Debussy's Rapsodie pour orchestre et saxophone Revisited

Noyes, James R.

doi:10.1093/musqtl/gdn020

Cited by 4 publications

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“…'151 An earlier piece like Masques (1903-4) dissolves in a kind of transition that, according to Roy Howat, makes of it a prequel to L'isle joyeuse 152. On the other hand, Debussy's pieces do seem to end more often with climaxes in the years following the premiere of Pelléas: witness Estampes (1903), Rapsodie pour saxophone (1903),153 Deux danses (1904), Ibéria and La Mer. Indeed, the final section of Dialogues du vent et de la mer, the third and last esquisse symphonique, is one of the composer's most grandiose orchestral moments.…”

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Climax as Orgasm: On Debussy’s ‘L’isle Joyeuse’

Buch

2019

Music and Letters

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drives are important for artistic creativity, and that access to the artist's intimacy is the proper way to understand how and why. This genetic approach implies from the start a parting of company with Klein, whose hermeneutics of the musical work disregards biographical materials altogether; indeed, he never mentions sketches nor other traces of the creative process, and the mere biographical contextualization of his analysis to the effect that 'Debussy composed L'isle joyeuse in the summer of 1904 while on an extramarital holiday on the island of Jersey with Emma Bardac' 8 is actually misleading. Now, the assumption that sex does matter for art has never gone without resistance. This often goes in the name of idealistic or moralistic conceptions of artistic creativity. François Lesure, the great biographer of the composer, thought it vain 'to try to explain Debussy's oeuvre by his sentimental life (expériences amoureuses).' 9 This article will seek to demonstrate quite the opposite, and to connect these insights with broader biographical issues. Debussy's marriage with Emma Bardac in 1908, a 45-yearold woman he first met as the mother of a pupil, Raoul Bardac, has often been described as resulting from social ambition rather than from love and desire. Of course, social ambition can sometimes also fuel desire, but this is the contrary of discarding desire altogether. Mary Garden, a friend and a favourite performer of Debussy's music (she was the first Mélisande), wrote laconically in her notebooks: 'His first wife was young and poor. His second was old and rich.' 10 A distorted vision of his private life, including hostile allusions to Emma's Jewish origin, emerged in 1904 shortly after the beginning of their initially adulterous relationship at a time when Claude was married to Lilly Texier and Emma to Sigismond Bardac. 11 Public opinion at the beginning of the last century was opposed such a relationship, partly as a matter of age. In this 'golden age of male adultery', four out of five mistresses were younger than deceived wives, who were in turn mostly younger than her adulterous husbands; and fewer than one out of three women involved in adulterous relationships were forty years old or more. Anne-Marie Sohn points out that 'psychologically, though not legally, adultery stopped being a crime between 1880 and 1900.' 12 From a legal point of view, even though divorce was reinstated in France in 1884, it was not until December 1904 that the law allowed

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confidence: 99%

Climax as Orgasm: On Debussy’s ‘L’isle Joyeuse’

Buch

2019

Music and Letters

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Debussy the Man, His Music, and His Legacy: An Overview of Current Research

Pasler¹

2012

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On the 150th anniversary of Debussy's birth, after four international conferences, this review of research in the past decade focuses on the man, his music, and his legacy. Debussy's opera Pelléas et Mélisande and his songs continue to capture the greatest interest, and scholars continue to investigate tonality, timbre, and time; his aesthetic in the context of painting, poetry, and dance; and reception and influence of his music, at home and abroad. The recent publication of 3,000 letters (2005), new critical editions of his music (including unfinished works), and the discovery of sketches, song drafts, and other little-known documents, along with study of historical recordings, have opened new perspectives and laid new foundations for future scholarship. Recent histories have shed light on what French identity meant to Debussy and Debussystes, especially in the 1920s and 1940s. Newest of all is study of Debussy's place and meaning in popular culture.

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Saxophone Virtuosity: Manifestation and Effect in the Classical Saxophone Repertoire

Chin¹

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<p>To ascribe the word ‘virtuosity’ to a single and absolute definition is an impossible task. It is a term that is multifaceted in its meaning and which is understood differently in a variety of contexts. This thesis investigates how the word virtuosity has been used in music discourse, and then considers virtuosity in three aspects of saxophone performance: altissimo, fast finger technique and soloistic roles. The application of these three aspects of virtuosity to the classical saxophone repertoire is then examined. Specifically, I examine the application of altissimo in Jacques Ibert’s Concertino da Camera for Alto Saxophone and Eleven Instruments; fast finger technique in the cadenzas of Pierre Max Dubois’ Concerto for Alto Saxophone and String Orchestra and Alexander Glazunov’s Concerto for Alto Saxophone and String Orchestra; and soloistic roles in classical saxophone orchestral repertoire. I also consider the relevance of the saxophone as a non-standard orchestral instrument to the notion of soloistic virtuosity. With these three aspects of virtuosity established, I explore the relationship between virtuosity and Claude Debussy’s Rapsodie for Orchestra and Alto Saxophone. This exploration first demonstrates how adaptations made to the Rapsodie can be seen to increase the virtuosic nature of the work. Second, it looks at how these adaptations could be contradictory to the composer’s intentions. Last, it considers the motivation and purpose behind these adaptations. The aim of this thesis is to disclose ways in which virtuosity may be understood in the context of the classical saxophone repertoire and how this understanding has affected Debussy’s Rapsodie in particular.</p>

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Debussy's Rapsodie pour orchestre et saxophone Revisited

Cited by 4 publications

References 1 publication

Climax as Orgasm: On Debussy’s ‘L’isle Joyeuse’

Climax as Orgasm: On Debussy’s ‘L’isle Joyeuse’

Debussy the Man, His Music, and His Legacy: An Overview of Current Research

Saxophone Virtuosity: Manifestation and Effect in the Classical Saxophone Repertoire

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