As of November 30, 2012, this montage will no longer be available on Pod-O-Matic. It can be heard or downloaded from the Internet Archive at the following address / A compter du 30 novembre 2012, ce montage ne sera plus disponible en baladodiffusion Pod-O-Matic. Il peut être téléchargé ou entendu au site Internet Archive à l'adresse suivante:
Our second montage dedicated to the music of Claude Debussy focuses on more intimate music, involving one, two or four players.
The Quartet
Along with Ravel's, Debussy's string quartet stands as a standard bearer for the French quartet, and possibly for the entire genre in the neo-Romantic style. Its sensuality and impressionistic tonal shifts make it a piece absolutely of its time and place while, with its cyclic structure, it constitutes a final divorce from the rules of classical harmony and points the way ahead.
The work seems to be influenced by the style of César Franck. The result is a cyclic structure with the four movements connected by thematic material. Other influences include Borodin, Grieg and Javanese gamelan music.
"Any sounds in any combination and in any succession are henceforth free to be used in a musical continuity," Debussy wrote. Pierre Boulez said that Debussy freed chamber music from "rigid structure, frozen rhetoric and rigid aesthetics."
One Player
I retained two selections for solo instrument: Syrinx for solo flute and Suite Bergamasque for solo piano. The Suite bergamasque was first composed by Debussy around 1890, but was significantly revised just before its publication in 1905. Debussy loathed the earlier piano style in which these pieces were written. While it is not known how much of the Suite was written in 1890 and how much was written in 1905, we do know that Debussy changed the names of at least two of the pieces.
"Passepied" was called "Pavane", and "Clair de lune" was originally titled "Promenade Sentimentale." These names also come from Paul Verlaine's poems. It is interesting, however, to note that "Promenade Sentimentale" alludes specifically to one of Verlaine's earliest collections, "Poèmes saturniens," a fact that Debussy obviously took into account when he changed the name (and most likely a lot of the music) in order to suit both his later style, and Verlaine's.
Two Players
The bulk of the works I programmed this week involve piano as accompoaniment for another instrument: the clarinet in his Deuxième Rhapsodie, female voice in a selection of mélodies (by Banville rather than Verlaine, the inspiration behind the earlier piano suite), flute in the adaptation of The Girl with Flaxen Hair and... another piano in his piano duo suite En Blanc et Noir.
I think you will love this music too.
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Commentaire françaisLe quatuor
Les quatuors de Ravel et de Debussy occupent le sommet du répertoire pour quatuors à cordes Français - sinon de l'ensemble des quatuors néo-romantiques. Sa sensualité, son usgae de changements en tonalité et sa forme cyclique mettent ce quatuor confortablement dans le giron des oeuvres de son époque.
On reconnaît dans ce quatuor et l'influence de Franck, et le regard avant-gardiste d'un Borodine. Il est en partie inspiré du Quatuor de Grieg. Dixit le compositeur: " Tout son dans toute combinaison et toute succession peuvent maintenant être utilisés librement dans une continuité musicale."
Instrument solo
J'ai retenu deux sélections pour instrument seul: Syrinx pour flûte et la Suite Bergamasque pour piano. Cette suite, sans doute la plus popuulaire du compositeur, fut composée originalement vers 1890, ensuite largement revisée avant sa publication en 1905. Debussy était sans doute insatisfait avec l'aspect stylistique original de la suite, et il est impossible d'associer les pièces avec l'ébauche originale et la revision... Toutefois, on sait que deux des tableaux ("Passepied" et "Clair de lune") avaient des titres différents au départ - des titres aliognés avec des poèmes de Paul Verlaine. Pertinemment, "Clair de Lune" était à l'origine "Promenade Sentimentale" une allusion spécifique au recueil "Poèmes saturniens" qui explique la référence astrale du titre final.
Pour pianoi et...
La majorité de mes sélections sont pour un piano qui accompagne une clarinette (Deuxième Rhapsodie, ), une voix féminine (textes de Banville), une flûte (dans une adaptation du pr.lude la fille aux cheveux de lin), et même un deuxième piano (En Blanc et Noir).
Bonne écoute!
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