![calair de lune calair de lune](https://i.ytimg.com/vi/fGGa9kMznRQ/maxresdefault.jpg)
In this context the original title makes more sense as a break between the Menuet and Passepied dances. These suites had similar dance movements to Debussy’s Suite Bergamasque, which includes, along with Clair de Lune, a Prélude, a Menuet and a Passepied. Two of the most noted composers of this golden age are Jean-Phillipe Rameau (1683-1764) and François Couperin (1668-1733), both of whom wrote suites for the keyboard instrument of the time, the harpsichord. It celebrated what was seen as the golden age of French music, and pushed back against what the French saw as the grandiosity of Wagner and declared French identity during a time of increasing militarisation in Germany. Referencing this style was popular after the mid-19th century. Suite Bergamasque is one of a number of works by Debussy and his French contemporaries that paid homage to the “style ancien” (old style), which referred to the French Baroque period in the 17th and early 18th centuries. The passage subtly transforms meditative melancholy to a moment of exaltation by lifting the melodic material higher in the piano’s range, where, like the teals beating their wings, it seems to take flight.įollowing on from this, the opening ideas reappear, entering more softly this time and descending gradually to more lush and subtly darker harmonies, coloured by added notes. That simplicity, even sparseness of texture, surrounds a central section of gently undulating passages marked to be played a little faster (“Un poco mosso”).
![calair de lune calair de lune](https://i.ytimg.com/vi/yxdvUCtlEsg/maxresdefault.jpg)
Where the vague mist conjured up some vastĪs they called to each other, beating their wings. This builds to an intense moment perhaps recalling a later passage in the poem: The vagaries of the breeze waft gently in the following passage with the instruction “tempo rubato”, a musical term allowing the performer to speed up and slow down the music at their discretion. The stillness and meditative calm of these lines are evoked with great beauty at the opening of the piece: The poem begins: “Le couchant dardait ses rayons suprêmes Et le vent berçait les nénuphars blêmes” (The setting sun cast its final rays And the breeze rocked the pale water lilies). This poem is more likely to have been the inspiration for the music. The original title of Clair de Lune was actually Promenade sentimentale (Sentimental stroll), after a different Verlaine poem from an 1866 collection called Paysages tristes (Sad Landscapes).
![calair de lune calair de lune](https://i.ytimg.com/vi/fvoqo0vWVhM/maxresdefault.jpg)
Another piece, Reflets dans l’eau (Reflections in the Water), seems to embody Impressionist qualities of glinting light and detached observation of nature rather than human participation, much as in Monet’s paintings of water lilies.
![calair de lune calair de lune](https://i.ytimg.com/vi/MzFMsNcTk1I/maxresdefault.jpg)
Although Debussy disliked this term as applied to music, it is accepted now to refer to the composers’ use of harmony and texture in a way that recalls the light and colour of Impressionist painting.ĭebussy’s iconic orchestral piece La mer, also published 1905, used Hokusai’s Great Wave on the cover, an artwork that directly inspired painters like Van Gogh. With fellow composer Maurice Ravel, Debussy is regarded as a leader of French Impressionism. When asked what rule he followed, he scandalised his harmony teachers by answering: “Mon plaisir” (My pleasure). Debussy’s music was a turning point from the Romantic music that had dominated the 19th century to the music of the 20th century.