Debussy, Franck, and the "Idea of Sacrifice" Author(S): James R

Societe Belge de Musicologie

Debussy, Franck, and the "Idea of Sacrifice" Author(s): James R. Briscoe Source: Revue belge de Musicologie / Belgisch Tijdschrift voor Muziekwetenschap, Vol. 45, César Franck et son temps (1991), pp. 27-39 Published by: Societe Belge de Musicologie Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/3686945 Accessed: 26/07/2009 13:48

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http://www.jstor.org DEBUSSY, FRANCK, AND THE "IDEA OF SACRIFICE"

JAMESR. BRISCOE (Indianapolis)

1. Introduction

In a review of Cesar Franck'sLes beatitudes, Debussy wrote, "... l'art de Franck sert la musique sans presque lui demanderde gloire... Cet hommage repondaita l'idee de sacrifice qu'evoque la grandeurde l'homme..." Other writings by Debussy also show his regard for Franckas a model for the modest and the psychologically wholesome, a composer who respectedand furtheredFrench musical cultureand gave primaryattention to music without doctrine.This discussion begins by discussing Debussy's views of and stylistic debt to Franck in the years of early maturity,exploring the nature of Franck's "sacrifice"as he understoodit. It concludes with Debussy's relationsto Franck'sdisciples and shows the Franckistattitude in Debussy's late piano work Berceuse heroique.

2. The influence of Franck on Debussy's early maturity

The first recorded statement by Debussy on Franck came in 1889, during conver- sations with his composition teacher Ernest Guiraud upon Debussy's return from the Prix of Rome. Fortunately his Conservatoire friend Maurice Emmanuel noted down these conversation, allowing us to trace Debussy's attitudes in a formative period.

A . ... A I I I I 7Y 4 T 1I11 _ I I #, , * J -i _ LJL] . I

Example1

27 Emmanuel records that Debussy, in the midst of his musings, played this chord suc- cession at the piano. The impression of Franck's Symphonieevidently informe the independantmotion of each line in the texture, although one might not observe other prominent similarities. Guiraudremarked upon Debussy's improvisation,"C'est bien tortueux tout ga". Debussy defended the innovation with a reference to Franck:

"Mais non! pas tortueux. Regardez donc 1'6chelle doublement chromatique.Est-ce que ce n'est pas notre outil? Ce n'est pas pour des prunes, le contrepoint. En faisant marcher les parties on attrape des accords chics. La Symphonie du pere Franck est ebouriffante. J'aimerais mieux moins de carrure.Mais les chics id6es! Je la pr6efre meme au Quintette qui m'a jadis empoigne. I1 tient la corde, le pere Franck, et il d6gote 1'Institut(')."

Debussy attended Franck's organ class at the Conservatoirede Paris about 1880. According to Vallas, Debussy's goal was "querirquelques lumieres sur l'ecriture de la musique pure...". Vallas noted that Debussy, "Genie trop libre, trop independant, trop indiscipline... ne resta guere dans une classe dont la qualite musicale l'attirait, mais d'ou l'eloigna trop vite l'outrance des modulations incessantes imposees par le Maitre(2)."In his biography of Debussy, Edward Lockspeiser also reports on the en- counter. Franck insisted, "Modulez, modulez!". Debussy rejoindered, "Mais pourquoi voulez-vous que je module, puisque je me trouve tres bien dans ce ton-la(3).". Privately to Pierre de Breville, Franck voiced his opinion of the young Debussy's Ariettes oubliees : "C'est de la musique sur des pointes d'aiguilles(4)." Lockspeiser interpretedthe remark as an irritated censure of Debussy's youthful style, but non- theless saw Franck assessing correctly the "compelling, nervous appeal" of the Ariettes5. Despite his differing temperament, the young Debussy frequently turned to Franck for models of structure in instrumental music. He attended the revival of Franck's Quartet at the Societe Nationale on 19 april 1890, was moved by the strong reception of the work, and was inspired to write his own Quatuor(6).The two works share primary features, including a four-movement cyclic design and movements in rathersimilar tempos. Perhaps repecting the classicizing Franckbut not without irony, the young Debussy gave his 1893 Quartet an opus number and key - Opus 10, g minor - a designation that is unique among all Debussy's works. His Franck-inspired

(1)Example 1 and quotationsfrom ArthurHo6ere, "Les entretiensDebussy-Guiraud (1889- 1890)", Avant-scene (Sept.-Oct. 1977), p. 144, [Puccini : Tosca]. (2) Leon Vallas, La Veritable Histoire de Cesar Franck, Paris, Flammarion, 1988, p. 320. (3) Edward Lockspeiser, Debussy : His Life and Mind, London, Cassel, 1962, vol. 1, p. 33. (4) Charles Oulmont, Musique de l'amour. Paris, 1935. Quoted in Marcel Dietschy, La passion de ClaudeDebussy, Neuchatel, Switzerland, Editions de la Baconniere,1962, p. 33. Franck made the remark probably following the premiers of two of the Ariettes at the Societe Nationale on 2 February 1889. (5) Lockspeiser, vol. 1, p. 126. (6) Dietschy, p. 94.

28 fascination with instrumental music was such that he planned a second quartet and a sonate for violin and piano(7). The more compelling compositional model for Debussy's Quatuor, however, probably was Franck's Quintet in F minor. We have already noted Debussy's conversa- tions with Guiraud in 1889 and his enthusiasm for the work. In the first movements of both Quintet and Debussy's Quartet, the composers state two main themes, one motto-like and the other lyric. These are given below as Examples 2a-2d.

Molto moderato quasi lento Cesar franck A .. L I . . - ft E . Violine I '-~ I _ In~ ~ .r ~ ~~~_ ®I^^- -.n 4 . . NZ7 l %, , 1I1. .lfdraJtdrawaaico c p

Example2a. FranckQuintette, first theme.

tsprca., ycco ad lib.

piano

m. 8

Example2b. FranckQuintette, second theme.

Anime et tres d

VIOLIN I I I I -~

Example 2c. Debussy Quatuor, first theme.

(7) Lockspeiser, vol. 1, p. 125.

29 ExampleL2d D Q

Example 2d. Debussy Quatuor,second theme.

As Franck had done, Debussy transfoms the two themes and recapitulates the motto in the finale. One may likewise observe an outgrowth from the main theme of all successive themes, so that the Franckistprocess of thematic transformationenvelopes the whole. In his organ class, Franckcalled for "cousins" as his students extemporized, themes related to the principal theme but with an independent character(8).Debussy respects that principle of thematic design in the Quatuor. When Franck employs chromaticism, it is usually a means to continuous modulation or for a prolongation of tonal ambiguity. In Debussy's Quatuor, however, chromaticism serves most often to inflect the diatonic basis, such as in the motto, Example 3c. Here as in his entire oeuvre,Debussy characteristicallyrefrained from the tendency of other composers of the early twentieth century, and particularlythe German school, who pursued chromatic inflection into atonality. Unlike Franck in the Quintet, moreover, Debussy's chromatic relationships are not prolonged at length; Debussy rarely "wanders" tonally in the late- and post-Romantic sense. Nonetheless, at times and following the manner of Franck, the young Debussy favors chromatic side-steps or other remote modulation. Franck's liberalism in harmony must have appealed to the young composer, for it contrasted with the rigid formality preached by the other Conservatoireprofessors. Franck was reported to have said to Debussy, "Au Conservatoire on ne permet pas cela... Mais moi, je l'aime bien!". Vallas believed Franck was referring to Debussy and his consecutive fifths when he stated to his organ class, "Les quintes, il y en a de jolies; il faut savoir en faire()!" A clear example of Debussy modeling upon Franck is his symphonic suite with chorus, Printemps. He completed the first version on 23 February 1887, during the Prix de Rome sojourn, and his model most probably was Franck's Psyche, a symphonic poem with chorus. Only in 1912, and in an arrangementby Henri Biisser, was Printemps to become the purely orchestral work audiences know now(0) The programs of both the Franck and the Debussy works concern the awareness of life and nature, and both conclude by suggesting the transcendence of the old self by the enlightened one. Francktakes up the Greek myth of a young maiden transported to the Garden of Love. Reclining there on a bed of flowers, Psyche hears strange

(8) Vallas, p. 319. (9) Vallas, p. 322. (10) Printempsin Biisser'sorchestration was publishedby Durandin 1913.

30 voices murmuring to her of the delights but also the dangers of love. These voices are a chorus of sopranos, altos, and tenors, the identical vocal contigent Debussy employs in Printemps. Because of Franck's fascination with characteristictimbre and floating tonality, the section "Les Jardins d'Eros" may be viewed as one of the most innovative passages of the work. Furthermore,it is the section of Psyche that appears to have impressed Debussy importantly. In a letter of 1887 Debussy described his new composition Printemps : "Cela a pour titre Printemps, non plus le printemps pris dans le sens descriptif mais par le co6t humain. Je voudrais exprimer la genese lente et souffreteuse des etres et des choses dans la nature, puis l'epanouissement ascendant et se terminantpar une ecla- tante joie de renaitrea une vie nouvelle(ll)..." Printemps was Debussy's second "envoi de Rome". As a member of the Institut de France jury, Camille Saint-Saens disap- proved of its franckist key, observing that, "One does not write orchestral music in F-sharp(12)."Just as Franck in the "Jardins d'Eros". Debussy calls for a chorus of sopranos, altos, and tenors, futher emphasizing their ethereal nature by having them sing "a bouches fermees". Beyond their program and scoring, Franck's Psyche and Debussy's Printemps share the principal of cyclic structure. The pentatonic first theme of Movement I recurs at the end of Movement II, thus rounding out the large form. Moreover, De- bussy adopts Franck's continuing variation of the germinal theme. One might observe the beginning of Movement 1 (Example 3a) and relate if to the conclusion of Mo- vement 2 (Example 3b(13).

.Tres ModeWre.

1. wP, ^^1 4__^

PIANO. m. 1

Plm -1- 1 - Example3a. DebussyPrintemps, mvt. 1.

(11)Quoted in FrancoisLesure, Claude Debussy: Lettres1884-1918, Paris, Hermann,1980, p. 18. The letter is of 9 February1887, from Debussyat the Villa Medici to the bookseller Emile Baronin Paris. (12)Norman Demuth, Cesar Franck, New York, Philosophica 1 Library, 1949, p. 165. (13)Quoted by permissionof the HarryRansom Humanities Research Center, manuscript owner, and the Estateof Debussy.

31 Example3a (suite).

However, a problem of chronology exists. How could Debussy have modeled his composition of February 1887 upon a work by Franck first heard publically in 1888? One recalls that Debussy was in residence for the Prix de Rome from January 1885 to March 1887. By the middle of 1886, however, he had obtained two extended leaves to returnto Paris, from Februaryto April and from July to september 1886(14). In his biography of Franck, Ldon Vallas notes the manuscript date for the important choral-orchestralsection from Psyche, "Les Jardins d'Eros". The Franck manuscript is dated "18 August 1886", at the midpoint of Debussy's visit to Paris(15). One thus may suggest that Debussy, being somewhat close to the Franck circle, saw the score in August of 1886. It is possible that both works follow such a previous model as Franck's Redemptionof 1871, a symphonic poem with voices, or its revision of 1874 with male chorus. However, the striking similarities between Printemps and Psyche lead us to conclude that Debussy modelled directly upon that work.

(14) Dietschy, p. 52. (15) Vallas, p. 257.

32 Ug1r5! m2oltl_ __

ff- f - -a_ _ I i i I

------.--,- .7...----- .------.5-...... I

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(i IIS-I I

m. 21 _rim _

Example3b. DebussyPrintemps mvt. II, conclusion.

Franck also appears to have been a model for Debussy's Fantaisie pour piano et orchestre of 1889. Two compositions by Franck must had suggested a novel inte- gration of the piano wholly into the orchestra,Les Djinns of 1884 and the Variations symphoniques of 1885. When the latter work was premiered at the Societe Nationale on 1 May 1886, Debussy was in Paris on holiday from the Villa Medici and might have attended. Debussy's Fantaisie and the Variations symphoniques share several aspects in common. Both are absolute music - "la musique pure". They are cyclic in structure and are built upon one primary, motto-like theme. Both works balance the principal theme with a related, lyric one. To be sure, D'Indy's Symphonie cevenole had also appeared in 1886, and Leon Vallas attribuedto that work the major impact. However, when one considers the innovative scoring of both the Franck and the Debussy, where by the piano and orchestra are closely bound together without the conventional "star system", then one may suggest Franck's Variationssymphoniques as the more imme- diate model. In the Fantaisie, Debussy explored a principle that would become of major importance in his maturity: timbre as an agent of form. In the Variationssymphoniques,

33 one also may see timbre elevated to a structurallevel. Perhaps Franck in that work suggested the new, vastly important concept to Debussy, although here and in his maturity Debussy would cultivate the idea to a new degree of importance. When Debussy came to compose the Fantaisie in October 1889, he had just encountered the powerful influence of the Javanese gamelan, heard that summer at the Exposition Universelle in Paris. Richard Mueller has shown that the cyclic theme is drawn directly from the Wani-Wani,a traditional dance that the Javanese at the Expotition favored. Aspects of timbre also reflect the Javanese exprerience, as does Debussy's incorporation of prominent sonorities of the major ninth. Mueller traces these to the anklung, tuned rattles also heard at the Dutch exhibit of the Javanese Village(16).This uncelebratedwork is a landmarkin the history of music, for it marks the moment when a major Western composer first incorporates non-Western music fundamentally, and not just decoratively. After Debussy's Fantaisie, but especially after the impact of such works as La mer and Jeux and the non-Western processes of timbral structureand time that are present, the perspective of the modern Western composer can be said to have become universalized(17). And yet, Debussy repudiated the Fantaisie, snatching the parts from the music stands as Vincent D'Indy was preparingits premiere in April 1890. Previous commen- tators have blamed Debussy's dissatisfaction because the work, in Maurice Emmanuel's terms, is "a child of the school, because of its predictable developments, its contrapuntal scaffolding(18)".Norman Demuth states that the Fantaisie is under the influence of Franckformally : "For this reason Debussy repudiatedthe work(19)..." However, there is nothing inherently incompatible between the Franckist variation procedure of Debussy's Fantaisie and the variations on a germinal theme in Javanese gamelan. It was not the weight of Franck's influence that caused Debussy to reject the work, for he had turned and would continue to turn to Franck as a model. Rather, he did so because the Javanese influences protruded too obviously and were not assimilated fully, as Mueller suggests(20).

3. Debussy and Franck's pupils

Debussy nerver considered himself a Franckist in the sense of belonging to the circle wholly. In a letter written from Rome in 1886. Debussy observed, "I1y a dans

(16) Richard Mueller, "JavaneseInfluence on Debussy's Fantaisie and Beyond", Nineteenth-Cen- turyMusic, vol. 10, No 2 (Fall 1986),pp. 157-186. (17) Furthersee the presentauthor, "Asian Music at the 1889 ParisExposition", Proceedings of the FourthSymposium, International Musicological Society, Osaka 1990. (18) Quoted by Mueller, p. 179. (19) Demuth, p. 47. (20) Mueller, p. 158.

34 la joie du pere Franck, a propos de d'Indy, un sentiment dont vous ne vous doutez pas, c'est d'avoir battu des Prix de Rome. I1 a toujours reve d'avoir une classe de composition; donc il est tres heureux de voir son enseignement vaincre en quelque sorte celui du Conservatoire(21)."Vallas finds Debussy to be envious that a Franckist, as opposed to a Conservatoire "regular",had received the prestigious Prix de la Ville de Paris in 1886. At issue was Vincent D'Indy and his "legende dramatique"Chant de la cloche. In his biography of Franck, Vallas speaks of a hostility between young composers of the Conservatoire and those of the Soci&etNationale, then dominated by Franck. One might postulate that Debussy's reservations about the "bande a Franck", more than abqut Franck himself, are colored by attitudes he learned at the opera-bound Conservatoire. At moments Debussy expressed intolerance of what he saw as snobbery in the Fanckist group. In a letter to Chausson, he railed out against them, "How stupid these people are. One would have to be a very weak-minded individual to fall for any of this(22)".Much has been said concerning the aura of aristocracy surroundingFranck's followers, themselves of the upper class and with surnames suggesting lineage, or at least of moneyed families : Vincent d'Indy, Paul de Wailly, Pierre de Breville, Louis de Serres. Vallas notes that Debussy's lineage was of the "proletariat,a situation from which he strove to escape throughout his life in self-conscious ways(23)".It appears that the Franck circle rather sharpenedDebussy's sensitivity to his own working-class heritage, reinforcing his determination to seek the ultra-refined. However, one must note Debussy's continuous artistic relation to the Societe Nationale de Musique, under first Franck's and then other Franckists' leadership. The Societe premiered a number of Debussy's major works, including La damoiselle elue, the Quatuor, certain of the Prelude for Piano books 1 and 2, and in part or whole the song sets Ariettes oubliees, Chansons de Bilitis, Proses lyriques, and Promenoir des deux amants. For two years, in 1893 and 1894, Debussy enjoyed a quite beneficial relationship with Erest Chausson, who became in Debussy's words his "big older brother(24)". ThroughChausson, Debussy's circle widened to include figures who would change the course of Debussy's development: the musiciansFaure, Satie, Duparc,and Chabrier;the literati Mallarme, de Regnier, and Gide; and the artists Renoir, Rodin, and Chausson's brother-in-law,Henri Lerolle. It was in Lerolle's home that Debussy played and sang the first act of Wagner'sParsifal, perhapsin Judith Gautier's translation.For this Debussy was paid the incredible sum of 1000 francs. Chaussonpaid for the first, deluxe editions

(21) Quoted in Vallas, p. 241. (22)Quoted by Lockspeiser, vol. 1, p. 125. (23) Vallas, p. 322. (24) Letterto Chaussonof 26 August 1893, "n'etes-vouspas comme un grandfrere aine...?" Quotedin Lesure,Lettres, p. 47.

35 of Debussy's Cinq poemes de Charles Baudelaire and of his La damoiselle elue. He recalled Chausson'sadvice while composing the Proses lyriques and sections of Pelleas et Melisande, and he admiredChausson's set Serres chaudes, termingthem "little dramas of impassioned metaphysics(25)".During this felicitous time in the circle of Chausson, Debussy completed the Quatuor and adopted tor a time the traditionalapproach of the Franckists.However, one must not lose sight of the other Debussy, who existed simul- taneously in the Symbolist dream-worldof "L'apres-midid'un faune". Franck's pupils upheld Classic genres and, specifically, figured in the revival of the "suite a l'ancienne". Examples include Chausson's Quelques danses, Samazeuilh's Suite en sol, and the Sarabande et Menuet by D'Indy. These probably gave Debussy the idea for his Petite suite (1889), the "sarabande"from the piano Images of 1894, and subsequently the suite Pour le piano (begun 1894). The habit of thinking in neoclassic terms and of absolute instrumentalmusic was engrained deeply, for after 1910 Debussy returned to the idea enthusiastically. Debussy in turn championed Franck's disciples, praising Lekeu as well as Chaus- son. To celebrate Lekeu's talent, unfulfilled because of his early death, Debussy arranged for the performance of his quartet at the Societe Nationale de Musique in 1896. Laurence Davies observes certain affinities even between D'Indy and Debussy, despite the antagonism each voiced at times(26).Davies finds in common between the two composers a "delicate mixture of realism and symbolism". La mer was begun six months after hearing D'Indy's opera L'Etranger, which likewise centers on the sea and finds its resolution there. In a critique of L'Etranger, Debussy admired "- l'inoubliable beaute,... la sereine beaute qui plane sur cette ceuvre", and the "effort de volonte a eviter toute complication(27)"

4. Debussy's later response to Franck

The general understandingof Debussy'view of Franck has been based in part on a statement Debussy might not have made. The critic Paul Landormy published an interview with Debussy in La Revue bleue on 2 April 1904. Landormyquotes Debussy as stating, "Cesar Franck n'est pas francais, il est belge... L'action de Franck sur les compositeurs francais se reduit a peu de chose; il leur a enseigne certains procedes d'ecriture, mais leur inspiration n'a aucun rapport avec la sienne(28)."However, the day after the interview appeared, Debussy disputed its accuracy. In a letter to Louis

(25) LaurenceDavies, Cesar Franck and his Circle,Boston, Houghton Mifflin, 1970, p. 187. (26) Idem, p. 297. (27) ClaudeDebussy, Monsieur Croche et autresecrits, Ed. by F. Lesure,2nd ed., Paris,Galli- mard,1987, p. 72. (28) Idem, pp. 278-279.

36 Laloy, he asked, "Avez-vous vu un article de Landormy dans La Revue bleue ou il rapporte une conversation avec Claude Debussy? C'est extraordinairecomme ce soi- disant musicien entend mal(29)..." In fact, Debussy's acknowledged remarks affirm his recognition of Franck's major influence. He nonetheless found a Germanic aesthetic in Franck's music, which he rather carelessly labeled either "flamand" or "belge". For example, the young Francis Poulenc arranged a ruse in the hope of getting an autograph : "m'etant fait passer pour un jeune critique belge de passage a Paris, je lui ai demande... son avis sur Franck, ceci par gout de l'autographe, n'en doutez pas(30)."Debussy took Poulenc seriously and responded: "En ce moment nous devons tacher a ressaisir nos vieilles traditions : celles-la dont nous avons delaisse la bonte qu'elles n'ont cesse de contenir. Mais le respect que l'on doit a Cesar Franck commande d'affirmer qu'il est un des plus grands musiciens flamands (31)." What Debussy meant by "musicien flamand" he clarified in a 1913 review of Ernest Chausson's Poeme pour violon et orchestre :

"ErnestChausson, sur lequel a lourdementpesd l'influenceflamande de CesarFranck, 6tait un des artistesles plus delicatsde notre temps...Chausson... a des dons naturelsd'6elgance et de clarte...(il) opposaitcette rigueursentimentale qui est la base de l'esth6tiquefranckiste. Franck... avait un prodigieux insoucidu temps,car il ignoraitl'ennui... il peine a trouverce qu'il veut dire. Son g6nie s'essouffledans un curieux melange d'extreme complication(32)..."

Despite differences in aesthetic that increased with years, an ideal of the composer's role united Debussy with Franck. Debussy stood apart from fashion, like Franck; neither yielded to the temptation of vogue, their own or that of another. Both avoided anything smacking of the doctrinaire in composition. Like Franck and perhaps encouraged by his attitude, the balance Debussy achieved with Wagner was creative. Franck's Wagnerism is seen by recalling his attitude toward Tristan und Isolde : he treasured his copy of the score--without seeing fit to remove the word "poison" he early had scrawled on the title page(33). Such a reaction could as well have been Debussy's. Franck evolved stylistically, especially in his last decade when Franckismfigured prominently. As often has been remarked,Franckism is essentially the product of his pupils and particularly of D'Indy, rather than of any cliquish effort on Franck's part. Similarly, Debussyism was a major fact of the first decade of the 20th century,touched off by the debates over the opera Pelleas et Melisande. By 1906 the critic Pierre Lalo could write, "The religion of Debussyism has replaced the religion of Wagnerism(34)"

(29) Idem, p. 347. (30) Quoted in Catalogue de I'Exposition Debussy d l'Ope'ra-comique,1942, p. XIII. (31) Lesure, Debussy: Lettres, p. 265. (32) Debussy, Monsieur Croche (Lesure/1987), p. 225. (33) Davies, p. 163. (34) James R. Briscoe, Claude Debussy: A Guide to Research, New York, Garland,p. 12.

37 And yet, the Debussyists vexed Debussy as much as did his antagonists; he decried their mere mimicry and insisted that composers must find their own paths. His vision in no wise remained fixed on the "central"idiom of Pelleas and La Mer but continued to evolve up to the end of his life. A concert review by Debussy in 1903 clarifies the attitude that parallels the two composers most importantly.On the program with Franck's Beatitudes were excerpts from Wagner's Das Rheingold. Debussy remarked :

"Les beatitudes de C. Franck ont ceci sup6rieura L'Or du Rhin... C'est toujours de la musique, c'est au surplus toujours la meme belle musique... C. Franck 6tait un homme sans malice auquel d'avoir trouv6 une belle harmonie suffisait a sa joie d'un jour... Cet homme qui fut malheureux, m6connu, avait une ame d'enfant si ind6racinablementbonne, qu'il put contempler sans jamais d'aigreur la m6chancet6des gens et la contradiction des evenements. ... Jamais il ne pense mal, il ne soupconne l'ennui. Nulle trace de cette rouerie, flagrantechez Wagner, par quoi celui-ci rallume l'attention du public, parfois trop fatigu6 d'une trop continue transcendanceen ex6cutant une pirouette sentimentale ou orchestrale, et c'est a prendre ou a laisser... En cela C. Franck s'apparenteaux grands musiciens pour qui les sons ont un sens exact dans leur acception sonore... Et c'est toute la diff6rence entre l'art de Wagner, beau et singulier, impur et seduisant, et l'art de Franck qui sert la musique sans presque lui demander de gloire. (Le lecteur) est juste de songer... a l'un des plus grands, pensant que cet hommage r6pondaita l'id6e de sacrifice qu'6voque la grandeurde l'homme35'..."

Laurence Davies observes that "the service Franck rendered on behalf of French music was among the most valuable ever rendered to that nation... By crowning this career with a set of brilliant chamber works, he was able to propoundan ideal imitated by musicians as diverse as Debussy, D'Indy, and Roussel... He imposed a penance on future generations... a purge after the banquet of romanticism36)". Thus, the "sacrifice" that impressed Debussy deeply was Franck's artistic pur- pose, his withdrawalfrom fashion, the cult of personality, and from aesthetic or social doctrine. Debussy's "sacrifice" was in important ways the same. His move towards "la musique pure" - absolute music - during the years of World War I may be the clearest manifestation. Thereby the kaleidoscope of musical Symbolism, which he pioneered, is sacrificed(37). One may conclude by referringto Debussy's 1914 "berceuse heroique"for piano, composed in 1914. It bears the dedication "pourrendre hommage a sa Majeste Albert Premier et a ses soldats". The "Berceuse" first appeared in the English publication King Albert's Book, a tribute to the Belgians of poems by Maeterlinck and others, art works, and musical compositions.

(35) Debussy, Monsieur Croche (Lesure/1987), pp. 148-150. (36) Davies, p. 39. (37) As clarified in the following letter of 24 October 1915 to Stravinsky: "... il n'y a guere que pendant ces trois deriers mois... ou j'ai trouvd la faculte de penser musicalement. (...) je n'ai d'ailleurs ecrit que de la musique pure : Douze Etudes pour le piano; deux sonates pour divers instruments, dans notre vieille forme, qui gracieusement n'imposait pas aux facultes au- ditives des efforts tdtralogiques..."in Avec Stravinsky,Monaco, Edition du rocher, 1958, p. 203.

38 In a letter of 25 January 1916 to Emile Vuillermoz, Debussy reports on the premiere performance and reacts to World War I, in which his beloved France was actively engaged. Pursuing an artistic attitude he had identified with Cesar Fanck, Debussy declines to orate:

"Vous avez d'autant plus raison que la Berceuse dont vous voulez bien vous occuper a pr6cis6ment les dimensions d'une estampe... Or, une estampe n'est pas une fresque, ce qui d'ailleurs n'entrait pas dans mes intentions. Et puis, nous faut-il encore 375 pages pour fixer notre 6motion? Cette berceuse est: melancolique, effac6e, la Brabanconne n'y hurle pas. Maintenant si vous ne trouvez pas la Belgique assez meurtrie, n'en parlons plus. Elle est une simple carte de visite, sans aucune pr6tentionque de rendrehommage a tant de souffrances consenties. On me l'avait demand6pour un livre dedi6 au roi de Belgique; vous me connaissez suffisamment pour savoir que je n'aime pas etre indiscret. Que l'on ne l'ait pas comprise est indiscutable. I1 est dommage que la magnifique execution que l'on en donnat n'ait pas aid6 les auditeurs. Pour finir, car voila beaucoup plus de mots qu'il n'y a de mesures dans la Berceuse, croyez bien que la musique de guerre ne se fait pas en temps de guerre. A proprementparler, il n'y a pas de musique de guerre, vous le savez bien! Vous m'honorez grandementen me disant l'6elve de Claude Monet(38)..." Debussy's debt to Franck is considerably greater than has been recognized. It is appropriate that one of his last works should pay hommage to Franck's homeland and, in artistic attitude, to Franck himself.

(38) Lesure, Debussy : Lettres, p. 271.