DOUZE ÉTUDES by CLAUDE DEBUSSY a Pianist's View
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Margit Rahkonen Margit I’ve invested a lot of passion and faith in the future of these Études. I hope you like them, both for the music they contain DOUZE ÉTUDES and for what they denote. Margit Rahkonen (MM, Juilliard by CLAUDE DEBUSSY Claude Debussy to his publisher 28.8.1915 School; DMus, Sibelius Academy) has concertised widely in her na- A Pianist’s View The collection of twelve Études, Debussy’s last sub- Debussy Claude Douze Études by tive Finland and abroad and is a stantial piano work was written during World War I, long-time piano faculty member of the Sibelius Academy, Helsinki. when the composer was already seriously ill. In spite of MARGIT RAHKONEN She has recorded for the Finnish the tragic circumstances surrounding their birth, the Radio as well as for Bis, Fuga, Nim- Études are filled with energy, light and the delight of bus and Finlandia, including the invention. For a pianist, they present an inspiring chal- Douze Études of Claude Debussy lenge both from interpretative and technical viewpoints. (French Etudes, Finlandia 1994). Since the 1990s Margit Rah- The writer approaches the Études from several angles konen has taught in the Sibelius with the help of existing literature on Debussy’s piano Academy DocMus Doctoral School. works and her own expertise as pianist and pedagogue. She has published writings and ar- The book is directed to pianists studying the concert – ticles on the history of piano per- View a Pianist’s formance in Finland, e.g. a mono- etude repertoire as well as to any reader interested in graphy on the Finnish student of Debussy’s piano music. Liszt, Alie Lindberg. Her particular ISBN 978-952-329-064-8 (PAINETTU) focus is the influence of Franz Liszt ISBN 978-952-329-065-5 (PDF) EST 32 (ISSN 1237-4229) on the musical life of 19th-century Finland. FRAM OY VAASA 2016 EST 32 DOCMUS-TOHTORIKOULU EST 32 TAIDEYLIOPISTON SIBELIUS-AKATEMIA 2016 COVER ILLUSTRATION SOURCE: MANUSCRIPT PAGE OF ÉTUDE POUR LES ‘CINQ DOIGTS' BY CLAUDE DEBUSSY, BIBLIOTHÈQUE NATIONALE DE FRANCE, PARIS Margit Rahkonen Douze Études by Claude Debussy – A Pianist’s View 1 Fig.1. Debussy in the French seaside town of Pourville, where he composed the Douze Études. The photograph was taken in 1904 by Emma Bardac, who later became his wife. © Centre de documentation Claude Debussy, Paris. 2 Margit Rahkonen Douze Études by Claude Debussy – A Pianist’s View EST Publication Series 32 3 Illustrations Fig. 1. Debussy in Pourville 1904 …………………………………… 2 Fig. 2. Claude Monet: Seashore and cliffs of Pourville in the morning ………………………………………………………… 34 Fig. 3. Wassily Kandinsky: Composition VII ……………………… 38 Fig. 4. Odilon Redon: Le Silence …………………………………… 119 Examples Ex. 1. Étude I, bars 32-34 …………………………………………… 54 Ex. 2. Étude X, bars 38–40 ………………………………………… 57 Ex. 3. Étude I, bar 110 ……………………………………………… 65 Ex. 4. Étude V, bar 25 ………………………………………………… 97 Ex. 5. Étude IX, bars 77–78 ………………………………………… 107 ISSN 1237-4229 ISBN 978-952-329-064-8 (printed) ISBN 978-952-329-065-5 (pdf) Printed by Fram Oy, Vaasa Layout design Henri Terho Cover design Jan Rosström EST-julkaisusarja 32 / EST Publication Series 32 University of the Arts Helsinki, Sibelius Academy, 2016 4 Contents Introduction …………………………………………………………… 7 Liszt as the starting point ……………………………………… 7 About the sources ………………………………………………… 9 Performers’ knowledge ………………………………………… 11 Birth and background of the Études ……………………………… 15 The Études and their context …………………………………… 20 Reception ………………………………………………………… 20 Predecessors ……………………………………………………… 27 Études and other arts …………………………………………… 31 Novelties in the Études ………………………………………… 41 The Études as a collection ……………………………………… 43 Musical and performance issues …………………………………… 50 The Étude spirit ………………………………………………… 50 Dynamics ………………………………………………………… 52 Touch ……………………………………………………………… 55 Agogics …………………………………………………………… 63 Pedalling …………………………………………………………… 71 Fingering …………………………………………………………… 77 The Douze Études: playful work and serious play ……………… 81 I Étude – Enjoy your exercises! ………………………………… 81 II Étude – Underwater world …………………………………… 84 III Étude – Ancient dances and melodies …………………… 87 IV Étude – Nocturne …………………………………………… 89 V Étude – Joy of living …………………………………………… 93 VI Étude – Playful paws ………………………………………… 97 VII Étude – The art of jeu perlé ………………………………… 100 VIII Étude – An imaginary catalogue ………………………… 102 IX Étude – Ragtime for percussion …………………………… 105 X Étude – The essence of piano sound ……………………… 108 XI Étude – The afternoon of a nymph ………………………… 111 XII Étude – Sound and silence ………………………………… 113 Conclusion …………………………………………………………… 120 Sources ………………………………………………………………… 124 5 Acknowledgements I would like to express my gratitude to my long-time employer, the DocMus Doctoral School of the Sibelius Academy, which has made it possible for me to write this book as part of my duties as lecturer and professor. I am especially grateful to the head of DocMus, DM Päivi Järviö, and her predecessor at that post, DM Tuire Kuusi. Both have given their full support to this book project. The encouragement of professor Anne Kauppala as well as the many insightful and helpful comments of DM Päivi Järviö and DM Kati Hämäläinen have been important. Several colleagues and DocMus staff members have helped generously by answering my questions and in performing the countless practical tasks connected with the writing and publication process. DM Annikka Konttori- Gustafsson has been a true friend as well as a supportive colleague: cultivating black humour together has been an effective weapon against moments of desperation. Many thanks also to Susan Sinisalo and Lynne Sunderman for doing their translating and editing jobs with admirable patience. A warm thought goes to professor Kari Kurkela, who has been vital in founding the artistic doctoral programme at the Sibelius Academy. He awakened my interest in entering the then-brand-new programme during a taxi ride to a meeting of the Maj Lind piano competition jury in the late 1980s. That conversation influenced the direction of my life in ways I could never have foreseen. Helsinki 15.11.2016 Margit Rahkonen 6 Introduction Liszt as the starting point The twelve piano Études of Claude Debussy became a permanent part of my life in the 1990s while I was pursuing my artistic doctoral studies at the Sibelius Academy. The theme of my five doctoral concerts, however, was not the music of Debussy, but rather of Franz Liszt. The twelve Études, plus a few ‘water pieces’ by Debussy and Ravel included in the programmes, were meant to demonstrate the continuation and development of Liszt’s pianistic techniques and harmonic experiments in these later composers’ piano works. My first attempt at the doctoral thesis dealt with the sound colour of the piano. I wanted to see how a pianist could influence the sound of individual tones without using the pedal, even going so far as asking some of my colleagues to see if they could do it. Somewhere along the way, after banging my head on the wall at having to study statistics in order to record and analyse the results, I lost interest – but not in the sound colour of the piano itself. For having extended the piano’s potential, Liszt was for me a colourist composer, not only in his daring experiments with harmony, but also through addressing the pedals, the keyboard registers, the different attacks – whatever it took to express in piano music the whole spectrum of human life, from pathetic and banal to noble and divine. During my student years, I became acquainted with a fair number of concert etudes, naturally including many by Chopin and Liszt, but 7 I remember having played only one from the Debussy collection, pour les arpèges composés. I wasn’t very familiar with the Debussy Études during my doctoral studies, and the task of learning them abounded with the delights of discovery. I knew of course of Chopin’s influence on Debussy, but my Liszt-filled head kept forming all kinds of Liszt connections, no matter what I was playing or reading. Liszt arrived in Paris as a young boy and lived there for twelve years. He grew into adulthood in that musical capital of Europe of the time, and French language and culture were to remain important to him for the rest of his life. My way of thinking about Debussy’s writing Études in the first place and his apparent look back in time were thus imbued with the doings and thoughts of Liszt the romantic piano virtuoso par excellence. My concert programme notes on Debussy’s Études began to grow and finally took the form of the thesis for my artistic doctoral degree at the Sibelius Academy.1 That text has remained the basis for this book. In the rewriting process, the language has changed from Finnish to English, corrections and changes have been made, and numerous amendments written. Many of them have arisen from the Debussy literature published since I wrote my thesis. At the time of Liszt’s death, Debussy was a young man, three weeks away from his 24th birthday, with 60 compositions to his name.2 All of the works considered important today still lay before him. Debussy had met Liszt in 1886 and heard him play for his guests a programme including Au bord d’une source, his transcription on Schubert’s Ave Maria, and possibly, an unnamed third piece, which might well have been something from his late output.3 Anyone acquainted with Liszt’s late piano works knows that some of them can be deviously tricky, despite their apparent simplicity. Even though Liszt was hardly the main catalyst in the birth of the Études thirty years later, his influence 1 Henki, sointi ja tekniikka. Claude Debussyn 12 etydiä pianolle, Sibelius- Akatemia (Spirit, Sound and Technique. Claude Debussy’s Twelve Études for Piano), EST 3, 1994. 2 Lesure 1977. 3 For more about Debussy’s meeting with Liszt, see Lesure 1994, 73–74, Walker 1997, 475 and Howat 2009, 166–168. 8 was such that no pianist–composer of Debussy’s generation could escape it.