Claude Debussy was born today in 1862 in France. Debussy was rather ahead of his time. His music sort of bridges the gap between romantic and contemporary styles. His music is the prototype of the impressionistic period, although he didn't particularly like that label.
I used to adore Debussy's music, listened to it all the time, and played through it a lot. I'm slightly bored with it now, and I think Ravel has much more depth. Debussy's music is very refreshing, though - a wash of colors.
As usual, although he wrote a lot of music, I am mostly familiar with his piano compositions. I particularly enjoy the following:
- Suite Bergamesque - contains his most famous work, "Claire de lune"
- Children's Corner - dedicated to his 3-yr-old daughter, these are delightful little pieces. Includes his famous "Golliwog's Cake-Walk", a sort of rag-time sounding piece that sarcastically quotes Wagner's Tristan and Isolde theme in the middle.
- Estampes - 3 beautiful pieces, each depicting a different country/ethnicity. The first is Pagodes, depicting Javanese music.
- Images - 2 sets of 3 pieces each: includes the famous "Reflections in the Water", a wonderful little picture of all sorts of water - deep, still, pools leading into gurgling streams followed by a majestic waterfall, finally ending again with quiet pools. Also includes "Goldfish" - more water, with lots of splashing around. These pieces are a great example of his impressionistic style.
- Preludes - some of his most popular piano pieces, these have been compared to Chopin's preludes. Two of the most famous are "The Girl with the Flaxen Hair" and "The Sunken Cathedral". The last prelude, "Fireworks" is an example of one of how far he travelled from the romantic period into truly modern music. It is full of sparks and poppers, both small and large displays of fireworks.
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2 comments:
I'm playing 'Poisson D'or' now, so I'm getting a kick of this post. :)
And (referencing the next post)..when is Ms. Rachel going to start piano lessons?
Poisson D'or is a really, really fun piece to play. Captures the playful fish sound really well. I do wonder about the translation, "Goldfish", though. It must have been a really huge one to produce all that thundering build-up at the end of the piece!
Rachel has already begun piano lessons... sort of. She occasionally sits with me, and she systematically presses each note in the highest 2 or 3 octaves of the piano (mostly white notes), asking "What's dat?" for each one, after which I say "That's E" (or A, or whatever note it is). Then she repeats what I say exactly, and goes onto the next note. Sometimes I ask her what a note is, and she occasionally gets it right. She understands the notes go in order with the letters of the alphabet... sort of. We're working on it, though!
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