Claude Debussy, an intriguing French composer of the modern era
His major works included Clair de lune (Moonlight, in Suite bergamasque, 1890-1905), Prelude a l'apres-midi d'un faune (Prelude to the Afternoon of a Faun, 1894), the opera Pelleas et Melisande (1902), La Mer (1905; The Sea), and song settings of poems by Verlaine and Baudelaire.
Debussy's music is noted for its subtle melodies and recitative harmonies.
Clair de Lune (Moonlight) by Claude Debussy
Music is...
"Music is the expression of the movement of the waters, the play of curves described by changing breezes."
-- Claude Debussy
Debussy: L'après-midi d'une faune - part 1/2
Conductor: Leopold Stokowski
Debussy: L'après-midi d'un faune (Stokowski) part 1/2
A celebrated performance conducted by Leopold Stokowski with the London Symphony Orchestra, Royal Festival Hall, London, 14 June 1972. Part 2 here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F1P85n9uPzE "Prélude à l'après-midi d'un faune" by Claude Debussy. Performed on the double occassion of Stokowski's 90th birthday, and 60th anniversary of his LSO debut. Though he conducted the entire program from that 1912 concert, it was this Debussy performance folks recall most memorably. "Prélude à l'après-midi d'un faune" was a specialty of Stokowski over the years, but he and his soloists surpassed themselves on this night, as you will see! Christopher Palmer wrote in "The Musical Times" that "My most treasured memory of the evening is undoubtedly 'Prélude à l'après-midi d'un faune', which received a reading of exceptional refinement with all the tensions and relaxations effortlessly and beautifully graded, and unerringly poetic solo work from all the woodwind. A flawless performance." in "The Daily Telegraph" Peter Stadlen wrote "Stokowski's legendary hands, though batonless, are put to the strictest functional use. His angular, almost ungainly movements are the simple tools for some of he most masterly conducting the century has witnessed....by what seemingly incongruous flicks of the wrist did he promote the fabulously sensitve solos in 'Prélude à l'après-midi d'un faune'? Never has lifelong global fame rested on more solid foundations." adapted from the liner notes by Edward Johnson Debussy: Prelude to "The Afternoon of a Faun"
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Claude Debussy Playing the Piano, 1893
Claude Debussy (20th Century Composers)
Claude Debussy (20th Century Composers) (20th Century Composers)
Amazon Price: $10.36 (as of 12/18/2009)
"I've been waiting for a book like this for a very long time and it seems like finally, the wait is over.
Paul Roberts' book on the French composer Claude Debussy is a well-researched and well-written document on this dynamic musical genius. Debussy's musical and personal life are discussed in detail without becoming overly pretentious. Roberts provides an inside look into Debussy's creativity as a composer as well as his life outside of music. It's almost like getting to meet Debussy in person and having a friend of his tell you his life story.
This book is definitely a must for the avid Debussy fan. Although I've been a fan of Debussy's music for well over 20 years, I have further appreciation for him and his music after reading this book. Because of this, it comes highly recommended. It's an excellent biography on a most excellent composer and musician. A Must-Read!"
-- Louie Bourland
Debussy - Reflets dans l'eau (Reflections in the Water)
Pianist: Arturo Michelangeli
Arturo Michelangeli - Debussy Reflets dans l'eau
Pianist: Arturo Michelangeli playing Claude Debussy's "Reflets dans l'eau" in D-flat major from Images Book 1. "Reflets dans l'eau" translates to "Reflections in the Water." This pianist was hailed as the most mathematical in the 20th century. Aside from Gould, Michelangeli was considered a "human metronome." I find his Debussy ~slightly~ dry, but still amazingly colorful. contradictory statement, i know. Images Book 1 consists of three pieces, all composed within 1904 and 1905. I'm intersted to know, DO YOU CONSIDER DEBUSSY "IMPRESSIONISTIC?" if not.. what do YOU think he is?
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Debussy CDs
Debussy's Greatest Hits
Amazon Price: $6.99 (as of 12/18/2009)
Debussy: La Mer / Nocturnes / Jeux / Rhapsodie pour clarinette et orchestre - The Cleveland Orchestra / Pierre Boulez
Amazon Price: $16.98 (as of 12/18/2009)
Debussy: Images I/Images II/Children's Corner
Amazon Price: $16.98 (as of 12/18/2009)
Gounod - Pelléas et Mélisande (Part 1)
Pelléas et Mélisande (1)
Act one, third scene. Mélisande: Colette Alliot-Lugaz. Pélleas: François Le Roux. Golaud: José van Dam; Arkel: Roger Soyer; Geneviève: Jocelyne Taillon; Yniold: Françoise Golfier. Director: Pierre Strosser. Conductor: John Eliot Gardiner
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Program Notes on Famous Claude Debussy Works
- Prelude to Prelude to the Afternoon of a Fawn (Prélude à l'Après-midi d'un faune) (Debussy)
- The prelude, "Afternoon of a Faun," suggested by the symbolic poem of Mallarmé, "L'Après-midi d'un faune," was performed for the first time in Paris, in 1894. Notwithstanding the somewhat obscure text of the poem, the composer has accompanied it with delicate, expressive, and graceful music significant to the sensuous, pleasure-loving nature of the Faun...
CLICK ON ABOVE LINK TO READ FULL NOTES ON THIS WORK - Nocturnes (Claude Debussy)
- The three nocturnes comprising this suite were written in 1897-1899. They are not nocturnes in the ordinary meaning of the term, but impressions. Through they have a program, they do not describe objects, only fantasias upon objects. Perhaps they may be more accurately defined as dreams -- delicate, fleeting, elusive fancies connected in this case with the motion or rhythm of the objects...
CLICK ON ABOVE LINK TO READ FULL NOTES ON THIS WORK - Petit Suite (Claude Debussy)
- The "Petit Suite" of Debussy's was originally written for the piano, four hands, in 1889, and arranged for orchestra by Henri Bussex in 1909. The suite is in four movements...
CLICK ON ABOVE LINK TO READ FULL NOTES ON THIS WORK
Debussy - Clair de lune (Moonlight)
Violinist: David Oistrakh
David Oistrakh, Debussy - Clair de lune
David Oistrakh plays beautifuly Claire de lune. Recorded in Paris, 1962, with Frida Bauer in piano. For whoever is wondering, you may have heard this music on: Frankie and Johnny The Game Ocean's Eleven Ocean's Thirteen Seven Years in Tibet Twilight ... and many other movies
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Claude Debussy (article)
His music is noted for its sensory component and how it is not often formed around one key or pitch. Often Debussy's work reflected the activities or turbulence in his own life. His music virtually defines the transition from late-Romantic music to twentieth century modernist music. In French literary circles, the style of this period was known as symbolism, a movement that directly inspired Debussy both as a composer and as an active cultural participant.
Mary Garden in Debussy's Pelléas et Mélisande
Beautiful Deception
"Art is the most beautiful deception of all. And although people try to incorporate the everyday events of life in it, we must hope that it will remain a deception lest it become a utilitarian thing, sad as a factory."
-- Claude Debussy
Interesting Internet Resources on Debussy
- Claude Debussy: The Painterly Composer
- Brief biography, suggested reading, timeline, key works, recommended recordings, additional resources, quotes, historical and societal context, and portrait.
Syrinx (by Claude Debussy)
Flute solo
Debussy - La Mer (The Sea)
Conductor: Seiji Ozawa. Orchestra: Orchestre de Paris.
Debussy: La Mer (Cambridge Music Handbooks)
Debussy: La Mer (Cambridge Music Handbooks)
Amazon Price: $28.99 (as of 12/18/2009)
"Simon Trezise's study of Claude Debussy's orchestral work "La Mer" appeared in 1994. Like all entries in the Cambridge Music Handbooks series, it is a heady musicological analysis meant for those with at least some training in music theory. You'll also need a copy of the score to make much use of it. Trezise recommends the 1909 Durand score (available in a Dover reprinting), because it is the most reliable of the cheaply available scores.
The contents of the book can be broadly divided into context of the work's creation, analysis of the music, and how the work has been interpreted by various performers. Of the context, Trezise sketches Debussy's life in the years leading up to the first performance of "La Mer" and speaks of how he wrote the work at an especially turbulent time in his private life. Trezise also gives much space to the debates of the French musical scene of the time over "absolute" versus "programmatic music".
The analysis of the music is deep. Trezise presents the ways various scholars have tried to break Debussy's fuzzy writing up into blocks, and shows how applying traditional forms to "La Mer" is not always satisfactory. After going through the work bar by bar, Trevize then dedicates individual sections to Debussy's unusual tonality and the use of motifs. He finds Howat's identification of the golden section in "La Mer" to be interesting, but without any proof of Debussy's conscious use of the proportion in the form of sketches or statements.
In assessing "La Mer" in performance, Trevize speaks of the work's reception at its premiere and its growing status as a classic over the subsequent decades. He examines 10 recorded performances of the work from Coppola's 1932 recording to Solti's in 1991. Unfortunately, the book appeared before Boulez's 1995 Deutsche Grammophon recording which is admirable both for its fine sound quality and its faithfulness to the score. In order to help the listener follow a score and a recording in tandem, Trezise gives timings from Karajan's 1964 recording.
Some of the Cambridge Music Handbooks, such as David Cooper's Bartok: Concerto for Orchestra, are useful for a wide audience, including home listeners as much as scholars. Trevize's book about Debussy's "La Mer", however, is one of the more demanding of the series. Nonetheless, those who enjoy the intellectual study of music will find much goodness here."
-- Christopher Culver
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Prelude No. 4 (Claude Debussy)
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