Throughout the many decades since Debussy emerged as one of France’s leading composers of the early 20th century, his vocal music has been resigned to live in the shadows of his imaginative and influential piano and orchestral music. Regretfully so, as his skill is no less on display in his essays in French art song than any other genre he attempted. Like his early piano music, Debussy’s early attempts at setting poetry to music stand upon the threshold of the late Romanticism and the burgeoning Impressionism of the composer’s mature style. It is no surprise then that in these first songs, Debussy chose appropriate Romantic texts by poets such as Paul Bourget and Alfred de Musset. In later years, he abandoned these poets altogether, preferring the symbolist poetry of Paul Verlaine and Stephane Mallarmé to emphasize and compliment his mature Impressionistic style.
A setting of a poem by Bourget, Beau Soir is a fairly early work in Debussy’s oeuvre. As with many of the composer’s youthful works, it is difficult to pinpoint for sure its date of composition given the undated manuscripts and a disparity between their composition and subsequent publication. Yet, it is believed the song was composed as early as 1878, while Debussy was still a teenager and the year of his brief visit to London. Bourget’s text draws on the picturesque imagery of the sun setting amidst rivers and wheat fields as in imploration to enjoyment of life and youth. Yet, even in this rosy view, the poet is aware of life’s brevity, concluding the poem with a direct analogy between the rivers’ destination and that of every living soul. Debussy’s setting, in a modally-infused E major, adopts the tranquil atmosphere of Bourget’s text with an accompaniment of triplets beneath the serene vocal melody. The height of the song comes in the second line of the final stanza, from which the music quickly recedes. Displaying a keen sensitivity to the text and dramatic effect, Debussy inserts a moment of silence and two measures of interlude in the midst of the final line, separating and making more poignant the two ends of Bourget’s analogy. Joseph DuBose
Classical Music | Violin Music
Claude Debussy
Beau Soir Play
Recorded on 06/01/1997, uploaded on 03/01/2011
Musician's or Publisher's Notes
arranged for Violin and Piano by Jascha Heifetz
Throughout the many decades since Debussy emerged as one of France’s leading composers of the early 20th century, his vocal music has been resigned to live in the shadows of his imaginative and influential piano and orchestral music. Regretfully so, as his skill is no less on display in his essays in French art song than any other genre he attempted. Like his early piano music, Debussy’s early attempts at setting poetry to music stand upon the threshold of the late Romanticism and the burgeoning Impressionism of the composer’s mature style. It is no surprise then that in these first songs, Debussy chose appropriate Romantic texts by poets such as Paul Bourget and Alfred de Musset. In later years, he abandoned these poets altogether, preferring the symbolist poetry of Paul Verlaine and Stephane Mallarmé to emphasize and compliment his mature Impressionistic style.
A setting of a poem by Bourget, Beau Soir is a fairly early work in Debussy’s oeuvre. As with many of the composer’s youthful works, it is difficult to pinpoint for sure its date of composition given the undated manuscripts and a disparity between their composition and subsequent publication. Yet, it is believed the song was composed as early as 1878, while Debussy was still a teenager and the year of his brief visit to London. Bourget’s text draws on the picturesque imagery of the sun setting amidst rivers and wheat fields as in imploration to enjoyment of life and youth. Yet, even in this rosy view, the poet is aware of life’s brevity, concluding the poem with a direct analogy between the rivers’ destination and that of every living soul. Debussy’s setting, in a modally-infused E major, adopts the tranquil atmosphere of Bourget’s text with an accompaniment of triplets beneath the serene vocal melody. The height of the song comes in the second line of the final stanza, from which the music quickly recedes. Displaying a keen sensitivity to the text and dramatic effect, Debussy inserts a moment of silence and two measures of interlude in the midst of the final line, separating and making more poignant the two ends of Bourget’s analogy. Joseph DuBose
More music by Claude Debussy
La Puerta del Vino, from Préludes Book II
Soiree dans Grenade, from Estampes
Rapsodie (arr. Rousseau)
Arabesque in C sharp major
Beau Soir
Ondine, from Préludes Book II
La Cathédrale engloutie, from Preludes, Books 1, No.10
Estampes
Apparition, from Quatre chansons de jeunesse
General Lavine – eccentric, from Préludes Book II
Performances by same musician(s)
Berceuse sur le nom de Gabriel Faure
Berceuse, from "The Firebird"
Le Printemps Op. 18
Adagio for Violin and Orchestra K. 261
Sonata for Violin and Piano in c minor, Op. 45
Tzigane
Composer’s Holiday, from Three American Pieces for Violin and Piano
Sea-Murmurs arr. Heifetz
Konzertstuck D.345
Sonata in e minor for Piano and Violin, K. 304
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