Debussy preludes, book 1 by claude debussy 18621918. Preludes ii, l1 debussy from cda67920 hyperion records. The two final preludes of book i are more lighthearted. This is the companion to last years debussy album beau soir, and marks lewins fourth disc for sono luminus. Puck is shakespeares elf, in all likelihood found by debussy, as roy howat has suggested, in an edition of 1908 with illustrations by arthur rackham. Debussy may have contributed the last important evolution to the prelude. The title of the piece may be translated to english as either veils or sails. The most important early example of the prelude being exemplified in the forty eight preludes and fugues of books i and ii of the well tempered clavier of bach, where the prelude served to. Nevertheless these pieces do make two effective and coherent wholes, whatever the. Gerald larner explains how debussy, by defying the rules of. All of these composers completed sets of 24 preludes, accompanied by fugues in the first and last instances.
The term is applied generically to any piece preceding a religious or secular ceremony, including in some instances an operatic performance. Debussy, preludes, book 1, number 2, sails, 1910 paul jacobs. Im only an amateur pianist, but have been playing debussy s piano works since the late 70s. In these pages ill try to summarize what references i have on the performance of. In serving the second of these two guidelines, the study examines performance tradition as it pertains to debussy s piano music, including historical performances of. My analysis of canope debussy preludes for piano, book.
In the 17th century, organists in particular began to write loosely structured preludes to rigorously conceived fugues. While an entire concert of preludes may seem repetitive at first glance, the term had a very different meaning to various composers. In general debussy is careful to set consecutive pieces in different keys. The next two preludes take us abroad for the last time. Prelude, musical composition, usually brief, that is generally played as an introduction to another, larger musical piece. Roy howats editions of debussy piano music for the. I would suggest that each book of the preludes be listened to separately. Maybe debussy, who distrusted prolixity and technical brilliance, was saying. He was too good a composer to imitate debussy, although there are a few examples of direct influence it was debussy s music that saved him from remaining under the spell of richard strauss. There is a strong tonal relationship between the preludes that suggests that the published order of the preludes is not arbitrary.
In the original program booklet from 190001 debussy cited the entire pieces affinity. Debussy kept one on his writing desk, and while the still opening of the prelude is suggestive of the objects solid physical state as opposed to being full of movement, like many of the other preludes, there is also a hint of the funerealof slow ceremonies. Tn example 4 the two notes marked x, desire resolution to tonic d, while tonic resolution in other places would destroy the sense of line and beauty of the phrase. Dovers book of debussy preludes is made of extremely high quality print on heavier paper than usual. Images and the two books of piano preludes whose titles tend to be more concrete.
Music about fireworks, day 2 fireworks from the second. Debussy was born in 1862 in st germainenlaye, the son of a shopkeeper who was later to. Preludes book 2 debussy preludes, opus 32 rachmaninoff by lawrence budmen while an entire concert of preludes may seem repetitive at first glance, the term had a very different meaning to various composers. The wave kinetics records twoalbum set is truly the finest, most righton performance of debussy s preludes i have ever heard, with the most outstanding production and audio engineering of a solo piano that ive ever experienced. Steven osborne has already made a name for himself in french music with a disc of alkan and a profoundly moving performance of messiaens vingt regards. You can view samples of our professional work here any opinions, findings, conclusions or recommendations expressed in this material are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the views of uk essays. Types of triplets found in piano compositions of debussy and. Transcript w e i v e r c i s u m h s i t t o c s parting the veils of debussy s voiles david code lecturer in music, university o glasgow abstract restricted to wholetone and pentatonic scales, debussy s debussy s second piano prelude, voiles, oten serves merely to exempliy both his early modernist musical language and his musical impressionism. A descriptive analysis of the preludes book 1 of claude. Wvk002 debussy preludes book 2 albums wave kinetics. Pucks aerial acrobatics are first interrupted by and then blended with trumpet and horn calls. Debussy s preludes are longer than chopins and he composed two cycles of twelve each.
Although each book was published as a complete set and ordered artistically, debussy and his contemporaries often programmed. Debussy was the composer who freed western music from the claustrophobic confines of functional harmony, the set of rules that for 300 years had governed which chords fit best with which others according to how well their bass notes got along. The second set, like the first, features 12 short pieces, each with a descriptive title. Debussy s colouristic masterpiece, a bewitching compendium of scents, colours and sounds. The two pieces by claude debussy chosen for this program share the ambience of a habanera. This piece is pure debussy a beautiful, quiet contemplative tone poem.
The album debussy rameau alternates music by the two composers, creating an enthralling dialogue between them. I provide the original scanned version and the filtered, because the filter does some changes smoothening, sharpening borders and some portions of the scan get lost sometimes when they are too small e. Extension of christoffel duality to christoffel conjugates, and the characterization of the ionian mode via divider incidence and sturmian standardicity. Debussy rather admired english sangfroid those were the days, but was not beyond giving it the occasional dig in the ribs, as here in his quotation of god save the king. Secondguessers have suggested debussy should have placed this piece into his later collection of piano etudes. The harmonic materials presented in 0brouillards, the second piece in preludes book 2, go far. Voiles is a composition by claude debussy for solo piano from 1909.
Those that did try to imitate debussy directly, on the other hand, proved to be not very interesting at all. Despite the research i have done regarding the title, the results i have found are still only speculation. I can do just as good a water nymph as you in fewer notes. The notes to the present collection describe literary or pictorial associations intended by debussy. Here in his first debussy recording for hyperion he presents the two books of images. A habanera rhythm is consistently heard in the left. Its one of the most innovative pieces of the entire collection. Starry night is michael lewins new album featuring the music of claude debussy. Complete preludes, books 1 and 2 dover music for piano. In the middle section, a strong melody emerges, harmonized in thirds, quickly overcome by the rapid motion of the beginning.
This is the most virtuosic of the book 2 preludes so far. This blog is dedicated to discussion of the performance of the piano pieces of claude debussy. Debussy s piano pieces require deep thought and understanding. This is not an example of the work produced by our essay writing service. Techniques such as arpeggio, pedalpoint, staccato, tremolo and glissando are used to depict moving water. Still, as musicologist rollo myers notes, the pictorial element is not unduly stressed if stressed at all. Marcelle meyer plays debussy is french record companys. These works have been central to stevens repertoire for many years and he brings them to the studio after. As shown in the example below, the notes of one of these diminished sevenths can be used as roots to. An example of a foreeful rhythmic pattern found in minstrels. Except for some mild, localized chromaticism and a short pentatonic passage, the entire piece uses the whole. Program notes by phillip huscher claude debussy born august 22, 1862, saintgermainenlaye, france. Reflets dans leau is also an example of the new tone colours debussy discovered for the piano in this part of his life, and it is considered to be one of his greatest works for the instrument.
The purpose of this thesis is to discuss and give a descriptive analysis of twelve of the twentyfour preludes written by claude debussy. Music about fireworks, day 2 fireworks from the second book of preludes by claude debussy the keyboard family of instruments all share a common method of input, but their acoustical mechanics and consequent idioms could not be more different. The most important early example of the prelude being exemplified in the forty eight preludes and fugues of books i and ii of the well tempered clavier. While in an opera or ballet, a prelude may be a mood setting introduction to. Debussy was the composer who freed western music from the claustrophobic confines of. While meyers background makes clear her talents, you neednt be a debussy fanatic to immediately be drawn into her fluid, dazzling playing of the 24 preludes, divided into 2 books and recorded in 1956 and 1957. The beams on even the 32nd notes are very easy to distinguish many printers do not get such a high resolution and the spaces between 2 or 3 beams are often poorly defined resulting in fat black patches instead of distinct lines. Debussys absence from marcandre hamelins recorded repertoire has. Canope preludes, book ii, 19 playing debussys piano. Both books 1 and 2 of debussy s popular piano preludes are contained in this one sturdy volume. The first performance was given on october 15 of that year in paris. Analysis debussy voiles claude debussy elements of. This paper also includes a brief history of preludes as well as possible influences upon debussy and his compositions.
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