Syrinx 101 for Dummies! How to Practice and Learn it:

The solo flute piece “Syrinx” by Claude Debussy is among the most famous pieces ever written for flute. It was one of the earliest romantic flute solos, as well as prominently featured in the opera Orpheus. The story of Syrinx is a tragic one, and greatly informs how the flutist performs it. This piece is definitely open to interpretation. I’ve seen someone choreograph it and dance while performing it on flute, play it completely out of time, play it with some tasteful extended techniques added in, and play it in the dark on stage. How you interpret this piece is up to you. My rule of thumb? Learn the rhythms, dynamics, and written expression that Debussy intended. Then, make it your own. If you ever depart too far from what’s written, just make sure you have a very good stylistic reason for it! Now I’d like to tell you the story of Syrinx because I think it informs how you perform it and interpret it.

THE STORY.

Syrinx is a water nymph who gets pursued by Pan, the God of the Wild. Syrinx doesn’t want the attention, and often tries to hide. One day, she decides to transform herself into a water reed to hide from Pan along the side of a river. Pan, unable to find her, decides to craft himself a flute and play a love song for her. Water reeds make perfect “tubes” to craft a flute out of….Unknowingly, Pan kills Syrinx as he crafts his flute: using the very same water reed that she used to disguise herself. Syrinx is dead, and Pan didn’t mean to kill her. Pick a part of this story that resonates for you. Is it the sadness as Pan accidentally kills the woman he loves? Is it the fact that Syrinx had to resort to drastic measures to hide from a man she didn’t want attention from? Do you merely want to focus on communicating how Syrinx loved her freedom, or how Pan loved her? This is how you let the story guide your performance of this piece. 

Now that we have the story down, let’s get into some tips for learning and playing the piece! 

PRACTICE TIPS.

Key signature: This piece is in D-flat Major, meaning you’ll have to pay careful attention to all the flats. Debussy, inspired from his travels abroad to Asia, makes use of the pentatonic scale throughout the piece. It was actually one of the things that made his music stand out in a time period that was dense with prolific classical composers. You’ll find him using pentatonic and hexatonic scales in many of his other pieces as well. 

Rhythms: There are some complicated rhythms in this one, so as a general rule of thumb I like to focus on lining the notes up with a metronome on either a quarter note or eighth note beat. The rhythms are one of the ways that this piece can be interpretive - using rubato (slowing down for a musical reason) can transform the rhythm slightly. I recommend you listen to this piece over and over again. Listen to different people playing it to hear different versions, and pretty soon it’ll start to click. 

Trills: There are two trills towards the end. You can watch my Youtube tutorial where I explain the trill fingerings, and also play through the piece with my own interpretation.

Enjoy playing Syrinx, I’m so happy you’ve added this piece to your collection! Happy Practicing!!

If you need the sheet music, you can download it here. You can also book a lesson with me using this link.

Happy Practicing!

Amanda