Pour le piano

Pour le piano (For the piano) is a suite for solo piano by Claude Debussy. Debussy composed it in 1901. Three movements are part of the suite, a prélude, a sarabande and a toccata. Ricardo Viñes first played it at the Salle Érard on 11 January 1902. Maurice Ravel created a version for orchestra of the middle movement.[1]

The suite is regarded as Debussy's first mature piano composition. There are many recordings.

History

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Pierre-Auguste Renoir: Yvonne et Christine Lerolle au piano, 1897–1898, Musée de l'Orangerie

Claude Debussy composed the three pieces in the suite at different times. The second movement, a sarabande, was composed in the winter of 1894. At that time it was part of the series of Images oubliées (forgotten images).[2] It is dedicated to Yvonne Lerolle, the daughter of Henry Lerolle.[1][3] Debussy composed did not compose much piano music during the 1890s and focused on opera and orchestral music.[4] He finished the suite in 1901, revising Sarabande.[5] He also dedicated the revised version of Sarabande, as well as the third movement, Toccata, to Yvonne Lerolle, now Mme E. Rouart.[3] The suite was published in 1901 by Eugène Fromont.[6][7] It was premiered on 11 January 1902 at the Salle Érard in Paris for the Société Nationale de Musique.[1] Ricardo Viñes was the pianist, who knew about the suite from his friend Maurice Ravel.[5]

Pour le piano was a very important change in Debussy's creative development, who now switched to making piano music.[4]

On the 100th anniversary of Debussy's death, Bärenreiter published a critical edition of some of his piano music in 2018, including Pour le piano.[8] The publisher said that the "improvisational and fugitive" parts of Debussy's compositions were "governed by a precisely calibrated formal design" that left "little room for chance".[8]

Structure and music

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Sarabande
performed March 2011
Toccata
performed November 2010
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Pour le piano has been regarded as Debussy's first mature piano work.[9] The suite consists of three movements:[3]

  1. Prélude
  2. Sarabande
  3. Toccata

The first movement, called Prélude, is marked "Assez animé et très rythmé" (With spirit and very rhythmically).[10] It was dedicated to Debussy's student Mlle Worms de Romilly, who notes that the movement "tellingly evokes the gongs and music of Java".[1] The pianist Angela Hewitt notes that Prélude begins with a theme in the bass, followed by a long pedal point passage. The theme is repeated in chords marked fortissimo, together with glissando runs that Debussy connected to "d’Artagnan drawing his sword".[5] In a middle section, the left hand holds a pedal point in A-flat major, to which the right hand adds colours. The conclusion is marked "Tempo di cadenza", again with glissando-figures.[5]

Sarabande is marked "Avec une élégance grave et lente" (With a slow and solemn elegance).[10] Debussy said it should be "rather like an old portrait in the Louvre".[5] Émile Vuillermoz described Debussy's playing of the movement as "with the easy simplicity of a good dancer from the sixteenth century".[5] Hewitt calls it "antique and modern at the same time".[5] The movement has been regarded as "among the most intimate music for the keyboard",[10] showing an affinity to Erik Satie such as his 1887 three dances called Sarabandes.[10]

The last movement is a toccata, marked "Vif" (Lively).[10] It has been described as "poised and energetic, extroverted and graceful" and shows influences from Scarlatti's sonatas.[10] Hewitt notes about the virtuoso writing that speed alone wasn't Debussy's goal, but rather clarity.[5]

A reviewer described the suite as "possibly foreshadowing the neo-classical Debussy that emerged in his last years".[9]

References

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  1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 Lesure, François (1984), "Preface", Pour le piano, Urtext, Munich, Germany: G. Henle Verlag
  2. ↑ Images oubliées (IMSLP)
  3. ↑ 3.0 3.1 3.2 Pour le piano . FL 95 / suite (in French). French National Library. 2018. Retrieved 23 August 2018.
  4. ↑ 4.0 4.1 Trezise, Simon; Cross, Jonathan, eds. (2003). The Cambridge Companion to Debussy. Cambridge University Press. p. 185. ISBN 978-0-52-165478-4.
  5. ↑ 5.0 5.1 5.2 5.3 5.4 5.5 5.6 5.7 Hewitt, Angela (2012). "Pour le piano, L. 95". Naxos Records. Retrieved 22 August 2018.
  6. ↑ Eugène Fromont (BnF)
  7. ↑ "Debussy, Claude / Pour le piano". Bärenreiter. 2018. Retrieved 22 August 2018.
  8. ↑ 8.0 8.1 "Claude Debussy / Piano music". Bärenreiter. 2018. Retrieved 22 August 2018.
  9. ↑ 9.0 9.1 Howell, Christopher (2012). "Pour le piano, L. 95". musicweb-international.com. Retrieved 22 August 2018.
  10. ↑ 10.0 10.1 10.2 10.3 10.4 10.5 Keillor, John (2018). "Claude Debussy / Pour le piano, suite for piano, L. 95". AllMusic. Retrieved 22 August 2018.