Debussy (arr. Zender)
Programme note
Claude Debussy (1862-1918)
Five Preludes (1910-13), arr. Zender (1991)
I: Voiles
II: Le danse de Puck
III: Général Lavine – eccentric
IV: Les collines d’Anacapri
V: Des pas sur le neige
Debussy’s talent as a young composer was confirmed when he was admitted to the Paris Conservatoire aged just 10 years old. In instrumental classes he proved to be an exceptional pupil, showing particular skill at the piano, but he was more problematic as a student of composition. Debussy was argumentative and single-minded, refusing to obey the rigid teaching rules of the Conservatoire, instead favouring a more experimental approach to his writing. When Debussy presented his works to his professor of composition he was met with the words: ‘I am not saying that what you do isn't beautiful, but it is theoretically absurd.’ His response was simple: ‘My foremost ambition, in music, is to produce something that represents as closely as possible life itself. It is a free art... boundless as the elements, the wind, sky, and sea.’
Often described as impressionistic, although he disliked the term himself, Debussy’s sensory approach to music redefined the traditional concepts of consonance and dissonance, combining areas of tonality – whole-tone, pentatonic, modal – in ways that had previously been frowned upon. At the forefront of Debussy’s mind was a desire to create colours – new colours – using textures, harmonies and forms in fresh and often surprising ways. Debussy claimed, ‘There is no theory. You merely have to listen. Pleasure is the law.’
It is little surprise, then, that Debussy’s two books of preludes for piano are nothing like the collections of those who established the format before him. While similar collections by J.S. Bach and Chopin explore each of the 24 keys in turn, Debussy’s collection has no particular unifying pattern, instead comprising a series of character pieces along disparate themes. Their titles, if they can be referred to as such, are printed not as the header but as the footer to the page, suggesting that their subjects might have been dreamed up almost as an afterthought, inspired by the music itself. Their evocative subject matter – the sunken cathedral, the girl with the flaxen hair, footsteps in the snow – and rich, colourful textures have proved ripe for orchestration, with a number of arrangers choosing to adapt the works for different ensembles over the years.
Among the most successful are Hans Zender’s arrangements of five of the preludes for orchestra, made in 1991, which sensitively capture the delicate part-writing of Debussy’s piano versions. The gentle cascading lines of Voiles may suggest the wind caressing the waves of the sea but its title is deliberately ambiguous, translating either as ‘sails’ or ‘veils’. For Debussy, this is intentional, as he insists it is ‘not a photograph of the beach or a postcard.’ Other works are less obscure, with Le danse de Puck capturing the playful dance of the nymph, Puck, from A Midsummer Night’s Dream, and the cake-walk style of Général Lavine – eccentric depicting one of the most celebrated figures in international vaudeville, Ed Lavine. Les collines d’Anacapri alludes to the hills of Anacapri in southern Italy and exudes the sunny, exotic flavours of the Mediterranean, while in stark contrast, Des pas sur le neige, evokes a barren landscape and the sombre solitude of a single set of footsteps in the snow.
© Jo Kirkbride
