Debussy - L’isle joyeuse, L. 106 (The Happy Island)
Whole tone, lydian, and major scales
L’isle Joyeuse begins with a chromatically descending whole tone cadenza.
Debussy - Ballade
Performed by Aldo Ciccolini
Debussy - Images (Book I) - III. Mouvement
Performed by Jacopo Salvatori
Debussy - Images (Book I) - II. Hommage à Rameau
Performed by Jacopo Salvatori
Debussy dans son jardin By lord marmalade
Debussy - Images (Book I) - I. Reflets dans l’eau
Performed by Jacopo Salvatori
As a child, did you practise your scales and exercises on the piano with due care and attention? -Claude Debussy
Debussy with his daughter, Claude-Emma ”Chouchou” on a picnic.
Maurizio Pollini plays Debussy’s L’isle Joyeuse
Debussy - Préludes, Book I - X. La cathédrale engloutie (The Sunken Cathedral)
Performed by Maurizio Pollini
The “church bell chords” feature parallel harmony.
Debussy - Préludes, Book I - VIII. Fille aux Cheveux de Lin (The Girl with the Flaxen Hair)
Performed by Peter Frankl, 1962
Drame cosmogonique de Debussy by lord marmalade
Debussy - Arabesque No. 1
Performed by Aldo Ciccolini, 1991
What do you think of when you read the word: Arabesque? To an artist, it consists of “surface decorations based on rhythmic linear patterns of scrolling and interlacing foliage, tendrils” (Dictionary of the Decorative Arts 1977) found in Islamic art and in European decorative art from the Renaissance onwards.
To a dancer, it’s a ballet position with leg stretched behind, and the arm held to the front, creating the longest line of which a human body is possible.
To a classical musician, it’s a piece which usually has a decorated melodic line, which seems neatly to combine the other two ideas. Debussy wrote two Arabesques, and they are a good starting point for a survey of some of his music, as they are early works -roughly 1888.
