Debussy's best works. Claude Debussy: a short biography of the composer, life history, creativity and best works
There is an opinion that the French composer Claude Debussy determined the future development of music in the 20th century. In his works, each chord acquires a special brilliance, the sounds gradually dissolve into silence. If it is possible to talk about impressionism in music, then Debussy - chief representative this movement.
Claude Achille Debussy was born on August 22, 1862 in Saint-Germain, near Paris. His parents appreciated music on a philistine level. They occasionally attended the opera and, paying tribute to fashion, identified the nine-year-old Claude in music school in the piano class at the Paris Conservatory. The boy's giftedness manifested itself immediately: he received awards in solfeggio, was interested in new harmonies and complex rhythms. However, his playing was not virtuoso, and neither teachers nor peers recognized his talent. Studying harmony in the class of Ernest Giro, the young man creates the first vocal works "Wonderful Evening" and "Mandolin", in which his originality is manifested.
In 1881, Debussy was invited to the position of house pianist to accompany the Russian philanthropist Nadezhda von Meck on a trip to Europe. Having made friends with her, he repeatedly visited Russia, where he became acquainted with creativity,.
In 1884, Debussy graduated from the conservatory and won the Rome Prize, which ensured his four-year residence in the Italian capital, at the Villa Medici. There he got acquainted with the Italian music of the Renaissance, which brought novelty and variety to his own style.
Debussy returned to Paris ahead of schedule. There he made friends with symbolist poets, in particular with Stéphane Mallarmé. So there were romances based on verses by Pierre Werner, Paul Bourget, Pierre Louis and Charles Baudelaire and the first work for orchestra "" (1894). His only opera, Pelléas et Mélisande (1892–1902), also shows the influence of symbolism. The opera is based on the drama of Maurice Maeterlinck - tragic story love.
Debussy wrote music almost exclusively for the piano, as he himself was a gifted pianist and conductor. His music is permeated with airiness, like that of. But he was not the only source of inspiration: the composer became interested in French music of the Rococo era, namely the works of Jean Philippe Rameau. Their influence can be traced in "" Debussy. He created his own image of the music of that time without copying it.
Most often, Debussy worked in the genre of a program suite for orchestra and piano. Examples of such orchestral works are "" (1899), "" (1905), "" (1912), and piano works - "" (1903), "" (1906-1908), the second series of plays "Images" (1907).
Debussy also wrote two notebooks of preludes (1910, 1913). The brightest among them were “Girl with Flaxen Hair”, “Heather”, “Terrace visited by moonlight"," Fragrances and sounds hover in the evening air. Their names speak for themselves - the music is permeated with light, the sounds are clear and saturated somewhere, and somewhere the tone can be compared with watercolor drawing. The "Sunken Cathedral" prelude sounds epic, and "Delphian Dancers" is truly antique.
Over the years, Debussy's music became more complex and multifaceted, the composer's interest in stage music manifested itself: the ballets Kamma (1910-1912), Games (1912-1913), Toy Box (1913). He also worked with Chopin's works, editing them, which inspired him to create the Twelve Etudes (1915) in memory of the maestro.
In 1915, the composer fell seriously ill and underwent surgery, but did not stop his creative search. IN last years the musician's craving for dramatic images was strong. This is how the works “Heroic Lullaby”, “Christmas of Homeless Children”, “One of France” were born.
Debussy died during the bombardment of Paris by the Germans in March 1918. With his innovation and passion for experiments, he made an invaluable contribution to the musical art of France and the whole world.
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(1862-1918) French composer
Claude Achille Debussy was born on August 22, 1862 in Saint-Germainan-Laye, near Paris. He has been learning to play the piano since the age of 9. In 1872 he entered the Paris Conservatoire.
At the beginning of 1880, while still a student at the conservatory, Debussy accepted an offer to become a music teacher in the house of the Russian philanthropist N.F. von Meck. He traveled with the von Meck family in Europe and twice visited Russia (1881.1882), where he first became acquainted with the music of Russian composers Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky, Modest Petrovich Mussorgsky, Nikolai Andreevich Rimsky-Korsakov, which had a significant influence on the formation of his own style.
Among the works of Claude Debussy of the 80s, the lyric opera “ Prodigal son”, which he presented at the final exam at the conservatory. In 1884, this work was awarded the Prix de Rome. Two piano collections, "Suite Bergamos" and "Little Suite", also gained great fame.
In the early 90s. Claude Debussy became close to the symbolist poets and impressionist painters. The next decade, from 1892 to 1902, is considered the heyday of creative activity Debussy. At this time, he creates vocal works, the best of them are the cycles "Lyrical prose" on his own texts, "Songs of Bilitis" on the poems of P. Louis. He writes orchestral works, which have occupied almost the main place in the composer's legacy, in particular the prelude symphony " afternoon rest faun", three orchestral nocturnes - "Clouds", "Celebrations", "Sirens". The opera Pelléas et Melisande (1902) crowns this list.
At the same time, his music began not only to be widely performed, but also processed. The one-act ballet The Afternoon of a Faun was staged to the music of Claude Debussy, in which Russian dancers M. Fokin and V. Nijinsky danced brilliantly. This ballet was performed during the famous "Russian Seasons" organized in Paris by Sergei Diaghilev.
The next period of the composer's work begins in 1903 and is interrupted only by his death. He continues to work hard and interestingly: he creates three chamber suites and the ballet "Games", the choral cycle "Three Songs of Ch. Orleans", a suite for 2 pianos ("White and Black"). Debussy does not leave vocal cycles either. By this time, his “Three Songs of France”, “Three Ballads by F. Villon”, “Three Songs of Mallarmé”, as well as program orchestral works - symphonic sketches “Sea” and “Images” belong.
Since 1910, Claude Debussy has been constantly performing as a conductor and pianist own compositions. His posthumous publications also speak of the composer's versatility and efficiency. After his death, such piano collections of his as "Prints", "Children's Corner", 24 preludes and 12 etudes were published, the children's ballet "Toy Box", subsequently orchestrated by A. Kaple (1919), remained in the clavier.
Claude Debussy was also known as musical critic, speaking with articles about the events of musical life.
The peculiarity of him as a writer was that instead of the traditional harmony built on a consonant combination of sounds, Debussy used free combinations of sounds, just as an artist chooses colors on a palette. He sought above all to make music free from any laws. Claude Debussy believed that sounds can paint pictures. That is why his compositions are called so - symphonic paintings.
Indeed, before the listeners there are either pictures of a raging sea or a boundless expanse fanned by a light wind, or clouds rushing under the gusts of wind. It was an experiment in music that had never been seen before, similar tasks were set for himself - also in the 20th century - by the Russian composer Alexander Nikolaevich Skryabin, who tried to combine music, sound and color.
No less interesting are the vocal cycles of Claude Debussy, in which he used a flexible and natural melody, close to poetic and colloquial speech; With his work, Debussy laid the foundation for a new direction in the art of music, called impressionism.
Claude Debussy
French composer, pianist, conductor and music critic Claude Debussy was born in 1862 in the suburbs of Paris. His musical talent manifested itself very early, and already at the age of eleven he became a student at the Paris Conservatory, where he studied piano with A. Marmontel and composition with E. Guiraud. In 1881, Debussy visited Russia as a pianist in the family of N. F. von Meck. Here he got acquainted with the previously unknown music of Russian composers.
In 1884, Debussy, a graduate of the Conservatory, received the Prix de Rome for the cantata The Prodigal Son, thanks to which he was able to continue his studies in Italy. In Rome, the composer, carried away by new trends, created works that caused a negative reaction from academic professors in his homeland, where Debussy sent his works as reports.
The cold reception prepared for the musician upon his return to Paris forced him to break with official circles. musical art France.
The bright talent of the composer, his unique style appeared already in the early vocal works. One of the first is the romance "Mandolin" (c. 1880), written to a poem by the French symbolist poet P. Verlaine. Although the melodic pattern of the romance is laconic and simple, each of its sounds is unusually expressive.
By the early 1890s, Debussy was already the author of such beautiful works, as "Forgotten Songs" to the verses of P. Verlaine, "Five Poems" to the words of C. Baudelaire, "Suite Bergamas" for piano, and a number of other compositions. During this period, there was a rapprochement between the composer and the symbolist poet S. Mallarme and his entourage. Mallarme's poem "The Afternoon of a Faun" inspired the composer to create a ballet with the same name in 1894. Staged in Paris, it brought Debussy a major success.
The best works of the musician were written in the period from 1892 to 1902. Among them are the opera Pelléas et Mélisande, Nocturne for orchestra, and pieces for piano. These works have become a role model for young French composers. The glory of Debussy went beyond the borders of his homeland. He was greeted with great enthusiasm by the public in St. Petersburg and in Moscow, where he came with concerts in 1913.
L. Bakst. Faun. Costume design for the ballet "Afternoon of a Faun" by C. Debussy
Like the art of Rameau and Couperin, whom Debussy highly appreciated, his work is characterized by such qualities as genre painting, expressiveness of sound, and classical clarity of forms. All this is even in those of his works that are written in the spirit of impressionism with his desire to convey short-term, changeable impressions. Debussy, who had a highly developed musical flair and a fine artistic taste, despite his creative searches, mercilessly cut off everything superfluous that prevented the creation of truly bright and expressive music. His works delight with their integrity, completeness, carefully crafted details. The composer skillfully uses not only impressionistic means, but also genre elements, as well as intonations and rhythms of ancient folk dances.
Great Russian composers Rimsky-Korsakov, Balakirev, Mussorgsky had a great influence on Debussy. Their work became for him an example of the innovative use of national musical traditions.
Debussy's art is unusually multifaceted. He created poetic and vivid landscape sketches (the plays "Wind on the Plain", "Gardens in the Rain", etc.), genre compositions ( orchestral suite"Iberia"), lyrical miniatures (songs, romances), dithyrambic poems ("Island of Joy"), symbolic dramas ("Pelleas and Mélisande").
Among the best works of Debussy is "Afternoon of a Faun", in which the author's coloristic skill was fully manifested. The work is replete with unusually subtle timbre shades, in the creation of which wooden wind instruments. The listener seems to be immersed in the atmosphere of a wonderful summer day. The Afternoon of a Faun shows a variant of the symphony characteristic of most of Debussy's works. The composer's music is characterized by coloristic elegance, the finest sound painting of genre scenes and images of nature.
Of great interest are also "Nocturnes" (1897 - 1899), consisting of three parts ("Clouds", "Celebrations", "Sirens"). The impressionistic "Clouds" reflected the musician's idea of a sky covered with thunderclouds over the Seine, while "Celebrations" was inspired by the memories of folk festivals in the Bois de Boulogne. The score of the first part of "Nocturnes" is replete with coloristic juxtapositions, creating the impression of flickering light reflections, making their way through the clouds. In contrast to this imbued with contemplation, the paintings “Celebrations” draw the listener a cheerful scene filled with melodies of songs and dances sounding in the distance, culminating in the sounds of an approaching festive procession.
But the most complete impressionistic principles were expressed in the third nocturne - Sirens. The painting represents the sea in silver moonlight, gentle voices of sirens, heard from somewhere far away. The score of this work is more colorful than the previous two, but it is also the most static of them.
In 1902, Debussy completed work on the opera Pelléas et Mélisande, which was based on a play by the Belgian playwright and symbolist poet M. Maeterlinck. In order to convey the subtlest shades of human experiences, the composer built his works on subtle nuances and unusually light accents. He took advantage of the ariose-recitative melody, devoid of contrasts, even in the most dramatic moments, not going beyond the calm narrative. The music is characterized by smooth rhythms, smooth movements of the melody, which gives the vocal part a touch of intimacy.
Orchestral episodes in the opera are small, but nevertheless play a significant role in the course of the action, as if proving the content of the previous picture and preparing the listener for the next one. Orchestration strikes with the richness of colorful overflows, it helps to create the right mood, to convey the most subtle movements of feelings.
The symbolist drama of Maeterlinck has a sense of pessimism and doom. The play, like Debussy's opera, conveys the mindset of some of the composer's and poet's contemporaries. R. Rolland described this phenomenon in 1907: “The atmosphere in which the drama of Maeterlinck develops is a tired humility, giving the will to live into the power of fate. Nothing can change the order of events. Contrary to the illusions of human pride, which imagines itself to be the master, unknown and irresistible forces determine the tragic comedy of life from beginning to end. No one is responsible for what he wants, for what he loves ... They live and die, not knowing why. This fatalism, reflecting the fatigue of the spiritual aristocracy of Europe, was wonderfully conveyed by Debussy's music, which added to it its own poetry and sensual charm, making it even more contagious and irresistible.
Debussy's best orchestral work is The Sea, written in 1903-1905 by the sea, where the composer spent the summer months. The work consists of three symphonic sketches. Rejecting emotional romantic sketches, Debussy created a real "natural" picture based on sound recordings of the elements of the sea. "The Sea" delights the listener with its colorful richness and expressiveness. Here the composer again turned to impressionistic methods of conveying direct impressions, and he managed to show the variability of the sea element, calm and quiet or angry and stormy.
In 1908, Debussy wrote the score of "Iberia", which was included in the three-part symphonic cycle "Images" (1906 - 1912). The other two parts of it are called "Sad Gigs" and "Spring Round Dances". Iberia reflected the musician's interest in the Spanish theme, which excited the imagination of other French composers as well.
The score of the work consists of three parts - "On the streets and roads", "Fragrances of the night", "Morning holiday". Creating them, Debussy used the rhythms and intonations of folk musical art. "Iberia" is one of the most joyful and life-affirming works of the French musician.
During this period, the composer also wrote a number of remarkable vocal works, including Three Ballads by François Villon (1910), the mystery play The Martyrdom of Saint Sebastian (1911).
A significant place in the work of Debussy is given to piano music. Basically, these are small plays, distinguished by their genre, picturesqueness, and sometimes by their programmatic nature. Already in the early piano work of the musician, Suite Bergamascus (1890), where one can still feel the connection with academic traditions, one can feel an extraordinary brilliance - a quality that distinguishes Debussy from other composers.
Particularly good is The Island of Joy (1904), Debussy's largest piano work. Her lively, energetic music makes the listener feel the spray of the sea wave, see cheerful dances and festive processions.
In 1908, the composer wrote the album "Children's Corner", which includes a number of easy pieces that are interesting not only for children, but also for adults.
But twenty-four preludes (the first notebook appeared in 1910, the second - in 1913) became a real masterpiece of the musician's piano creativity. The author combined landscapes, mood paintings, genre scenes in them. The content of the preludes is already indicated by their titles: “Wind on the Plain”, “Hills of Anacapri”, “Fragrances and sounds hover in the evening air”, “Interrupted Serenade”, “Fireworks”, “Girl with Linen Hair”. Debussy masterfully conveys not only pictures of nature or specific scenes, such as fireworks, but also draws true psychological portraits. Preludes, which quickly entered the repertoire of the most famous landscape painters, are also interesting because they contain plots and fragments from other works of the composer.
In 1915, Debussy's Twelve Etudes for Piano appeared, in which the author sets new tasks for the performers. Each individual study reveals a specific technical problem.
The creative heritage of the composer also includes several works for chamber ensemble.
Before last days Fame never left Debussy's life. The musician, considered by his contemporaries to be France's most important composer, died in Paris in 1918.
From the book Big Soviet Encyclopedia(BE) of the author TSB From the book Great Soviet Encyclopedia (BU) of the author TSB From the book Great Soviet Encyclopedia (DE) of the author TSB From the book Great Soviet Encyclopedia (KL) of the author TSB From the book Great Soviet Encyclopedia (CE) of the author TSBClaude Albert Claude (Claude) Albert (b. 23.8.1899, Longlieu), Belgian biologist, cytologist. Graduated from the University of Liege. He worked at the Rockefeller Institute for Medical Research (since 1929). In 1949-71 director of the J. Bordet Institute in Brussels, since 1970 head of the laboratory of cell biology and
From the book Great Soviet Encyclopedia (TI) of the author TSB From the book Great Soviet Encyclopedia (FA) of the author TSB From the book Great Soviet Encyclopedia (FO) of the author TSB From the book Great Soviet Encyclopedia (ShA) of the author TSB From the book of 100 great composers author Samin Dmitry From the book Directing Encyclopedia. Cinema of Europe author Doroshevich Alexander NikolaevichChappe Claude Chappe Claude (December 25, 1763, Brulon, Sarthe Department, - January 23, 1805, Paris), French mechanic, inventor of the optical telegraph. In 1793 he received the title of telegraph engineer. In 1794, together with his brothers, he built the first optical telegraph line between Paris and
Wagner and Debussy That is why the symbolists greeted the "divine Richard Wagner in the halo of the executor of the sacrament" with such strong enthusiasm. His imperious and undivided dominance nourished the jealous dreams of the masters of the verbal and plastic arts.
From the author's bookJean-Claude Killy (Born 1943) French alpine skier. Xwinter Champion Olympic Games in Grenoble (France), 1968 When Jean-Claude Killy was asked how to become a great skier, he answered: “First come to the mountain and last leave it - this is the only way
From the author's bookClaude Debussy (Debussy, Claude) Once a teacher at the conservatory asked the young Debussy: “What did you, young man, compose this? It's against all the rules." Debussy answered without batting an eye: “For me, as a composer, there are no rules; what I want is the rule.” And later
I'm trying to find new realities... fools call it impressionism.
C. Debussy
The French composer C. Debussy is often called the father of the music of the 20th century. He showed that every sound, chord, tonality can be heard in a new way, can live a freer, multicolored life, as if enjoying its very sound, its gradual, mysterious dissolution in silence. Much really makes Debussy related to pictorial impressionism: the self-sufficing brilliance of elusive, fluid-moving moments, love for the landscape, airy trembling of space. It is no coincidence that Debussy is considered the main representative of impressionism in music. However, he is further than the Impressionist artists, he has gone from traditional forms, his music is directed to our century much deeper than the painting of C. Monet, O. Renoir or C. Pissarro.
Debussy believed that music is like nature in its naturalness, endless variability and diversity of forms: “Music is exactly the art that is closest to nature ... Only musicians have the advantage of capturing all the poetry of night and day, earth and sky, recreating their atmosphere and rhythmically convey their immense pulsation. Both nature and music are felt by Debussy as a mystery, and above all, the mystery of birth, an unexpected, unique design of a capricious game of chance. Therefore, the skeptical and ironic attitude of the composer to all kinds of theoretical clichés and labels in relation to artistic creativity, involuntarily schematizing the living reality of art.
Debussy began to study music at the age of 9 and already in 1872 he entered the junior department of the Paris Conservatory. Already in the conservatory years, the unconventionality of his thinking manifested itself, which caused clashes with harmony teachers. On the other hand, the novice musician received true satisfaction in the classes of E. Guiraud (composition) and A. Mapmontel (piano).
In 1881, Debussy, as a house pianist, accompanied the Russian philanthropist N. von Meck (a great friend of P. Tchaikovsky) on a trip to Europe, and then, at her invitation, visited Russia twice (1881, 1882). Thus began Debussy's acquaintance with Russian music, which greatly influenced the formation of his own style. “The Russians will give us new impulses to free ourselves from the absurd constraint. They ... opened a window overlooking the expanse of fields. Debussy was captivated by the brilliance of timbres and subtle depiction, the picturesqueness of N. Rimsky-Korsakov's music, the freshness of A. Borodin's harmonies. He called M. Mussorgsky his favorite composer: “No one addressed the best that we have, with greater tenderness and greater depth. He is unique and will remain unique thanks to his art without far-fetched techniques, without withering rules. The flexibility of the vocal-speech intonation of the Russian innovator, freedom from pre-established, "administrative", in the words of Debussy, forms were implemented in their own way French composer have become an integral part of his music. “Go listen to Boris. It contains the entire Pelléas,” Debussy once said about the origins of the musical language of his opera.
After graduating from the conservatory in 1884, Debussy participates in competitions for the Grand Prize of Rome, which gives the right to a four-year improvement in Rome, at the Villa Medici. During the years spent in Italy (1885-87), Debussy studied choral music Renaissance (J. Palestrina, O. Lasso), and the distant past (as well as the originality of Russian music) brought a fresh stream, updated his harmonic thinking. The symphonic works sent to Paris for a report (“Zuleima”, “Spring”) did not please the conservative “masters of musical destinies”.
Returning ahead of schedule to Paris, Debussy draws closer to the circle of symbolist poets headed by S. Mallarme. The musicality of symbolist poetry, the search for mysterious connections between the life of the soul and the natural world, their mutual dissolution - all this attracted Debussy very much and largely shaped his aesthetics. It is no coincidence that the most original and perfect of the composer's early works were romances to the words of P. Verdun, P. Bourget, P. Louis, and also C. Baudelaire. Some of them ("Wonderful Evening", "Mandolin") were written during the years of study at the conservatory. The first mature orchestral work, the prelude "Afternoon of a Faun" (1894), was inspired by the images of symbolist poetry. In this musical illustration of Mallarmé's eclogue, Debussy's peculiar, subtly nuanced orchestral style developed.
The impact of symbolism was most fully felt in Debussy's only opera Pelléas et Mélisande (1892-1902), written in prose text dramas by M. Maeterlinck. This is a love story where, according to the composer, characters“They do not argue, but endure their own life and destiny.” Debussy here, as it were, creatively argues with R. Wagner - the author of Tristan and Isolde, he even wanted to write his own Tristan - despite the fact that in his youth he was extremely fond of Wagner's opera and knew it by heart. Instead of the open passion of Wagnerian music, here is the expression of a refined sound game, full of allusions and symbols. “Music exists for the inexpressible; I would like her to come out of the twilight, as it were, and in moments return to the twilight; so that she always be modest, ”wrote Debussy.
It is impossible to imagine Debussy without piano music. The composer himself was a talented pianist (as well as a conductor); “He almost always played in semitones, without any sharpness, but with such fullness and density of sound as Chopin played,” recalled the French pianist M. Long. It was from Chopin's airiness, the spatiality of the sound of the piano fabric that Debussy repelled in his coloristic searches. But there was another source. The restraint, evenness of the emotional tone of Debussy's music unexpectedly brought it closer to the ancient pre-romantic music - especially the French harpsichordists of the Rococo era (F. Couperin, J. F. Rameau). The ancient genres from the "Suite Bergamasco" and the Suite for Piano (Prelude, Minuet, Passpier, Sarabande, Toccata) represent a peculiar, "impressionistic" version of neoclassicism. Debussy does not resort to stylization at all, but creates his own image early music, rather an impression of her than her "portrait".
The composer's favorite genre is a program suite (orchestral and piano), like a series of diverse paintings, where the static landscapes are set off by fast moving, often dance rhythms. Such are the suites for orchestra Nocturnes (1899), The Sea (1905) and Images (1912). For the piano, “Prints”, 2 notebooks “Images”, “Children's Corner”, which Debussy dedicated to his daughter, are created. In Prints, the composer for the first time tries to get used to the musical worlds of the most different cultures and peoples: the sound image of the East (“Pagodas”), Spain (“Evening in Grenada”) and a landscape full of movement, play of light and shadow with a French folk song (“Gardens in the Rain”) colorfully set off each other.
The suite "Sea" consists of three parts: "On the sea from dawn to noon", "The play of the waves" and "The conversation of the wind with the sea". The images of the sea have always attracted the attention of composers. various directions And national schools. Numerous examples of programmatic symphonic works on "marine" themes by Western European composers can be cited (the overture "Fingal's Cave" by Mendelssohn, symphonic episodes from "The Flying Dutchman" by Wagner, etc.). But the images of the sea were most vividly and fully realized in Russian music, especially in Rimsky-Korsakov (the symphonic picture Sadko, the opera of the same name, the Scheherazade suite, the intermission to the second act of the opera The Tale of Tsar Saltan),
Unlike Rimsky-Korsakov's orchestral works, Debussy sets in his work not plot, but only pictorial and coloristic tasks. He seeks to convey by means of music the change of light effects and colors on the sea in different time day, different states of the sea - calm, agitated and stormy. In the composer's perception of the paintings of the sea, there are absolutely no such motives that could give a twilight mystery to their coloring. Debussy is dominated by bright sunlight, full-blooded colors. The composer boldly attracts and dance rhythms, and a wide epic picture to convey relief musical images.
In the first part, a picture of the slowly-calm awakening of the sea at dawn, the lazily rolling waves, the glare of the first sunbeams on them unfolds. The orchestral beginning of this movement is especially colorful, where, against the background of the “rustle” of the timpani, the “drip” octaves of two harps and the “frozen” tremolo violins in the high register, short melodic phrases from the oboe appear like the glare of the sun on the waves. The appearance of a dance rhythm does not break the charm of complete peace and dreamy contemplation.
The most dynamic part of the work is the third - "The Conversation of the Wind with the Sea". From the motionless, frozen picture of a calm sea at the beginning of the part, reminiscent of the first, a picture of a storm unfolds. Debussy uses all musical means for dynamic and intense development - melodic-rhythmic, dynamic and especially orchestral.
At the beginning of the movement, brief motifs are heard, which take place in the form of a dialogue between cellos with double basses and two oboes against a background of muffled sonority. bass drum, timpani and tom-tama. In addition to the gradual connection of new groups of the orchestra and a uniform increase in sonority, Debussy uses the principle of rhythmic development here: introducing more and more new dance rhythms, he saturates the fabric of the work with a flexible combination of several rhythmic patterns.
The end of the whole composition is perceived not only as a revelry of the sea element, but as an enthusiastic hymn to the sea, the sun.
Much in figurative system"Sea", the principles of orchestration prepared the appearance of the symphonic piece "Iberia" - one of the most significant and original works of Debussy. It strikes with its closest connection with the life of the Spanish people, their song and dance culture. In the 900s, Debussy turned several times to topics related to Spain: "An Evening in Grenada", the preludes "Gate of the Alhambra" and "The Interrupted Serenade". But "Iberia" is among the best works of composers who drew from the inexhaustible spring of Spanish folk music (Glinka in "Aragonese Jota" and "Nights in Madrid", Rimsky-Korsakov in "Spanish Capriccio", Bizet in "Carmen", Ravel in " Bolero" and a trio, not to mention the Spanish composers de Falla and Albeniz).
"Iberia" consists of three parts: "On the streets and roads of Spain", "Fragrances of the night" and "Morning of the holiday". The second part reveals Debussy's favorite pictorial paintings of nature, imbued with a special, spicy aroma of the Spanish night, "written" with the composer's subtle pictorialism, a quick change of flickering and disappearing images. The first and third parts paint pictures folk life Spain. Particularly colorful is the third part, which contains a large number of various Spanish song and dance melodies, which create a lively picture of colorful music by a quick change of each other. national holiday. The greatest Spanish composer de Falla said this about Iberia: “The echo of the village in the form of the main motive of the whole work (“Sevillana”) seems to flutter in the clear air or in the trembling light. The intoxicating magic of the Andalusian nights, the liveliness of the festive crowd, which is dancing to the sounds of the chords of the "gang" of guitarists and bandurists ... - all this is in a whirlwind in the air, now approaching, then moving away, and our constantly awake imagination is blinded by the mighty virtues of intensely expressive music with its rich nuances.
The last decade in Debussy's life is distinguished by incessant creative and performing activity until the outbreak of the First World War. Concert trips as a conductor to Austria-Hungary brought the composer fame abroad. He was especially warmly received in Russia in 1913. Concerts in St. Petersburg and Moscow were a great success. Debussy's personal contact with many Russian musicians further strengthened his attachment to Russian musical culture.
The beginning of the war caused Debussy to rise in patriotic feelings. In printed statements, he emphatically calls himself: "Claude Debussy - french musician». Whole line the works of these years are inspired by the patriotic theme: “Heroic Lullaby”, the song “Christmas of Homeless Children”; in suite for two pianos
Debussy is often called the father of 20th-century music for his ability to convey the sound of each chord and key in a new way. musical talent Debussy was so broad that he allowed himself to prove himself as an excellent performer, conductor and music critic.
Claude Debussy was born in the small town of Saint-Germain-en-Laye. Claude from childhood began to demonstrate big musical ability. His first teacher was his mother-in-law famous poet P. Verlaine Antoinette-Flora Mote, who called herself a student of Chopin.
Under her guidance, the boy showed incredible success and at the age of 11 was enrolled in the Paris Conservatory. Student Debussy for several years worked part-time in summer season at the pianist N. Von Meck, and also taught music to her children. Thanks to this, he visited Russia and was imbued with an arrangement for the works of the composers of the Mighty Handful.
By the end of 11 years of study, Claude presented his thesis work - the cantata "The Prodigal Son", written on a biblical story. He was later awarded the Great Roman Prize for her. Debussy spent the next few years as a prize winner in Italy at the Villa Medici. According to the terms of the contract, he was supposed to musical creativity, but the composer was constantly tormented by deep internal contradictions. Being under the hood of academic traditions, Claude sought to find his musical language and style. This caused numerous conflicts and even disputes with teachers.
In 1894, Claude wrote The Afternoon of a Faun. This prelude for large orchestra created on the basis of a poem by S. Malarme, written based on a mythological plot. This music inspired S. Diaghilev to stage a ballet choreographed by Nezhinsky. Without completing the previous work, Debussy set about writing three "Nocturnes" for symphony orchestra. They were first performed in December 1900 in Paris, the two parts "Clouds" and "Celebrations" were performed, and the third "Nocturne" called "Sirens" was presented a year later.
Debussy explained that "Clouds" personified the image of a motionless sky with slowly floating clouds. "Celebrations" showed the dancing rhythm of the atmosphere, accompanied by flashes of bright light, and in "Sirens" the image of the sea is presented, where in the midst of moonlit waves, the mysterious singing of sirens is filled with laughter and disappears. In this work, the author's desire to embody life-real images in music was clearly manifested. “Music is just the art that is closest to nature”, Debussy argued.
In the 90s of the 19th century, the composer created the only completed opera, Pellas et Mélisande. It was shown in Paris in 1902 and had a good success with the public, although critics expressed rather negative assessments. The author managed to achieve a successful combination of the psychological refinement of music with inspired poetry, which made it possible to set a new mood for musical expression. In 1903, the musical cycle "Prints" appeared, in which the author tried to synthesize musical styles different cultures of the world.
The beginning of the 20th century was the most fruitful time in Debussy's work. He gradually leaves the captivity of symbolism and goes into the genre of everyday scenes and musical portraits. In 1903-1905, Claude wrote the largest of his symphonic works, The Sea. He decided to write this work based on deep personal impressions received from observing the huge water element. In addition, he was again influenced by the Impressionist painters and the Japanese master of woodcut landscapes Hokusai. " The sea treated me well».
The large-scale essay consists of three parts. The first "From Dawn Till Noon at Sea" begins slowly, then wooden instruments begin to call to one another, and the movement of the sea waves appears. Further, in the "Play of the Waves" the iridescent mood is preserved, emphasized by orchestral effects and ringing bells. In the third part of the “Dialogue of the Wind and the Sea”, the sea is shown in a completely different way - stormy and formidable, its appearance is complemented by dramatic images that indicate a gloomy and disturbing mood.
The name Debussy is inseparable from piano music. He not only composed beautifully, but was also a brilliant pianist and even acted as a conductor. The pianist M. Long compared Debussy's playing with Chopin's style, in which the smoothness of the performance was guessed, as well as the fullness and density of the sound.
tried to find a strong connection with national musical origins. This was confirmed by a series of piano works "Gardens in the Rain", "Evening in Granada", "Island of Joy".
The beginning of the 20th century was marked by the search for new non-traditional means musical expressiveness. Many authors were convinced that classical and romantic forms had exhausted themselves. In an attempt to discover new means, composers began increasingly to turn to the origins of non-European music. Among the genres that attracted close attention Debussy turned out to be jazz. It was with his submission that this musical direction became very popular in the Old World.
Despite the beginning serious illness, this time was remembered by the most active composing and performing activities of Debussy. He participated in concert tours around Europe and Russia.
In 1908 Claude Debussig dedicated the suite to his daughter
"Children's Corner". In this work, he tried to represent the world with the help of music through the eyes of a child, using recognizable images - a toy elephant, a doll, a little shepherd. In 1910 and 1913, notebooks of preludes were created, where the figurative world of Debussy is fully revealed to the listener. In "Delphian Dancers" he managed to find a unique combination of the severity of the ancient temple and ritual pagan sensuality, and in the "Sunken Cathedral" the motifs of an old legend clearly echo.
In the preludes, Debussy presents his entire music world in a concise, concentrated form, generalizes it and says goodbye to it in many respects - with its former system of visual-musical correspondences. And then, in the last 5 years of his life, his music, becoming even more complicated, expands genre horizons, some kind of nervous, capricious irony begins to be felt in it. Increasing interest in stage genres. These are ballets (“Kamma”, “Games”, staged by V. Nijinsky and the troupe of S. Diaghilev in 1912, and a puppet ballet for children “A Box with Toys”, 1913), music for the mystery of the Italian futurist G. d’Annunzio “The Martyrdom of the Saint Sebastian" (1911). The ballerina Ida Rubinshtein, choreographer M. Fokin, artist L. Bakst took part in the production of the mystery.
During the First World War, the author's creative activity began to decline, he was embraced by deep patriotic feelings. He set himself the task of glorifying beauty in defiance of the massive destruction of the war. This theme can be traced in a number of works - "Ode to France", "Heroic Lullaby", "Christmas of Homeless Children".
Claude was extremely depressed by everything that was happening in the country. The horror of war, blood and destruction caused deep spiritual anxiety. The serious illness that struck the composer in 1915 intensified the difficult perception of reality. Until his last days, Debussy was faithful to music and did not stop creative searches. The composer died in Paris on March 26, 1918 during the bombardment of the city by German troops.
