Though Debussy would become a particularly influential composer during the early part of the 20th century, his parents initially had plans for their son to take up the life of a sailor. Even Debussy himself admitted his childhood fascination with the sea, and we can only wonder what the face of classical music would look like today had he followed his parent’s initial plans. Given his love of the sea, it is no surprise that on several occasions he turned to it for inspiration. Yet, perhaps his most famous evocation of the sea is his three-movement symphonic poem, La Mer. Composed between 1903 and 1905, Debussy curiously avoided spending significant time near any large bodies of water, drawing inspiration instead from the representations of the ocean in paintings and literature. Yet, La Mer is one of the most breathtaking and intriguing musical portraits of nature in all of classical music. Though it would become one of Debussy’s most oft-performed orchestral works, its premiere in Paris on October 15, 1905 was lackluster at best. The orchestral was ill-rehearsed and Debussy suffered backlash from the Parisian public after leaving his first wife for the singer Emma Bardac. However, these proved to be only minor setbacks and La Mer quickly became a staple of the orchestral repertoire.
Despite its three-movement symphonic form—two powerful outer movements framing a much more delicate central movement—Debussy referred to La Mer as trois esquisses symphoniques pour orchestra, or “three symphonic sketches for orchestra.” The movements are given the following titles: "De l'aube à midi sur la mer" (“From Dawn to Noon on the Sea”), “Jeux de vagues” (“Play of the Waves”), and "Dialogue du vent et de la mer" (“Dialogue between Wind and Waves”). Debussy’s method of depicting the sea throughout these movements is complex and rich. He completely shuns the triadic figurations so often found in Schubert and Wagner to depict the movement of water. Instead, the musical figures found in La Mer seem to evoke the aural and visual impression of the sea itself. The orchestral texture is often rich, perhaps reflecting the great depths of the sea, with multiple layers progressing at once, blurring the lines between what is melody and what is harmony. Joseph DuBose
La Mer (Trois esquisses symphoniques) Claude Debussy
1. De l'aube à midi sur la mer
2. Jeux de vagues
3. Dialogue du vent et de la mer
Debussy entitled these three brilliant movements 'symphonic sketches' and the first, 'From Dawn to Noon on the Sea' is a series of contrasting episodes that seem to express a wide range of moods and tone colours from anticipatory stillness to solar radiance. In the second, 'Play of the Waves', a smooth, siren-like theme soars over rapid, darting rhythms whilst the composer's marking for the 'Dialogue between the Wind and the Sea' is 'animated and tumultuous'. The final movement is the most stormy and turbulent, beginning with a murky, threatening motif in the bass before another siren-like theme soars above the sea's agitation, only to be annihilated by the surging, monumental climax.
Although La Mer was the nearest Debussy came in his later works to writing in traditional forms (it was begun in 1903, but not completed until 1905) it also marked a new complexity in terms of textures, rhythms and harmonies. The work was first written as a piano duet, followed by the more familiar orchestral version a few months later. Piano duets were always familiar territory for Debussy: he was the favourite partner of Nadezhda von Meck, Tchaikovsky's benefactor, and also of Igor Stravinsky, with whom he played the Rite of Spring in 1913. Tong, Hasegawa
Classical Music | Piano Music
Claude Debussy
La Mere, Trois Esquisses symphoniques Play
Recorded on 02/28/2006, uploaded on 01/22/2009
Musician's or Publisher's Notes
Though Debussy would become a particularly influential composer during the early part of the 20th century, his parents initially had plans for their son to take up the life of a sailor. Even Debussy himself admitted his childhood fascination with the sea, and we can only wonder what the face of classical music would look like today had he followed his parent’s initial plans. Given his love of the sea, it is no surprise that on several occasions he turned to it for inspiration. Yet, perhaps his most famous evocation of the sea is his three-movement symphonic poem, La Mer. Composed between 1903 and 1905, Debussy curiously avoided spending significant time near any large bodies of water, drawing inspiration instead from the representations of the ocean in paintings and literature. Yet, La Mer is one of the most breathtaking and intriguing musical portraits of nature in all of classical music. Though it would become one of Debussy’s most oft-performed orchestral works, its premiere in Paris on October 15, 1905 was lackluster at best. The orchestral was ill-rehearsed and Debussy suffered backlash from the Parisian public after leaving his first wife for the singer Emma Bardac. However, these proved to be only minor setbacks and La Mer quickly became a staple of the orchestral repertoire.
Despite its three-movement symphonic form—two powerful outer movements framing a much more delicate central movement—Debussy referred to La Mer as trois esquisses symphoniques pour orchestra, or “three symphonic sketches for orchestra.” The movements are given the following titles: "De l'aube à midi sur la mer" (“From Dawn to Noon on the Sea”), “Jeux de vagues” (“Play of the Waves”), and "Dialogue du vent et de la mer" (“Dialogue between Wind and Waves”). Debussy’s method of depicting the sea throughout these movements is complex and rich. He completely shuns the triadic figurations so often found in Schubert and Wagner to depict the movement of water. Instead, the musical figures found in La Mer seem to evoke the aural and visual impression of the sea itself. The orchestral texture is often rich, perhaps reflecting the great depths of the sea, with multiple layers progressing at once, blurring the lines between what is melody and what is harmony. Joseph DuBose
La Mer (Trois esquisses symphoniques) Claude Debussy
1. De l'aube à midi sur la mer
2. Jeux de vagues
3. Dialogue du vent et de la mer
Debussy entitled these three brilliant movements 'symphonic sketches' and the first, 'From Dawn to Noon on the Sea' is a series of contrasting episodes that seem to express a wide range of moods and tone colours from anticipatory stillness to solar radiance. In the second, 'Play of the Waves', a smooth, siren-like theme soars over rapid, darting rhythms whilst the composer's marking for the 'Dialogue between the Wind and the Sea' is 'animated and tumultuous'. The final movement is the most stormy and turbulent, beginning with a murky, threatening motif in the bass before another siren-like theme soars above the sea's agitation, only to be annihilated by the surging, monumental climax.
Although La Mer was the nearest Debussy came in his later works to writing in traditional forms (it was begun in 1903, but not completed until 1905) it also marked a new complexity in terms of textures, rhythms and harmonies. The work was first written as a piano duet, followed by the more familiar orchestral version a few months later. Piano duets were always familiar territory for Debussy: he was the favourite partner of Nadezhda von Meck, Tchaikovsky's benefactor, and also of Igor Stravinsky, with whom he played the Rite of Spring in 1913. Tong, Hasegawa
More music by Claude Debussy
La Puerta del Vino, from Préludes Book II
Rapsodie (arr. Rousseau)
Arabesque in C sharp major
Soiree dans Grenade, from Estampes
Beau Soir
Ondine, from Préludes Book II
La Cathédrale engloutie, from Preludes, Books 1, No.10
Apparition, from Quatre chansons de jeunesse
Estampes
General Lavine – eccentric, from Préludes Book II
Performances by same musician(s)
Allegro in a minor (Lebensstürme), D 947
Slavonic Dance in A-Flat Major, Op. 46 No. 3
Classical Music for the Internet Era™
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