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Louis Laloy (1874-1944) on Debussy, Ravel and Stravinsky

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Louis Laloy (1874-1944) on Debussy, Ravel and Stravinsky Louis Laloy (1874-1944) on Debussy, Ravel and Stravinsky Louis Laloy (1874-1944) on Debussy, Ravel and Stravinsky Translated, with an introduction and notes, by Deborah Priest First published 1999 by Ashgate Publishing Reissued 2018 by Routledge 2 Park Square, Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon, OX14 4RN 711 ThirdAvenue, New York, NY 10017, USA Routledge is an imprint ofthe Taylor & Francis Group, an informa business Copyright © 1999 by Deborah Priest. Deborah Priest has asserted her right under the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988 to be identified as the author of this work. All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced or utilised in any form or by any electronic, mechanical, or other means, now known or hereafter invented, including photocopying and recording, or in any information storage or retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publishers. Notice: Product or corporate names may be trademarks or registered trademarks, and are used only for identification and explanation without intent to infringe. Publisher's Note The publisher has gone to great lengths to ensure the quality of this reprint but points out that some imperfections in the original copies may be apparent. Disclaimer The publisher has made every effort to trace copyright holders and welcomes correspondence from those they have been unable to contact. A Library of Congress record exists under LC control number: 99031934 Phototypeset by N2 productions ISBN 13: 978-1-138-35126-4 (hbk) ISBN 13: 978-0-429-43540-9 (ebk) Contents Acknowledgements vii List of plates ix Preface X Introduction: Louis Laloy and the Paris music scene 1 On Debussy Laloy’s friendship with Debussy 47 Early influences on Debussy 52 Genesis and first performances of Pelléas et Mėlisande 55 The Legion d’honneur 62 ‘Claude Debussy. Simplicity in music’ 65 ‘Remarks on Claude Debussy’ 75 Debussy’s compositional style 81 ‘Claude Debussy and Debussyism’ 85 ‘Claude Debussy’s works for the theatre’ 99 Debussy and Satie 104 Advice on playing Debussy’s music 107 After Debussy’s death 112 ‘The Debussy monument’ 114 ‘Recollection’ 125 La Damoiselle élue 139 Cinq poèmes de Baudelaire 146 Prelude à l’Après-midi d’un faune 152 Nocturnes 159 Pelléas et Mėlisande 162 La Mer 191 Images II 207 Children’s corner and Trois chansons de Charles d’Orléans 210 Trois ballades de François Villon 214 Ibéria 216 Rondes de printemps 220 Le Martyre de saint Sébastien 224 vi CONTENTS Various piano works 227 Ode à la France 231 On Ravel Ravel and the Prix de Rome in 1905 239 Ravel’s works for music theatre 241 Shéhérazade 246 Histoires naturelles 247 Rapsodie espagnole 254 Gaspard de la m it 257 L’Heure espagnole 259 Daphnis et Chloé 261 Adelaide and UEnfant et les sortileges 264 On Stravinsky Le Sacre du printemps 271 Le Rossignol 284 Le Chant du rossignol 290 From Pulcinella to (Edipus rex 293 Mavra 296 Les Noces 298 Various works from the 1920$ 301 (Edipus rex, Jeu de cartes and the suite from L’Oiseau de feu 303 Persephone 306 Appendices: I Personalia 309 II Chronological list of principal compositions by Debussy, Ravel and Stravinsky 317 Bibliography 321 Index 333 Acknowledgements The idea for this book arose after Fisher Library at the University of Sydney allowed me to keep a microfilmed copy of Laloy’s Claude Debussy (1909), which meant that it was on hand whenever I had the idea of browsing through it. Since then, staff at other Australian university libraries and at the Australian National and Victorian State Libraries have gone out of their way to help me with research inquiries. At the Sydney Conservatorium of Music Library, Jackie Luke, Cath­ erine Bryant and Claire McCoy have exercised patience and ingenuity in obtaining inter-library loans and checking details of copyright. I am also grateful for the assistance I received at the British Library, the Bibliothèque Nationale de France, the Bibliothèque-Musée de l’Opéra and the Paris Conservatoire. As the work took shape I benefited more than they probably realize from discussions with Dr Nigel Butterley, Lewis Cornwell, Roy Howat, Elizabeth Powell and Richard Toop. Dr Françoise Grauby of the Department of French Studies at the University of Sydney and Prof. John Humbley of the Laboratoire de Linguistique Informatique, Université de Paris XIII gave their advice on linguistic matters. For specialist help with annotations I would like to thank Dr Alan James of the Classics Department at the University of Sydney, Prof. Thomas J. Mathiesen of Indiana University, Mr Yen Yung Yang, Mme Myriam Chimènes of the Centre de Documentation Claude Debussy and Mme Catherine Massip of the Departement de la Musique, Biblio­ thèque Nationale de France. M. Vincent Laloy willingly provided documents from the family archive, and obligingly answered my many questions. M. Manuel Rosenthal was kind enough to write to me with his memories of Laloy. I would like to acknowledge the contribution of research assistants Michael Black, Marie-Hélène Coudroy-Saghaî, Peter Hollo, Eurydice Jousse and Anna Maslowiec, and thank Brian Brennan, Craigie Macfie and my sister, Joanne Hardwick, for the encouragement which was so valuable and so warmly given at certain stages of the project. The research was funded by grants from the Sydney Conservatorium viii ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS of Music, the University of Sydney and the Australian Research Council. 1 would like to thank M. Vincent Laloy for permission to quote and to translate extracts from Laloy’s books, and to reproduce photo­ graphs, letters and other material. Thanks are also due to Editions Musicales Durand for permission to quote passages from Debussy scores. Permission was requested from W. W. Norton & Co. to quote from the translation of Mallarmé’s L’Après-midi d’un faune contained in W. W. Austin, ed., Debussy. Prelude to ‘The afternoon of a faun’ (1970). Permission was also requested from Cassell Publishing Ltd to translate an extract from Laloy’s article on Pelléas et Mélisande contained in F. Aprahamian, ed., Essays on music: an anthology from ‘The listener’ (1967). All efforts have been made to identify and contact the copyright holders of the other articles by Laloy translated, in part or whole, in the present volume, but these efforts have been unsuccessful. The publisher will be pleased to hear from copyright holders and to make appropriate acknowledgements in any future editions of this book. List of plates 1 Louis Laloy. Photograph in possession of M. Vincent Laloy. Reproduced by permission. 127 2 Debussy and Laloy flying a kite. Photograph in possession of M. Vincent Laloy. Reproduced by permission of Bibliothèque Nationale de France. 128 З Letter from Debussy to Laloy, 10 September 1909. In possession of M. Vincent Laloy. Reproduced by permission. Part of the text of this letter is transcribed on p. 40 n. 50, and translated on p. 16. 129 4 Invitation to the revival of Rameau’s Castor et Pollux, 1918. Reproduced in Rohozinski (1925). 130 5 The Debussy monument in Paris. Reproduced in Rohozinski (1925). 131 6 The Debussy monument in Paris (detail). Reproduced in Rohozinski (1925). 132 7 The Debussy monument at Saint-Germain en Laye. Coll.: Ville de Saint-Germain-en Laye, Musée municipal Claude Debussy. Reproduced by permission. 133 б Debussy’s projected Fetes galantes. First page of libretto. In possession of M. Vincent Laloy. Reproduced by permission. 134 9 Letter from Henri Bergson to Laloy, 30 June 1928. In possession of M. Vincent Laloy. Reproduced by permission. 135 10 Letter from Ravel to Laloy, 25 January 1922. In possession of M. Vincent Laloy. Reproduced by permission. 136 11 Louis Laloy, Mme Susanik Laloy, Diaghilev, Serge Lifar, Stravinsky, Jacques Rouché, c.1920. In possession of M. Vincent Laloy. Reproduced by permission. 137 12 Stage design by V. Barbey for Laloy and Roussel’s Padmâvatî. Reproduced in Rohozinski (1925). 138 Preface My interest in Louis Laloy began some years ago when I discovered his Claude Debussy (Paris, 1909), the first French biography of the composer. I felt the book said things about Debussy which needed to be said and simply were not to be found in any of the current literature: I had in mind Laloy’s analysis of Debussy’s musical language, and also his highly perceptive exploration of the connections between Debussy’s music and French literature of the period, not to mention that the final chapter contained one of the very few contemporary accounts of Debussy’s requirements of performers. Composers, performers and analysts to whom I showed the biog­ raphy expressed interest and enthusiasm and I formed the idea of looking further into Laloy’s writings. Beginning with his memoirs, La Musique retrouvée, 1902-1927 (Paris, 1928) I embarked on a search for his other books, and for his reviews and articles. What 1 found showed me that Laloy was a new source of information on the life and æsthetic stance not only of Debussy, but of many French composers from the first four decades of this century, and also on the reception of their works. I have chosen Debussy, Ravel and Stravinsky as the focus of the present volume because of the quantity of Laloy’s writings about them. There is more material about Debussy than about Ravel and Stravinsky, since Laloy knew Debussy more intimately, but his observations and opinions about the two later composers are none­ theless equally powerful and original. It is also interesting to read Laloy’s articles about Dukas, Satie, Les Six and composers from earlier periods, which are equally insightful and written with his characteristic elegance and humour. The search in itself was fascinating and challenging. No compil­ ations of this material have been made previously, and indeed but for short extracts quoted in two books by Léon Valias, in an article on Debussy’s piano music by Guido M.
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