Debussy

Debussy’s “Danseuses de Delphes”: Homage to Ancient Caryatids

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In 1894, a team of French archeologists discovered the toppled ruins of elaborate caryatids which adorned the Acanthus Column near the Temple of Apollo in the Ancient Greek city of Delphi. As sculptures representing female figures, caryatids form pillars throughout Greek architecture. The graceful, flowing Dancers of Delphi, constructed around 330 BC and now forever free of their structural burden, remain frozen in motion. The first of Claude Debussy’s 24 Préludes for solo …

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Debussy’s “Christmas for Children Who No Longer Have a Home”: A Carol of Patriotism and Defiance

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In 1915, German armies occupied much of France, and Paris fell under aerial bombardment via Zeppelin airships and mono and biplanes. Throughout Europe, civilians were displaced. In December of 1915, Claude Debussy composed the brief popular song, Noël des enfants qui n’ont plus de maison (“Christmas for Children Who No Longer Have a Home”). The raging words, also written by Debussy, form a prayer for French children, orphans, and the homeless. It …

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Debussy’s “Feuilles Mortes”: A Desolate Landscape

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Feuilles mortes (“Dead Leaves”) is the second piece in Book II of Claude Debussy’s Préludes for solo piano. Composed in 1913, the music suggests the vivid colors and atmosphere of an impressionistic painting. It evokes a bleak and desolate late autumn landscape—perhaps one in which a frost has already descended. Debussy’s interpretive marking is Lent et mélancolique. Filled with jazzy parallel chords, the music inhabits a haunting dreamscape. Quiet, ghostly ostinatos emerge …

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Debussy’s “Les collines d’Anacapri”: A Sunny Mediterranean Postcard

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Claude Debussy’s twenty four Préludes for solo piano, composed between 1909 and 1913, are atmospheric snapshots. Each opens up an enticing new vista which draws us in with the immediacy and sensuality of the most vivid impressionistic painting.  Les collines d’Anacapri (“The Hills of Anacapri”), the fifth prelude from Book 1, was inspired by the Mediterranean scenery surrounding the town of Anacapri on the island of Capri. Debussy visited this location in the …

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Remembering Menahem Pressler

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Menahem Pressler, the pianist and founding member of the Beaux Arts Trio, passed away on May 6. He was 99. Born in Magdeburg, Germany, the 14-year-old Pressler hid from Nazi thugs who vandalized the shop owned by his Jewish parents during the Kristallnacht. In 1939, the family fled and emigrated, first to Israel and then to the United States. In 1946, Pressler won first prize at the Debussy International Piano Competition in San …

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Debussy’s Trois Chansons de Bilitis: Illusions of Antiquity

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In 1894, the French writer, Pierre Louÿs, published a series of erotic poems titled, Les Chansons de Bilitis. Louÿs, who sought to “express pagan sensuality with stylistic perfection,” attributed the poems to Bilitis, an Ancient Greek woman who was a contemporary of Sappho. In the introduction of the book, Louÿs claimed that he had translated the collection following its discovery on the walls of a tomb in Cypress. In fact, Pierre Louÿs had …

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Remembering Carol Webber

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The American soprano and teacher Carol Webber passed away earlier this month. For 24 years, Webber performed with the Metropolitan Opera and numerous regional opera companies throughout North America. Her concert appearances included the opening of the fiftieth anniversary season of Tanglewood. A respected teacher, Webber served on the faculty of the Oberlin Conservatory, her alma mater,  from 1986 to 1991. Her long-running tenure as a professor at the Eastman School of Music …

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