DOCSLIB.ORG

My Personal Journey Through the 24 Debussy Préludes and Yoga

Total Page：16

File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb

Download full-text PDF Read full-text
My Personal Journey Through the 24 Debussy Préludes and Yoga Music, Somatics, and Transformation: My Personal Journey through the 24 Debussy Préludes and Yoga by Jennifer Yu A thesis submitted in conformity with the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Musical Arts Faculty of Music University of Toronto © Copyright by Jennifer Yu 2014 Music, Somatics, and Transformation: My Personal Journey through the 24 Debussy Préludes and Yoga Jennifer Yu Doctor of Musical Arts Faculty of Music University of Toronto 2014 Abstract Three subject areas, music, Somatics, and transformation, were investigated to glean an understanding of how the researcher’s personal experience has been transformed through repertoire study of the 24 Debussy Préludes and yoga practice. This research employed Anderson’s Intuitive Inquiry approach. The study of the cultural and artistic climate of Debussy’s era was the researcher’s starting point to comprehending the composer’s sources of inspiration. A perusal of Debussy’s piano output and specific literature on the 24 Préludes was made to gain familiarity with the extra-musical associations in the subtitles of these compositions. From this foundation, the researcher proceeded with a personal exploration of Debussy’s non-music inspirations and examined how such knowledge could be incorporated into formation of her own musical interpretation. To study the manifold layers of this transformational process, the researcher narrated a self- reflection on her musical, physical, and psychological experiences of preparing eight Debussy Préludes for performance. The researcher observed how a musical focal point came into existence during her musical, pianistic, and performance preparation of each of these eight pieces. Three sound recordings of Ce qu’a vu le vent d’Ouest , Bruyères , and Ondine from the researcher’s past recitals were analyzed to report the transformation from one performance to another in the projection of her musical conception through tempi, dynamics, textures, phrasing, harmony, characters, and tonal imagery. ii By observing her experience of hearing past executions, the researcher gave an account of how her attitude of music listening has changed. A further analysis of these same three Préludes by three different artists was given to relate the researcher’s experience of hearing and comprehending unfamiliar musical interpretations from a new perspective. Through her score study, enrichment of personal experience, introspection, and recording analyses, the researcher elucidated her personal process of musical maturation, structural comprehension, and artistic realization of the Debussy Préludes. iii Acknowledgments I would like to express my infinite gratitude to Dr. Midori Koga, my supervisor, for inspiring me to always find new ways of learning. Working with her in the past ten years has planted the seeds of this research journey. Her willingness to give her time so generously and her commitment to provide great assistance has been most treasured and appreciated. I would like to offer my special thanks to Dr. Lori-Anne Dolloff, my co-supervisor, for her invaluable guidance in the art of writing. I am particularly grateful to Professor Marietta Orlov, my mentor, for the formation of my musicianship in the last twelve years and for watching over my development in the past two decades. To Drs. Lisa Withers and James Parker, I am most appreciative of the great opportunity of having them as the external appraiser and committee members of my final oral examination. Their insight and knowledge generated stimulating topics for our discussion and provided possibilities for my future musical, somatic, and personal learning direction. I wish to thank all my family members and every single person who has helped me to learn and grow as a human being. iv Table of Contents Acknowledgments .......................................................................................................................... iv Table of Contents ............................................................................................................................ v List of Figures ................................................................................................................................ ix Prélude ........................................................................................................................................... ix 1 Introduction: My Journey Through Music, Somatics, and Transformation............................... 1 1.1 My Story – What I Sought in My Musical Study ............................................................... 1 1.2 Context – Where My Journey Began with the 24 Debussy Préludes, Somatics, and My Process of Transformation ............................................................................................ 1 1.2.1 Music – From Debussy’s Aesthetic Views to My Personal Search ........................ 1 1.2.2 Somatics – My Development of Body-Mind Awareness ....................................... 2 1.2.3 Transformation – Formulating My Process of Transformation Through Music and Somatics ........................................................................................................... 5 1.3 Contemplating the Research Scope and Content ................................................................ 5 1.3.1 Music, Debussy, and 24 Préludes ........................................................................... 5 1.3.2 Somatics and the Tools of Body-Mind Awareness and Introspection .................... 6 1.3.3 Academic Research on Personal Transformation ................................................... 6 1.4 My Research Question and Sub Questions ......................................................................... 6 1.5 Description of General Resources and Related Knowledge Fields .................................... 7 1.6 General Construction of this Dissertation ........................................................................... 7 2 Literature Review: Music, Somatics, and Transformation ..................................................... 10 2.1 Music – Historical, Cultural, and Artistic Landscapes around Claude Debussy .............. 10 2.1.1 Specialized Treatises: Debussy in the Milieu of Symbolism and Ineffability of Sensory Experiences ............................................................................................. 12 2.1.2 Exhaustive Research Sources: Lockspeiser, Lesure, and Nectoux ...................... 13 2.2 Somatics ............................................................................................................................ 15 2.2.1 Inception, Overview, and Application .................................................................. 15 v 2.2.2 One Branch of Somatic Education: Yoga ............................................................ 16 2.3 Transformation .................................................................................................................. 17 2.3.1 Teacher Education ................................................................................................ 18 2.3.2 Transpersonal Psychology .................................................................................... 19 3 Methodology ............................................................................................................................ 21 3.1 Formulating My Research Content ................................................................................... 21 3.2 Finding a Research Structure ............................................................................................ 21 4 Initial Cycle of Research Intentions and Interpretative Lenses ............................................... 24 4.1 Claude Debussy’s Piano Music in the History and Evolution of Keyboard Literature .... 24 4.1.1 Interpretative Suggestions by Debussy’s Contemporary Pianists ........................ 25 4.1.2 Ongoing Investigation of Debussy’s Piano Works ............................................... 26 4.1.3 Debussy in the Context of Keyboard Music Tradition ......................................... 26 4.2 Debussy’s Twenty-Four Préludes and Their Extra-Musical Associations ....................... 27 4.2.1 Foreign Places ....................................................................................................... 28 4.2.2 Illustrations of Fairyland by Arthur Rackham ...................................................... 29 4.2.3 Portraits of Nature ................................................................................................. 31 4.2.4 Clowns and Caricatures ........................................................................................ 32 4.2.5 Antiquity and Enigma ........................................................................................... 33 4.2.6 Poetry .................................................................................................................... 34 4.2.7 Musical Arabesque ................................................................................................ 37 4.2.8 Legend and National Festivities ............................................................................ 38 4.2.9 Historical Recordings of 24 Debussy Préludes ..................................................... 38 5 Transformative Cycle ............................................................................................................... 40 5.1 From Concept to Application – Internalizing the Extra-Musical Associations in 24 Debussy Préludes .............................................................................................................
Load more

Recommended publications
  • Des Pas Sur La Neige
    19TH CENTURY MUSIC Mystères limpides: Time and Transformation in Debussy’s Des pas sur la neige Debussy est mystérieux, mais il est clair. —Vladimir Jankélévitch STEVEN RINGS Introduction: Secrets and Mysteries sive religious orders). Mysteries, by contrast, are fundamentally unknowable: they are mys- Vladimir Jankélévitch begins his 1949 mono- teries for all, and for all time. Death is the graph Debussy et le mystère by drawing a dis- ultimate mystery, its essence inaccessible to tinction between the secret and the mystery. the living. Jankélévitch proposes other myster- Secrets, per Jankélévitch, are knowable, but ies as well, some of them idiosyncratic: the they are known only to some. For those not “in mysteries of destiny, anguish, pleasure, God, on the secret,” the barrier to knowledge can love, space, innocence, and—in various forms— take many forms: a secret might be enclosed in time. (The latter will be of particular interest a riddle or a puzzle; it might be hidden by acts in this article.) Unlike the exclusionary secret, of dissembling; or it may be accessible only to the mystery, shared and experienced by all of privileged initiates (Jankélévitch cites exclu- humanity, is an agent of “sympathie fraternelle et . commune humilité.”1 An abbreviated version of this article was presented as part of the University of Wisconsin-Madison music collo- 1Vladimir Jankélévitch, Debussy et le mystère (Neuchâtel: quium series in November 2007. I am grateful for the Baconnière, 1949), pp. 9–12 (quote, p. 10). See also his later comments I received on that occasion from students and revision and expansion of the book, Debussy et le mystère faculty.
    [Show full text]
  • Debussy Préludes
    Debussy Préludes Books I & II RALPH VOTAPEK ~ Debussy 24 Préludes Préludes, Book I (1909-1910) 37:13 1 I. Danseuses de Delphes (Lent et grave) 2:59 2 II. Voiles (Modéré) 3:09 3 III. Le vent dans la plaine (Animé) 2:07 4 IV. Les sons et les parfums tournent dans l’air du soir (Modéré) 3:10 5 V. Les collines d’Anacapri (Très modéré) 2:57 6 VI. Des pas sur la neige (Triste it lent) 3:47 7 VII. Ce qu’a vu le vent d’Ouest (Animé et tumultueux) 3:23 8 VIII. La fille aux cheveux de lin (Très calme et doucement expressif) 2:29 9 IX. La sérénade interrompue (Modérément animé) 2:28 10 X. La cathédrale engloutie (Profondément calme) 5:54 11 XI. La danse de Puck (Capricieux et léger) 2:40 12 XII. Minstrels (Modéré) 2:10 Préludes, Book II (1912-1913) 36:04 13 I. Brouillards (Modéré) 2:38 14 II. Feuilles mortes (Lent et mélancolique) 2:55 15 III. La Puerta del Vino (Mouvement de Habanera) 3:19 16 IV. Les Fées sont d’exquises danseuses (Rapide et léger) 2:56 17 V. Bruyères (Calme) 2:42 18 VI. Général Lavine — eccentric (Dans le style et le mouvement d’un Cakewalk) 2:28 19 VII. La terrasse des audiences du clair de lune (Lent) 3:59 20 VIII. Ondine (Scherzando) 3:08 21 IX. Hommage à Samuel Pickwick, Esq., P.P.M.P.C. (Grave) 2:25 22 X. Canope (Très calme et doucement triste) 2:53 23 XI.
    [Show full text]
  • Liner Notes (PDF)
    Debussy’s Traces Gaillard • Horszowski • Debussy Marik • Fourneau 1904 – 1983 Debussy’s Traces: Marius François Gaillard, CD II: Marik, Ranck, Horszowski, Garden, Debussy, Fourneau 1. Preludes, Book I: La Cathédrale engloutie 4:55 2. Preludes, Book I: Minstrels 1:57 CD I: 3. Preludes, Book II: La puerta del Vino 3:10 Marius-François Gaillard: 4. Preludes, Book II: Général Lavine 2:13 1. Valse Romantique 3:30 5. Preludes, Book II: Ondine 3:03 2. Arabesque no. 1 3:00 6. Preludes, Book II Homage à S. Pickwick, Esq. 2:39 3. Arabesque no. 2 2:34 7. Estampes: Pagodes 3:56 4. Ballade 5:20 8. Estampes: La soirée dans Grenade 4:49 5. Mazurka 2:52 Irén Marik: 6. Suite Bergamasque: Prélude 3:31 9. Preludes, Book I: Des pas sur la neige 3:10 7. Suite Bergamasque: Menuet 4:53 10. Preludes, Book II: Les fées sont d’exquises danseuses 8. Suite Bergamasque: Clair de lune 4:07 3:03 9. Pour le Piano: Prélude 3:47 Mieczysław Horszowski: Childrens Corner Suite: 10. Pour le Piano: Sarabande 5:08 11. Doctor Gradus ad Parnassum 2:48 11. Pour le Piano: Toccata 3:53 12. Jimbo’s lullaby 3:16 12. Masques 5:15 13 Serenade of the Doll 2:52 13. Estampes: Pagodes 3:49 14. The snow is dancing 3:01 14. Estampes: La soirée dans Grenade 3:53 15. The little Shepherd 2:16 15. Estampes: Jardins sous la pluie 3:27 16. Golliwog’s Cake walk 3:07 16. Images, Book I: Reflets dans l’eau 4:01 Mary Garden & Claude Debussy: Ariettes oubliées: 17.
    [Show full text]
  • 1) Aspects of the Musical Careers of Grieg, Debussy and Ravel
    Edvard Grieg, Claude Debussy and Maurice Ravel. Biographical issues and a comparison of their string quartets Juliette L. Appold I. Grieg, Debussy and Ravel – Biographical aspects II. Connections between Grieg, Debussy and Ravel III. Observations on their string quartets I. Grieg, Debussy and Ravel – Biographical aspects Looking at the biographies of Grieg, Debussy and Ravel makes us realise, that there are few, yet some similarities in the way their career as composers were shaped. In my introductory paragraph I will point out some of these aspects. The three composers received their first musical training in their childhood, between the age of six (Grieg) and nine (Debussy) (Ravel was seven). They all entered the conservatory in their early teenage years (Debussy was 10, Ravel 14, Grieg 15 years old) and they all had more or less difficult experiences when they seriously thought about a musical career. In Grieg’s case it happened twice in his life. Once, when a school teacher ridiculed one of his first compositions in front of his class-mates.i The second time was less drastic but more subtle during his studies at the Leipzig Conservatory until 1862.ii Grieg had despised the pedagogical methods of some teachers and felt that he did not improve in his composition studies or even learn anything.iii On the other hand he was successful in his piano-classes with Carl Ferdinand Wenzel and Ignaz Moscheles, who had put a strong emphasis on the expression in his playing.iv Debussy and Ravel both were also very good piano players and originally wanted to become professional pianists.
    [Show full text]
  • Orientalism As Represented in the Selected Piano Works by Claude Debussy
    Chapter 4 ORIENTALISM AS REPRESENTED IN THE SELECTED PIANO WORKS BY CLAUDE DEBUSSY A prominent English scholar of French music, Roy Howat, claimed that, out of the many composers who were attracted by the Orient as subject matter, “Debussy is the one who made much of it his own language, even identity.”55 Debussy and Hahn, despite being in the same social circle, never pursued an amicable relationship.56 Even while keeping their distance, both composers were somewhat aware of the other’s career. Hahn, in a public statement from 1890, praised highly Debussy’s musical artistry in L'Apres- midi d'un faune.57 Debussy’s Exposure to Oriental Cultures Debussy’s first exposure to oriental art and philosophy began at Mallarmé’s Symbolist gatherings he frequented in 1887 upon his return to Paris from Rome.58 At the Universal Exposition of 1889, he had his first experience in the theater of Annam (Vietnam) and the Javanese Gamelan orchestra (Indonesia), which is said to be a catalyst 55Roy Howat, The Art of French Piano Music: Debussy, Ravel, Fauré, Chabrier (New Haven, Conn.: Yale University Press, 2009), 110 56Gavoty, 142. 57Ibid., 146. 58François Lesure and Roy Howat. "Debussy, Claude." In Grove Music Online. Oxford Music Online, http://www.oxfordmusiconline.com/subscriber/article/grove/music/07353 (accessed April 4, 2011). 33 34 in his artistic direction. 59 In 1890, Debussy was acquainted with Edmond Bailly, esoteric and oriental scholar, who took part in publishing and selling some of Debussy’s music at his bookstore L’Art Indépendeant. 60 In 1902, Debussy met Louis Laloy, an ethnomusicologist and music critic who eventually became Debussy’s most trusted friend and encouraged his use of Oriental themes.61 After the Universal Exposition in 1889, Debussy had another opportunity to listen to a Gamelan orchestra 11 years later in 1900.
    [Show full text]
  • Richard Goode, Piano
    CAL PERFORMANCES PRESENTS PROGRAM Sunday, January 19, 2014, 3pm Claude Debussy (1862–1918) Préludes, Book I (1909–1910) Zellerbach Hall Danseuses de Delphes Voiles Le vent dans la plaine Richard Goode, piano Les sons et les parfums tournent dans l’air du soir Les collines d’Anacapri Des pas sur la neige Ce qu’a vu le vent d’Ouest PROGRAM La fille aux cheveux de lin La sérénade interrompue La Cathédrale engloutie La danse de Puck Leoš Janáček (1854–1928) From On an Overgrown Path (1901–1911) Minstrels Our Evenings A Blown-Away Leaf The program is subject to change. Come with Us! Good Night! Robert Schumann (1810–1856) Davidsbündlertänze, Op. 6 (1837) Lebhaft Innig Mit humor Ungeduldig Einfach Funded, in part, by the Koret Foundation, this performance is part of Cal Performances’ Sehr rasch 2013–2014 Koret Recital Series, which brings world-class artists to our community. Nicht schnell Frisch This concert is dedicated to the memory of Donald Glaser (1926–2013). Lebhaft Balladenmäßig — Sehr rasch Cal Performances’ 2013–2014 season is sponsored by Wells Fargo. Einfach Mit Humor Wild und lustig Zart und singend Frisch Mit gutem Humor Wie aus der Ferne Nicht schnell INTERMISSION 2 3 PROGRAM NOTES PROGRAM NOTES Leoš Janáček (1854–1928) birthday. “I would bind Jenůfa simply with the anguish”) and In Tears (“crying with a smile”). Linda Siegel described as vacillating between Selections from On an Overgrown Path black ribbon of the long illness, suffering and After On an Overgrown Path was published in “fits of depression with complete loss of reality laments of my daughter, Olga,” Janáček con- 1911, Janáček composed a second series of aph- and periods of seemingly placid adjustment to Composed in 1901–1902, 1908, and 1911.
    [Show full text]
  • Claude Debussy in 2018: a Centenary Celebration Abstracts and Biographies
    19-23/03/18 CLAUDE DEBUSSY IN 2018: A CENTENARY CELEBRATION ABSTRACTS AND BIOGRAPHIES Claude Debussy in 2018: A Centenary Celebration Abstracts and Biographies I. Debussy Perspectives, 1918-2018 RNCM, Manchester Monday, 19 March Paper session A: Debussy’s Style in History, Conference Room, 2.00-5.00 Chair: Marianne Wheeldon 2.00-2.30 – Mark DeVoto (Tufts University), ‘Debussy’s Evolving Style and Technique in Rodrigue et Chimène’ Claude Debussy’s Rodrigue et Chimène, on which he worked for two years in 1891-92 before abandoning it, is the most extensive of more than a dozen unfinished operatic projects that occupied him during his lifetime. It can also be regarded as a Franco-Wagnerian opera in the same tradition as Lalo’s Le Roi d’Ys (1888), Chabrier’s Gwendoline (1886), d’Indy’s Fervaal (1895), and Chausson’s Le Roi Arthus (1895), representing part of the absorption of the younger generation of French composers in Wagner’s operatic ideals, harmonic idiom, and quasi-medieval myth; yet this kinship, more than the weaknesses of Catulle Mendès’s libretto, may be the real reason that Debussy cast Rodrigue aside, recognising it as a necessary exercise to be discarded before he could find his own operatic voice (as he soon did in Pelléas et Mélisande, beginning in 1893). The sketches for Rodrigue et Chimène shed considerable light on the evolution of Debussy’s technique in dramatic construction as well as his idiosyncratic approach to tonal form. Even in its unfinished state — comprising three out of a projected four acts — the opera represents an impressive transitional stage between the Fantaisie for piano and orchestra (1890) and the full emergence of his genius, beginning with the String Quartet (1893) and the Prélude à l’Après-midi d’un faune (1894).
    [Show full text]
  • Nietzsche, Debussy, and the Shadow of Wagner
    NIETZSCHE, DEBUSSY, AND THE SHADOW OF WAGNER A Dissertation Presented to the Faculty of the Graduate School of Cornell University in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy by Tekla B. Babyak May 2014 ©2014 Tekla B. Babyak ii ABSTRACT NIETZSCHE, DEBUSSY, AND THE SHADOW OF WAGNER Tekla B. Babyak, Ph.D. Cornell University 2014 Debussy was an ardent nationalist who sought to purge all German (especially Wagnerian) stylistic features from his music. He claimed that he wanted his music to express his French identity. Much of his music, however, is saturated with markers of exoticism. My dissertation explores the relationship between his interest in musical exoticism and his anti-Wagnerian nationalism. I argue that he used exotic markers as a nationalistic reaction against Wagner. He perceived these markers as symbols of French identity. By the time that he started writing exotic music, in the 1890’s, exoticism was a deeply entrenched tradition in French musical culture. Many 19th-century French composers, including Felicien David, Bizet, Massenet, and Saint-Saëns, founded this tradition of musical exoticism and established a lexicon of exotic markers, such as modality, static harmonies, descending chromatic lines and pentatonicism. Through incorporating these markers into his musical style, Debussy gives his music a French nationalistic stamp. I argue that the German philosopher Nietzsche shaped Debussy’s nationalistic attitude toward musical exoticism. In 1888, Nietzsche asserted that Bizet’s musical exoticism was an effective antidote to Wagner. Nietzsche wrote that music should be “Mediterranized,” a dictum that became extremely famous in fin-de-siècle France.
    [Show full text]
  • Download Program Notes
    Notes on the Program By James M. Keller, Program Annotator, The Leni and Peter May Chair Prélude à l’après-midi d’un faune (Prelude to the Afternoon of a Faun) Nocturnes Claude Debussy laude Debussy achieved his musical produced. This work is too exquisite, alas! It Cmaturity in the final decade of the 19th is too exquisite.” century, a magical moment in France when partisans of the visual arts fully embraced the gentle luster of Impressionism, poets navi- In Short gated the indirect locutions of Symbolism, Born: August 22, 1862, in Saint-Germain- composers struggled with the pluses and mi- en-Laye, just outside Paris, France nuses of Wagner, and the City of Light blazed Died: March 25, 1918, in Paris even more brightly than usual, enflamed with the pleasures of the Belle Époque. Works composed and premiered: Prélude à l’après-midi d’un faune begun in 1892 — Several early Debussy masterpieces of perhaps as early as 1891 — and completed the 1890s have lodged in the repertoire, by October 23, 1894; premiered December 22, including, most strikingly, the Prélude à 1894, at a concert of the Société Nationale de l’après-midi d’un faune. Debussy was hardly Musique in Paris, Gustave Doret, conductor. a youngster when he composed it. He had Nocturnes composed 1897–99, drawing on begun studying at the Paris Conservatoire material sketched as early as 1892; dedicated to in 1872, when he was only ten; had served the music publisher Georges Hartmann; Nuages as resident pianist and musical pet for Na- and Fêtes premiered on December 9, 1900, dezhda von Meck, Tchaikovsky’s myste- at the Concerts Lamoureux in Paris, Camille rious patron, in Russia and on her travels Chevillard, conductor; the complete three- during the summers of 1880–82; had finally movement Noctunes was premiered on October 27, 1901, by the same orchestra and conductor.
    [Show full text]
  • Solo List and Reccomended List for 02-03-04 Ver 3
    Please read this before using this recommended guide! The following pages are being uploaded to the OSSAA webpage STRICTLY AS A GUIDE TO SOLO AND ENSEMBLE LITERATURE. In 1999 there was a desire to have a required list of solo and ensemble literature, similar to the PML that large groups are required to perform. Many hours were spent creating the following document to provide “graded lists” of literature for every instrument and voice part. The theory was a student who made a superior rating on a solo would be required to move up the list the next year, to a more challenging solo. After 2 years of debating the issue, the music advisory committee voted NOT to continue with the solo/ensemble required list because there was simply too much music written to confine a person to perform from such a limited list. In 2001 the music advisor committee voted NOT to proceed with the required list, but rather use it as “Recommended Literature” for each instrument or voice part. Any reference to “required lists” or “no exceptions” in this document need to be ignored, as it has not been updated since 2001. If you have any questions as to the rules and regulations governing solo and ensemble events, please refer back to the OSSAA Rules and Regulation Manual for the current year, or contact the music administrator at the OSSAA. 105 SOLO ENSEMBLE REGULATIONS 1. Pianos - It is recommended that you use digital pianos when accoustic pianos are not available or if it is most cost effective to use a digital piano.
    [Show full text]
  • Embracing Nontraditional Scales and Tonal Structures, Claude Debussy Is
    QUICK FACTS Claude Debussy, Composer BIRTH DATE August 22, 1862 DEATH DATE March 25, 1918 EDUCATION Paris Conservatory PLACE OF BIRTH Saint-Germaine Laye France, PLACE OF DEATH PARIS, FRANCE QUOTES “Music is the space between the notes.” Embracing nontraditional scales and tonal structures, Claude Debussy is one of the most highly regarded composers of the late 19th and early 20th centuries and is seen as the founder of musical impressionism. Synopsis Claude Debussy was born into a poor family in France in 1862, but his obvious gift at the piano sent him to the Paris Conservatory at age 11. At age 22, he won the Prix de Rome, which financed two years of further musical study in the Italian capital. After the turn of the century, Debussy established himself as the leading figure of French music. During World War I, while Paris was being bombed by the German air force, he succumbed to colon cancer at the age of 55. Early Life Achille-Claude Debussy was born on August 22, 1862, in Saint-Germain-en-Laye, France, the oldest of five children. While his family had little money, Debussy showed an early affinity for the piano, and he began taking lessons at the age of 7. By age 10 or 11, he had entered the Paris Conservatory, where his instructors and fellow students recognized his talent but often found his attempts at musical innovation strange. Clair de lune, meaning moonlight, was written by the Impressionist French composer Claude Debussy. Here’s everything you need to know about this piano masterpiece Claude Debussy started wrote the incredibly romantic piano piece Clair de Lune in 1890 when he was just 28, but it wasn’t published for another 15 years! The title means ‘Moonlight’ and the piece is actually part of the four-movement work Suite Bergamasque.
    [Show full text]
  • Evolving Performance Practice of Debussy's Piano Preludes Vivian Buchanan Louisiana State University and Agricultural and Mechanical College, [email protected]
    Louisiana State University LSU Digital Commons LSU Master's Theses Graduate School 6-4-2018 Evolving Performance Practice of Debussy's Piano Preludes Vivian Buchanan Louisiana State University and Agricultural and Mechanical College, [email protected] Follow this and additional works at: https://digitalcommons.lsu.edu/gradschool_theses Part of the Musicology Commons Recommended Citation Buchanan, Vivian, "Evolving Performance Practice of Debussy's Piano Preludes" (2018). LSU Master's Theses. 4744. https://digitalcommons.lsu.edu/gradschool_theses/4744 This Thesis is brought to you for free and open access by the Graduate School at LSU Digital Commons. It has been accepted for inclusion in LSU Master's Theses by an authorized graduate school editor of LSU Digital Commons. For more information, please contact [email protected]. EVOLVING PERFORMANCE PRACTICE OF DEBUSSY’S PIANO PRELUDES A Thesis Submitted to the Graduate Faculty of the Louisiana State University and Agricultural and Mechanical College in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Music in The Department of Music and Dramatic Arts by Vivian Buchanan B.M., New England Conservatory of Music, 2016 August 2018 Table of Contents Abstract……………………………………………………………………………..iii Chapter 1. Introduction………………………………………………………………… 1 2. The Welte-Mignon…………………………………………………………. 7 3. The French Harpsichord Tradition………………………………………….18 4. Debussy’s Piano Rolls……………………………………………………....35 5. The Early Debussystes……………………………………………………...52 Bibliography………………………………………………………………………...63 Selected Discography………………………………………………………………..66 Vita…………………………………………………………………………………..67 ii Abstract Between 1910 and 1912 Claude Debussy recorded twelve of his solo piano works for the player piano company Welte-Mignon. Although Debussy frequently instructed his students to play his music exactly as written, his own recordings are rife with artistic liberties and interpretive freedom.
    [Show full text]