as Claude Debussy and Vaslav Nijinksy
created new imagery in which we see the poem in new light. Debussy’s tone poem is able to
take Mallarmé’s poem and turn the words into sounds that accurately depict Mallarmé’s wishes
and while some say that Nijinsky’s ballet does the same thing, because it does not work in
harmony with Debussy’s music, its artistic impact is limited.

In 1894, Claude Debussy sent a request to Stéphane Mallarmé’s; he was interested in

composing a musical piece based on Mallarmé’s poem The Afternoon of a Faun. At first,
Mallarmé did not approve due to the fact that he believed that music does not belong to and in
poetry and that poetry has its own “musical sense” that must be followed. In this case, that music
was the alexandrine, which is the twelve-syllable line that is found in a lot of French poetry.
Debussy claims that it was only a “very free illustration of Mallarmé’s beautiful poem; it makes
no claim to be a synthesis of the poem.” (Lloyd 255) However, not only do I disagree, but so
does Mallarmé. After listening to the premiere of Debussy’s piece, Mallarmé went to Debussy’s
apartment and said, “That music extends the emotion of my poem, and situates its décor more
passionately than color ever could.” (Lloyd 256) In order to see why Mallarmé thought so highly
of Debussy’s homage, we have to analyze the music itself.

The piece starts off with a solo flute line very dreamily and seductively, symbolizing the
“reed pipes” that the faun is playing in the poem. In the first couple lines of the poem, we see
that the faun is in a hazy state, not knowing whether he is dreaming or not. The flute line
portrays exactly this; it starts on a C# and wanders its way through the pitches below before
finding its way back to the C# two more times unsure of where it’s going. As the flute (or faun)
is finishing his sleepy phrase, we get a beautiful harp glissando the immediately piques our
interest. This harp is the first appearance of the nymphs in the mind of the faun, and just like the
audience, the faun wakes up a little. After a little transition from the horns, the flute enters again
with the same opening line, this time accompanied by the strings and certain winds however this
time its building even more towards a potential climax, but again Debussy pulls back using a
clarinet solo to lead back to the solo flute line. This whole section fits this part of Mallarmé’s
poem. The faun is talking about the first nymph and how she thrills him but suddenly goes back
to talking about the nature around him. The next main section of the piece occurs at rehearsal
number 5 where the clarinet has a very capricious solo which flits around a Bb anchor which
gives us imagery of a nymph dancing through a forest. Eventually we get to one of the main
climaxes of the piece and the first forte that Debussy wrote 5 and 6 measures before rehearsal
number 6. At this moment the strings and the winds completely open up their sound and give the
faun a fleeting glimmer of hope that he will be successful in his attempts to woo a nymph.
Debussy’s melody at rehearsal number 6 starts very relaxed but is the beginning of a long-
winded crescendo that lasts 21 measures and is the Faun’s last hope of being with a nymph; it is
the most beautiful, rich, and dreamy section of the piece. After this segment of music, till the end
is a gradual decrescendo of phrases and direction. The faun realizes that the nymphs got away
from him; “This thankless prey went free, without pity/ for the sob that, still intoxicates me.”
(Mallarmé 49) As the piece winds down, Debussy brings back the solo flute melody for one final
time. Where before the melody was used to show the faun waking up from his slumber, this time
it is used as the exact opposite it seems like. The flute line signifies the final thoughts of the faun
before his thoughts drift off. The cymbal’s final notes state that this was no more than a dream
that wants to be prolonged just for a single moment. Even if it wasn’t intentional, Debussy vision
seems to perfectly complement the Mallarmé’s poem.
The other main interpretation of Mallarmé’s poem comes from the mastermind dancer
Vaslav Nijinsky. A little over 10 years after Debussy’s vision of the poem was realized, Nijinksy
decided to imprint his own version of this art and shortly before World War I, the ballet was
premiered by the Russian Ballet in Paris. While Nijinsky’s ballet pays homage to Mallarmé’s
poem, many of the decisions made in the choreography make little sense as I see it. The
choreography follows the general line of the poem because it does have “contrast between his
[Faun] rambling meditations and his occasional vivid memories of the nymphs.” (Munro 97) We
see when the Faun dances, he has sudden motions towards agitation one second, and then
peaceful motions the next. Despite the fact that Nijinksy’s work seems to follow poem, since it
doesn’t correlate to the music behind it, its value is diminished. The choreography doesn’t
always seem intertwined with the actual music, for example, at 5:16 in the Nureyev video, at the
most passionate moment in the music, the faun is using very angular movements as opposed to
the music’s lyrical feel. A moment where the dancers could be more angular is one mentioned
early, at rehearsal number 5, even though the music is still beautiful, the feeling that it gives
there is one of quick movement, and yet the main dancer is moving very fluidly there. Another
place where things don’t seem to quite line up is at 5:55 in the video, the dancers move their
heads back and forth quite quickly and aggressively and have again an angular stance when the
music is relaxing. The dancers eventually do relax but not before something feels out of sync to
me.
Now comes the discussion as to whose version of the poem in a different art form is more
effective and substantial. The reason that I don’t think Nijinsky’s is as convincing as Debussy’s
is simple, he had a much harder job. He didn’t only have to follow the poem, but he also had to
base his ballet off of Debussy’s tone poem. Both Debussy and Nijinsky’s art individually capture
the essence of Mallarmé’s poem but the reason why Debussy’s is effective is because it is able to
stand alone, it can function without the presence of the ballet, but dance is very reliant on music
and cannot function alone. Because dance can’t function alone, it should be built upon and along
the music that it is based upon, if it doesn’t, as in this case sometimes, its effect is substantially
less stunning. I am not trying to say that the ballet and the dancers are not creating something
beautiful, but in my opinion, it could have been much more.