Petite suite
The Petite suite is a piano work by the French composer Claude Debussy for piano four hands from 1889 with the movements En Bateau - Cortège - Menuet - Ballet.
Creation dates
After Claude Debussy stayed in Switzerland, Rome and Russia from 1880, he returned to his native Paris in 1887. It was here in 1888 that he began working on the piano piece Petite suite . The work was published by Durand in 1889. The first performance took place in a musical salon event. Jacques Durand, the publisher's son, and the composer, Claude Debussy himself played.
Character of the petite suite
Claude Debussy stands in the tradition of French music, which is also evident in this piano work. Clear features are the simple harmony on the one hand and the "dance-like in the elastic rhythms" as well as the light accents on the other. The primary requirement of French music of the future in the 19th century was to give pleasure. Léon Vallas sees this as enforced in “the boldness in the chords or in the rhythmic emphasis” and the “relaxed abundance of imaginative melodies”.
Distinctive features of the four movements
En Bateau - In the boat
The first movement of the suite is overwritten with Andantino in a six-eighth time and in G major. A three-part song form ABA '(A: T.1-30; B: T.31-76; A': T. 77-109) is reflected in a change of key (A: G major including shift to B major (T 13); B: D major; A ': G major) and character reflected. Where in both A parts in the piano "a dreamily swaying six-eighth cantilena" "unfolds" on sixteenth arpeggios, the B part with its dotted rhythm in the forte is very resolute.
Cortège - Elevator March
The march in four-four time has the basic key of E major and only deviates over four bars (bars 39-42) to A flat major. This second movement has a concise theme, which is accompanied by a gradually descending bass line. Decsey characterizes the march as "sweeping, bouncy".
minuet
Typically this dance is three-quarter time. Although the minuet is in G major, it begins in D major, which is also the key of an evasive episode (T.32-59). In addition to the “Rococo theme”, which is shaped by the fifths, variation is the strongest compositional principle of the minuet.
Ballet
The last movement of the suite has the character of a waltz, which, however, is repeatedly interrupted by two-four time (at the beginning of bars 1-47 & bars 107-142). The two supplementary sections are held in three-eight time, so that the waltz character really comes into play here. Starting in D major, Debussy evades the first waltz episode in G major. Claude Debussy finishes this ballet and with it his entire petite suite with an “effective finale” .
Edits
The Petite suite was originally composed for piano four hands. In addition to an arrangement for piano for two hands, there are adaptations for small and large orchestras. In the silent film era in particular, the orchestral version was popular in cinemas.
Web links
swell
- Ernst Decsey: Debussy's works. Leykam-Verlag, Graz and Vienna 1948.
- Roger Nichols: Claude Debussy, in the mirror of his time. M&T Verlag, Zurich 1992.
- Heinrich Strobel: Claude Debussy. Atlantis Verlag, Zurich 1940.
- Léon Vallas: Debussy and his time. Nymphenburger Verlagshandlung, Munich 1961.
Individual evidence
- ↑ Cf. Roger Nichols: Claude Debussy, in the mirror of his time. M&T Verlag, Zurich 1992, pp. 283f.
- ↑ a b c d Cf. Léon Vallas: Debussy and his time. Nymphenburger Verlagshandlung, Munich 1961, p. 117.
- ^ A b c Heinrich Strobel: Claude Debussy. Atlantis Verlag, Zurich 1940, p. 73.
- ↑ a b c d e f Ernst Decsey: Debussy's works. Leykam-Verlag, Graz / Vienna 1948, p. 16.