Debussy's Instrumental Music in Its Cultural Context

Debussy's Instrumental Music in Its Cultural Context Synopsis

Complementing an earlier study on some of Claude Debussy's preludes for piano (in Images and Ideas, Pendragon Press 2010) and a volume focusing on Debussy's songs, cantata, and opera (Debussy's Vocal Music, Pendragon Press 2018), the present book focuses on Debussy's seminal works in the fields of chamber and orchestral music. The compositions analyzed, interpreted, and illuminated in their cultural context are grouped into five chapters, which are characterized by external characteristics but at the same time trace the chronology: I. Two early masterpieces: String Quartet (1893) and Prélude à l'après-midi d'un faune (1894); II. Three symphonic triptychs: Trois nocturnes (1897-99), La mer. Trois esquisses symphoniques pour orchestre (1903-05), and Images pour orchestre (1905-12); III. Concertante works: Danses sacrée et profane for harp and strings (1904) and Première rapsodie for clarinet and piano (1910); IV. Works conceived for the stage that live on mainly in the concert hall: Le martyre de saint Sébastien (1911), Jeux (1912-13), and Syrinx (1913); and V. The sonatas of the final years: Sonata for violoncello and piano (1915), Sonata for flute, viola, and harp (1915), and Sonata for violin and piano (1917).