How I Discovered...DEBUSSY
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 13 มิ.ย. 2023
- My first encounter with Debussy, in grammar school, was not really a positive one. It was only later, when I first heard some of the piano music, that I became a serious fan. What were your initial impressions of this exceptionally original composer? Come share your story!
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I played in a youth orchestra and from time to time we did some piece by Debussy. I only wanted to play fast and exciting pieces, so he seemed very boring to me. But then one day suddenly I woke up to it in the middle of a concert. It was "En bateau" of the "Petite suite". The melody was so simple yet it conveyed such deep feelings, that I couldn't believe my ears.
It was one of the those moments were I sensed how lucky I was of being a musician.
For my piano teacher, assigning Debussy's "Clair de lune" was a mark of arrival, a piece that said "You're ready to play some real music now." We'd heard it played by others in student recitals and were chomping at the bit for our turn to lay hands on it. So when she finally assigned it to me, well, that was a very special day. I remember her handing over the sheet music, a beautiful Napoleon blue Jean Jobert edition, entirely in French (apart from the Philadelphia printer's name) that seemed a marvel in itself. Of course when I got to the music inside, I could see that it wasn't hard to play. It was just hard to play WELL. So it was really my first lesson in nuance, in levels of touch, levels of dynamics, range of colors. That's what was hard. Getting that initial marking of "tres expressif" right? That's actually a life-long lesson, not least in taste. In any case, a memorable piece of music and my first brush with Debussy. Couldn't agree more that the piano music is where the best stuff lies.
I used to watch Jack Horkheimer's Star Hustler on my local PBS station late at night in the 80's and the theme music was Debussy's Arabesque No. 1 (the Andantino con moto). It was a synthesized version, but it was so spacey and beautiful, and I became kind of obsessed with it. This was before the internet, so it wasn't easy to find the "writer" of that music. I had to wait until I heard the real thing on my classical music station and then it was like "there it is!". I've become a confirmed Debussy fan since.
+1 Jack Horkheimer: Star Hustler
My first recalled exposure to Debussy’s music was when listening to Alan Freeman’s brilliant Saturday afternoon rock show on BBC Radio 1 in the UK back in the 70s when he played “Arabesque No 1” as played by Isao Tomita from his 1974 album “Snowflakes are Dancing”. I then bought the album and have always loved it. It was fascinating subsequently hearing the piano recordings. I think Tomita captured the essence of those pieces so well.
I was drawn to Debussy through the electronic versions by Tomita, I loved Tomita!
I agree with you totally about experiencing the piano music first. Fortunately, my piano teacher gave me her 78 rpm set of Suite Bergamasque when she went to LP's in the 1950's. I fell in love with it, and my parents took me to hear Gieseking just a few months before he died, and he played it.
My first exposure to Debussy dates back to my now distant childhood, where I heard Clair de Lune as orchestrated (I think) by Lucien Cailliet on an album that also included The Nutcracker Suite conducted by Ormandy. The Nutcracker was a favorite of my mom, but she was somewhat cool to Debussy (and generally anything post Tchaikovsky), and it was only because it was the last track on the LP side that I heard it at all. I thought it pleasant and atmospheric but little more. But it was in high school where our orchestra played through "Fêtes" that I really got interested in his music. I hunted down a recording of the Nocturnes (not sure which one, I borrowed it from our local library) and fell in love with all three of them. From there I went to La Mer and the horny daydreaming Faun, which were often included on the library-borrowed albums with the Nocturnes. So I'm just the opposite of your experience, as I got to know and love Debussy through his orchestral works first and later came to love his piano works.
In 1958 I began piano lessons as a local radio station WICC broadcast an astronomy program on Sunday nights called "Backyard Planetarium" and the theme/intro music was La Mer. My piano teacher identified it and I took it out from the public library. Next was Daphnis & Chloe Suite #2, and that was it. I was hooked on classical music.
My initial encounters with Debussy were very much like yours. I heard the Prelude to the Afternoon....in a music appreciation class in 7th grade, and, like you, it made only a passing impression on me. Some years later, I got ahold of a Debussy piano collection LP by Philippe Entremont, and that is what got me interested. The piece I really wanted to play was the Sunken Cathedral.
Me too. It was the only prelude I played because it was easy--mostly parallel chords up and down the keyboard.
Same! Children's Corner is the perfect gateway drug for Debussy. Like you, I heard "Dr. Gradus" and was just compelled to learn it. And after a few weeks, I've gotten fairly good at it. I'm slowly discovering his other keyboard music, and am particularly in love with "Reflets dans l'eau" from "Images." The arpeggios in the middle section are pretty terrifying for me though. Enjoyed this video and will be checking out more.
Well, it was quite early in my childhood. On every Sunday, there was a notorious brief programme on TV called "Chvilka poezie!" ("A minute for poetry"), and while I hated the poetry -- or rather the way it was presented -- most of the time, I was always looking forward to the theme of the programme played on the piano. One day, my father, in one of his few friendly moments with me, explained to me that it was 'La Fille aux cheveux de lin' by Debussy, end even found an LP of the first book of the Preludes for me (by Ilja Hurník, a great recording, btw).
Really my favorite composer, I never tire of his music. One of the first cds l bought was the Haitink recording of the Nocturnes with Jeux. I loved that performance, it sounded magical. Then I discovered his piano music and was hooked for life.
My experience was similar to yours, Chris, with the addition of the marvelous Preludes for piano.
Pelleas et Melisande still blows my socks off with its sustained otherworldliness.
What would he have left us if he had not died at a relatively young age?
I remember when I listened to Debussy on the Siena Pianoforte. It’s a different sound but I enjoy it immensely. Of course, I still listen to Debussy on the piano, but the siena version is a treat for me, I can’t help but listen to the entire album. It’s certainly an oddity and it’s not talked about much, some may find it too grating or even a bit unpleasant but I feel it really contributes to Debussy’s sound. I love and respect Debussy, he is one of my favorites, I can safely say this album opened my eyes or ears to Debussy, it holds a special place for me.
A childhood friend of mine owned the sheet music to Clair de Lune. I was impressed. Not sure if she could play it, but I think that she later gave me the sheet music to "Pour le Piano" when I was 18, and that is the way it started.
Clair de Lune probably was my initial exposure to Debussy, but I was absolutely blown away by the Nocturnes (had the Haitink Concertgebouw coupled with Jeux on Philips).
In my parents' wartime black box of 78s, there was a record of Debussy's Faune (that was very modern music for them!). So I was aware of that music when I was cutting my musical teeth but it had much less impact on an adolescent than, say, Beethoven's 5. However, an early purchase when I starting building up my own collection was a Karajan/Philharmonia LP coupling of La Mer with Ravel's Rhapsodie Espagnole, which really opened my eyes and ears to both composers. From there, Gieseking playing his piano music followed leading on to the wonderful Pelléas, Haitink's and Martinon's renderings of the orchestral music .......
As an aside, Karajan/Philharmonia recordings played a very important role in expanding my horizons, e.g. Sibelius 4, 5 & Tapiola, Cosi fan Tutte, Ariadne auf Naxos and Rosenkavalier, etc. It was arguably the best period of his distinguished career.
The first time I heard Debussy was also in music class in school in the 7th grade. It was also the Prelude, and I loved it. Absolutely. That and Mozart’s Symphony 40, which I also loved were the two pieces I can remember from that course, though there were several others we listened to that year. But I have loved those two works ever since. The Mozart was the first record I ever bought. Through it, I also was introduced to Haydn, as his Symphony 45 was on the other side.
My introduction to Debussy was odd considering his fame. My parents weren’t big Debussy fans although my introduction to his music was through them. They bought a cheap cd of La Mer and its murky sonics didn’t make me into a big fan. I thought of him as vague and a bit boring as a 10 year old. A few years later though, another budget cd by artists now forgotten by me was in our collection. It was all his prettiest piano pieces. This I really liked and made a mental note. This cd was later lost in a robbery. Then with interruptions by other musical interests and general lack of good classical record stores in my area, it took me years and the advent of streaming to get back to listening to him. Of course it was the piano music, from Pour Le Piano to Images to Preludes to Etudes to pieces like Masques and especially L’Isle Joyeuse. Then followed the last sonatas and piano duets. Now Debussy is one of my indispensable listening loves as he always should have been and Classics Today helped me navigate the recordings and find my favourites. I’ve listened to the piano music in many recordings and I like none better than the wonderfully imaginative Francois Samson recordings on Erato. Also his Ravel.
I’ve been thoroughly enjoying the 33cd complete Debussy set on Warner, I recommend it to everyone…
One of the composers I got to know way before I got really interested in classical music. As with several composers I danced to his music. I had a solo doing a choreography to Golliwog's Cakewalk in the electronic version by Tomita. I made Moscow TV with it when I danced it in Red Square and Gorki Park, when we were on tour in Russia back in 1993.
Cool!
Another installment of my indirect path to classical music. I first heard Syrinx on a Hubert Laws album. Laws was a jazz flautist, but the album was all his take on classical pieces. I'm sure I'd heard Debussy on the classical station before then, but didn't know who the composer was. The album also had Faure's Pavanne, but I'm pretty sure I heard that before in a sound track or something.
When I was 20 a friend introduced me to classical music, until then I only knew Eine kleine Nachtmusik and the Ouverture to William Tell by Rossini on cassettes I had copied. The CD was introduced when I was 21 and I realised that the CD was the medium for classical music. So after a summer job I bought a CD player and started buying CD's. I got a job and had to travel to another city for my course. There was a proper classical music store and the owner was a friend of Vladimir Ashkenazy. Right then his CD with Debussy came out: La mer, Nocturnes Prélude à l'après midi.... I did not know the music but the man recommended it to me and when I listened for the first time, I was mesmerised. The music sounded so different from what (little) I knew until then. Now I appreciate other recordings of these pieces more, thanks to you @David Hurwitz. I am happy that through your interesting talks I get to know so much more.
A friend in elementary school was taking piano lessons and "Claire de Lune" was one he was always working on. I had heard the tune but didn't know the title and composer until I read it on his sheet music.
The Debussy first Arabesque and the Bach English Suite 2 were the first pieces of classical music I ever heard. My mother had studied to be a concert pianist in NYC, at least until she heard the girl with the lesson before her. At that point, she realized the other had a career and she didn't. But until she came down with rheumatoid arthritis at age 28, she used to play our horrid spinet piano. I was something like 3 when I heard the Bach for the first time. The counterpoint of the first movement I didn't know what to make of. It seemed to me as if he was yanking back time to its starting point. MAGIC.
The Debussy was the most beautiful piece I ever heard. Given my usual diet of the pop of the time -- 1940s and 50s - that wasn't hard, but to this day I find it heartbreakingly gorgeous. A candidate for Most Beautiful Melodies, perhaps?
I never heard that Ravel wanted to fiddle with La Mer's orchestration. I do think that he'd have done a great job orchestrating The Children's Corner. It's all there in L'Enfant et les Sortileges.
It was when I was just getting into classical music. I got a LP from Columbia record club that had various composers’ works on it. Claire de lune (orchestrated) was one of them. It was so beautiful!
My experience was very different because I remember one summer when I was 13 or so twiddling the radio dial and came across the classical AM (imagine that!) station playing Faun. Unlike Dave, I actually loved it and thought what a great piece of music for a hot summer day. I didn't rush out and buy Debussy records, though. My next encounter was 4 years later, buying the Toscanini lp of Debussy. I couldn't get La Mer at all, but I loved Iberia on the flip! I frankly enjoyed Franck's Psyche et Eros on that disc too, more than La Mer. What a great tune.
Soon after came the Ansermet Decca set of Pelleas (not yet the piano music, sorry). I wasn't wild about it but quickly found that after first hearing, once past Act 1, it was smooth sailing. I still think it's his chef d'oeuvre but his most sheerly gorgeous work for me is the early Damoiselle Elue.
Oh, I love La Mer now and hear it not just as a tone poem but a three movement tightly integrated symphony.
Concerning unrelated matters, two things: 1) I would not have discovered my new favorite late romantic, Faure, were it not for Dave's enthusiastic endorsement and 2) though they may be written off as accompanied piano works, I love, love, love Haydn's piano trios (the Beaux Arts account) and Mozart's Violin sonatas and don't care that they were each bettered by truer realizations of the form, later in the classical period. Anyway, so grateful ...
I believe the first piece that made me really fall in love with his music was Les collines d'Anacapri.
My first exposure was a disc of the Images and a selection of Preludes performed by Ivan Moravic on Vox - sooooo atmospheric!
This video is 9 minutes long but I don't want it to end 😂👍 I discovered Debussy with Oceans 11 (electronic & orchestral Claire de lune)🎲🎰💰
Star Wars=Bruyères, Nintendo Yoshi's Island theme= La fille aux cheveux de lin, La Mer=Jaws