Format : Sheet music + CD
This collection of Debussy's popular intermediate pieces includes Clair de lune, Reverie, La petit ngre, the complete Children's Corner Suite and other works. The introductory pages discuss symbolist poetry, French Impressionist painters and Debussy's musical style. A variety of photographs taken throughout the composer's life are also included. The Alfred Masterwork Library CD Editions conveniently combine each exceptional volume with a professionally recorded CD that is sure to inspire artistic performances. 64 pages. Pianist Scott Price is the chair of the Piano Department at the University of South Carolina and holds a doctorate in piano performance from the University of Oklahoma. He has given master classes and recitals throughout the United States and Southeast Asia. His recordings are featured in Alfred's Premier Piano Course .
SKU: FA.MFCD007PN
8.27 x 11.69 inches.
Debussy's friendship with the versatile poet and playwright Gabriel Mourey began in 1899, and in July 1907 Mourey offered Debussy a libretto based on Le roman de Tristan - Joseph Bedier's adaptation of a twelfth-century Breton romance by the Anglo-Norman poet known as Thomas - which had recently been published in Paris. Debussy enthusiastically outlined the four-act plot to Victor Segalen that October, and the main differences from Wagner's Tristan und Isolde are that none of the action takes place in Cornwall and that Isolde of the White Hands is found guilty of cuckolding King Marc with Tristan, who has to rescue her from the leper colony in which she is abandoned in Act 1. She also betrays him when he goes mad at the end.The idea of a Tristan that restored its 'legendary character' and had no connections with Wagner, appealed to Debussy, who was extremely moved by the circumstances of Tristan's death. Even if he thought that Mourey's poetry was 'not very lyrical and many passages do not exactly invite music', he did work on the libretto and the music that summer and sent his publisher, Jacques Durand, 'one of the 363 themes for the Roman de Tristan' in a letter sent from Pourville on 23 August, 1907. The present prelude grows from this theme, together with the poignant Breton folksong Le Faucon. After a short atmospheric introduction, Debussy's dance-like theme (which is definitely not a leitmotif) gradually gains momentum and after it reaches its ecstatic climax, representing the transient happiness of the lovers, it dissolves into an expressive coda and an elegiac close (all growing from Debussy's opening, off-stage trumpet calls), leaving us with the ultimate tragedy of their ill-fated affair.Unfortunately, Mourey's actual libretto has been lost and the project eventually foundered because Bedier's cousin, Louis Artus, wanted Debussy to use the scenario he had prepared and copyrighted for the stage, and would not allow him to proceed with Mourey's version. Debussy, it need hardly be said, would never have dreamed of collaborating with the author of the vaudeville hit La culotte (The pants)!
SKU: FA.MFCD014PN
Fetes galantes was actually planned as a hybrid opera-ballet to a libretto by Debussy's friend Louis Laloy. For this, Laloy arranged selected poetry by Paul Verlaine into three tableaux, replacing an earlier (unstarted) Debussyan project with Charles Morice entitled Crimen amoris. During his last productive summer of 1915, Debussy set a sequence from the start of the first tableau, 'Les Masques', involving stanzas 1 and 3 of the opening song for Mezzetin in Verlaine's comedy Les Uns et les autres. The action is set in a park a la Watteau late one summer afternoon as Mezzetin attempts to entertain a group of nonchalant masqueraders with only the aid of his voice and a mandolin.This appears to have been prefaced by a slower, elegiac introduction reminiscent of the opening of the comtemporary Cello Sonata and it leads to a danced minuet by the masqued dancers which has clear echoes of the piano piece L'Isle Joyeuse (1904). Following Laloy's scenario, the mas-queraders then sing extracts from Verlaine's 'A la promenade' (from Fetes galantes itself). The minuet returns at greater length before being cut short by a chilly gust of wind, after which the park returns to its orginal state (and music) as though nothing had really happened.
SKU: HL.50566025
ISBN 9781705192658. UPC: 196288132332. 9.0x12.0x0.105 inches.
This edition is enriched with a historical introduction in French and English by notable clarinettist Pierre Génisson. “[...] this piece is, without a doubt, one of the sweetest I have ever written.” As this letter that Claude Debussy wrote to Durand, his publisher, indicates, the composer held his Rhapsodie for clarinet and piano in very high regard. In 1909, when Gabriel Fauré, then director of the Paris Conservatoire, commissioned the piece, Debussy had never before written for clarinet. He dedicated it to P. Mimart, “as a token of my regard.” After the unanimous recognition of the high quality of this solo, written for competition, Mimart premiered it in public on 16 January 1911 at the Salle Gaveau in Paris. Two years later, Debussy would choose to expand it further, writing a version accompanied by orchestra with a greatly expanded palette of colors. As its name suggests, it is freeform, and emanates a great poetry. The introduction, “Rêveusement lent,” is an evocation of the dawn. This gives way to a scene of nature's awakening, which never ceases to amaze us with its transformations. At times calm and lyrical, it sometimes becomes mischievous, vindictive or even joyous, especially during the scherzando passages. In a heightened impressionist style, Debussy gives free rein to his imagination, demanding tremendous speed and precision from the clarinettist.
SKU: HL.48180746
UPC: 888680787073. 9.25x12.25 inches.
This version of the famous piece Le Petit Negre by Claude Debussy is a version transcribed for Bb clarinet and piano by Auguste Périer, a professor at the Paris Conservatoire. First published in 1909, the piece, in C major, starts Allegro giusto'and is an energetic cakewalk with an introduction followed by the main theme, which is repeated before the piece comes to a close. This really charming work would suit an upper-intermediate level or above and is perfect to start working on Debussy's music.
SKU: HL.50566030
ISBN 9798350104448. UPC: 196288168393. 9.0x12.0x0.147 inches.
Debussy composed the Sonate for cello and piano in Normandy, in July 1915. At the age of 53, distressed by the war and afflicted by an illness that prevented him from composing, he resumed his work with the writing of this Sonate. Though his intention of assertinga French style in the tradition of the great masters of the 18th century, Debussy repeatedly affirmed the absence of a programmatic idea in the sonata: “I have written nothing but pure music. [...] in the old form, so flexible (without the grandiloquence of modern sonatas)”. This volume is part of “Musique française”, a series designed for students and teachers as well as professionals; it offers historical introduction and performance suggestions by the notable cellist Emmanuelle Bertrand.
