Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Preface to the Translation and Revised Edition
- Introduction
- 1 An Unsettled Childhood: 1862–72
- 2 Failure of a Pianist: 1872–79
- 3 Birth of a Composer: 1880–82
- 4 The Path to the Prix de Rome: 1882–84
- 5 The Villa Medici: 1885–87
- 6 Beginning of the Bohemian Period: 1887–89
- 7 From Baudelaire to Mallarmé: 1890–91
- 8 Esotericism and Symbolism: 1892
- 9 The Chausson Year: 1893
- 10 A “Fairy Tale” Gone Awry: 1894
- 11 Pierre Louÿs; The Lean Years: 1895–96
- 12 Pelléas —The Long Wait: 1895–98
- 13 From Bachelorhood to Marriage: 1897–99
- 14 Nocturnes: 1900–1901
- 15 The Composer as Critic: 1901–3
- 16 Pelléas et Mélisande: 1902
- 17 From the Fêtes galantes to La mer: 1903
- 18 Debussyism; A New Life: 1904
- 19 La mer: 1905
- 20 Projects and Skirmishes: 1906–7
- 21 Orchestra Conductor: 1908
- 22 “The Procrastination Syndrome”: 1909
- 23 Orchestral Images and Piano Préludes: 1910
- 24 Le martyre de saint Sébastien: 1911
- 25 The Year of the Ballets: 1912
- 26 Jeux; Travel to Russia: 1913
- 27 The Final Trips: 1914
- 28 The War; Pourville: 1914–15
- 29 “The Factories of Nothingness”: 1916–18
- Notes
- Index of Works
- Subject Index
- Eastman Studies in Music
26 - Jeux; Travel to Russia: 1913
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 07 September 2019
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Preface to the Translation and Revised Edition
- Introduction
- 1 An Unsettled Childhood: 1862–72
- 2 Failure of a Pianist: 1872–79
- 3 Birth of a Composer: 1880–82
- 4 The Path to the Prix de Rome: 1882–84
- 5 The Villa Medici: 1885–87
- 6 Beginning of the Bohemian Period: 1887–89
- 7 From Baudelaire to Mallarmé: 1890–91
- 8 Esotericism and Symbolism: 1892
- 9 The Chausson Year: 1893
- 10 A “Fairy Tale” Gone Awry: 1894
- 11 Pierre Louÿs; The Lean Years: 1895–96
- 12 Pelléas —The Long Wait: 1895–98
- 13 From Bachelorhood to Marriage: 1897–99
- 14 Nocturnes: 1900–1901
- 15 The Composer as Critic: 1901–3
- 16 Pelléas et Mélisande: 1902
- 17 From the Fêtes galantes to La mer: 1903
- 18 Debussyism; A New Life: 1904
- 19 La mer: 1905
- 20 Projects and Skirmishes: 1906–7
- 21 Orchestra Conductor: 1908
- 22 “The Procrastination Syndrome”: 1909
- 23 Orchestral Images and Piano Préludes: 1910
- 24 Le martyre de saint Sébastien: 1911
- 25 The Year of the Ballets: 1912
- 26 Jeux; Travel to Russia: 1913
- 27 The Final Trips: 1914
- 28 The War; Pourville: 1914–15
- 29 “The Factories of Nothingness”: 1916–18
- Notes
- Index of Works
- Subject Index
- Eastman Studies in Music
Summary
Why is there so much indifference for our great Rameau? And for Destouches, who is now practically unknown? And for Couperin, the most poetic of our harpsichordists, whose tender melancholy seems like a charming echo emanating from the mysterious background of landscapes where Watteau characters lament? This indifference becomes shameful, as it gives to other countries—so mindful of their glories—the impression that we scarcely value our own, given that not one of these illustrious Frenchmen appears on our concert programs, not even at this time of year when it is customary to move closer toward our forefathers.
For his first column of 1913, Debussy thus resumed his panegyric, which he had not had occasion to lay out during the previous five years. Moreover, a certain nostalgia emerged in his columns for the S. I. M.: nostalgia for Parsifal and Bayreuth; for Ernest Chausson, whose “charming genius” was unable to be fulfilled; for the Javanese and Vietnamese musics heard in 1889; and for the “storytellers of ballads, fine-throated minstrels who innocently preserved the beauty of their legends.”
Debussy's interest in Asian musics was revitalized in May, when the pianist Walter Rummel proposed bringing some North Indian musicians—Sufis playing religious Islamic music—to the composer's home. “I fear,” Debussy replied, “that [we'd be] overtaxing your remarkable musician-philosopher by having him come with his group at what would be for them an abnormal hour. It would be simpler, I think, if he and his brother were to come here any day they want, around 5 p.m., which seems to be his usual time.” Debussy thus heard Inayat Khan, who at the time was touring in Europe with his two brothers and his cousin, and in turn played his own music for Khan. The younger brother, Musharaff Khan, was said to have shown Debussy how to play his instrument, the vina. Gabriel D'Annunzio had published an enthusiastic account of the concert that Inayat Khan had given in Paris the previous winter, and it is likely that this experience led to the vague “Indian drama” project that D'Annunzio had contemplated undertaking with Debussy at one time—in addition to the idea, also rather vague, of a “Persian ballet” that the composer had discussed with Toulet during the previous year.
- Type
- Chapter
- Information
- Claude DebussyA Critical Biography, pp. 294 - 308Publisher: Boydell & BrewerPrint publication year: 2019