Fêtes galantes 1 (1891)

En Sourdine

Fantoches

Clair de lune

Debussy set more of Verlaine than of any other poet – twenty poems in all, beginning with five texts from the Fêtes galantes in 1882 and ending with three more from the same collection in 1904. Of the five early settings, only one of them, Mandoline, was published in the composer’s lifetime. In 1891, however, he revised Fantoches and more or less rewrote En Sourdine and Clair de lune, which three songs were published in 1903 as the first of what would be two series of Fêtes galantes.

Verlaine opens his collection of Fêtes galantes with Clair de lune, which sets the scene in a landscape derived partly from the paintings of Watteau and partly from his own erotic imagination. Debussy preferred to begin with En Sourdine, which comes last but one in Verlaine’s collection and which suddenly emphasises the unhappy side of the foregoing scenes of flirtation and galanterie. Fantoches, which is little different from the 1882 version – Debussy clearly was not too worried by his application of Spanish melodic and rhythmic idioms to a scene inspired by the commedia dell’arte – is intended as light relief before the lyrical intensity of Claire de lune.

En Sourdine

Fantoches

Clair de lune

Claude Debussy (1862-1918)

Fêtes galantes 1

En Sourdine

Fantoches

Clair de lune

Debussy set more of Verlaine than of any other poet – twenty poems in all, beginning with five texts from the Fêtes galantes in 1882 and ending with three more from the same collection in 1904. The dates are significant: Mandoline, Pantomime and the first versions of En Sourdine, Fantoches and Clair de lune date from the period of the composer’s association with the amateur but obviously seductive soprano Mme Vasnier, who no doubt introduced him to the work of Verlaine in the first place; Les Ingénus, Le Faune and Colloque sentimental were written shortly before Debussy left his first wife for Emma Bardac.

Of the five early settings of poems from Verlaine’s Fête galantes, only one of them, Mandoline, was published in the composer’s lifetime. In 1891, however, he revised Fantoches and more or less rewrote En Sourdine and Clair de lune, which three songs were published in 1903 as the first of what were to be two series of Fêtes galantes.

Verlaine opens his collection of Fêtes galantes – twenty poems influenced by the Second Empire vogue for the style Louis XV – with Clair de lune, which sets the scene in a landscape derived partly from the paintings of Watteau and partly from his own erotic imagination. Debussy preferred to begin with En Sourdine, which comes last but one in Verlaine’s collection and which suddenly emphasises the unhappy side of the emotional ambiguity of the foregoing scenes of flirtation and galanterie. Perhaps, before he ordered the first set of Fêtes galantes for publication in 1903, Debussy knew that he would later be setting Colloque sentimental, the last and the saddest of the poems as Verlaine presented them. Certainly, the song of the nightingale, “the voice of our despair,” which echoes through the piano part of En Sourdine is taken up again in Colloque sentimental at the end of the second set of Fêtes galantes. Fantoches, which is little different from the 1882 version – Debussy clearly was not too worried by his application of Spanish melodic and rhythmic idioms to a scene inspired by the commedia dell’arte – is intended as light relief before the lyrical intensity of Claire de lune.

En Sourdine

Fantoches

Clair de lune

Debussy set more of Verlaine than of any other poet – twenty poems in all, beginning with five texts from the Fêtes galantes in 1882 and ending with three more from the same collection in 1904. The dates are significant: Mandoline, Pantomime and the first versions of En Sourdine, Fantoches and Clair de lune date from the period of the composer’s association with the amateur but obviously seductive soprano Mme Vasnier, who no doubt introduced him to the work of Verlaine in the first place; Les Ingénus, Le Faune and Colloque sentimental were written shortly before Debussy left his first wife for Emma Bardac.

Of the five early settings of poems from Verlaine’s Fête galantes, only one of them, Mandoline, was published in the composer’s lifetime. In 1891, however, he revised Fantoches and more or less rewrote En Sourdine and Clair de lune, which three songs were published in 1903 as the first of what were to be two series of Fêtes galantes.

Verlaine opens his collection of Fêtes galantes – twenty poems influenced by the Second Empire vogue for the style Louis XV – with Clair de lune, which sets the scene in a landscape derived partly from the paintings of Watteau and partly from his own erotic imagination. Debussy preferred to begin with En Sourdine, which comes last but one in Verlaine’s collection and which suddenly emphasises the unhappy side of the emotional ambiguity of the foregoing scenes of flirtation and galanterie. Perhaps, before he ordered the first set of Fêtes galantes for publication in 1903, Debussy knew that he would later be setting Colloque sentimental, the last and the saddest of the poems as Verlaine presented them. Certainly, the song of the nightingale, “the voice of our despair,” which echoes through the piano part of En Sourdine is taken up again in Colloque sentimental at the end of the second set of Fêtes galantes. Fantoches, which is little different from the 1882 version – Debussy clearly was not too worried by his application of Spanish melodic and rhythmic idioms to a scene inspired by the commedia dell’arte – is intended as light relief before the lyrical intensity of Claire de lune.

En Sourdine

Fantoches

Clair de lune

Fêtes galantes 2 (1904)

Les Ingénus

Le Faune

Colloque sentimental

Debussy set more of Verlaine than of any other poet – twenty poems in all, beginning with five texts from the Fêtes galantes in 1882 and ending with three more from the same collection in 1904. The dates are significant: Mandoline, Pantomime and the first versions of En Sourdine, Fantoches and Clair de lune date from the period of the composer’s association with the amateur but obviously seductive soprano Mme Vasnier; Les Ingénus, Le Faune and Colloque sentimental were written shortly before Debussy left his first wife for Emma Bardac.

In 1891 Debussy revised Fantoches and more or less rewrote En Sourdine and Clair de lune, which three songs were published in 1903 as the first of what were to be the two series of Fêtes galantes. Whereas Verlaine opened his collection of Fêtes galantes with Clair de lune, Debussy preferred to begin with En Sourdine, which comes last but one in Verlaine’s collection and which suddenly emphasises the unhappy side of the emotional ambiguity of the foregoing scenes of flirtation and galanterie. Perhaps Debussy knew already by now that he would later be setting Colloque sentimental, the last and the saddest of the poems as Verlaine presented them. Certainly, the song of the nightingale, “the voice of our despair,” which echoes through the piano part of En Sourdine is taken up again in Colloque sentimental at the end of the second set. Fantoches, which is little different from the 1882 version is intended as light relief before the lyrical intensity of Claire de lune.

There is no unhappy side to the coquetry described by Verlaine in Les Ingénus but at the same time there is something so breathtakingly erotic in that Debussy sets it not so much lightheartedly as with a delicate kind of excitement. The scherzo in this set is Le Faune, the terracotta figure identifying himself with a characteristic flourish on the panpipes while a drum beats an ostinato accompaniment to the passing of the amorous little scene. The last song, Colloque sentimental, an expression of disillusionment with passed relationships, is an unhappy ending but, as Debussy indicates by echoing the song of the nightingale from En Sourdine, it was there from the beginning.

En Sourdine

Fantoches

Clair de lune

Fêtes galantes 2

Les Ingénus

Le Faune

Colloque sentimental

Debussy set more of Verlaine than of any other poet - twenty poems in all, beginning with five texts from the Fêtes galantes in 1882 and ending with three more from the same collection in 1904. The dates are significant: Mandoline, Pantomime and the first versions of En Sourdine, Fantoches and Clair de lune date from the period of the composer’s association with the amateur but obviously seductive soprano Mme Vasnier, who no doubt introduced him to the work of Verlaine in the first place; Les Ingénus, Le Faune and Colloque sentimental were written shortly before Debussy left his first wife for Emma Bardac.

Of the five early settings of poems from Verlaine’s Fête galantes, only one of them, Mandoline, was published in the composer’s lifetime. In 1891, however, he revised Fantoches and more or less rewrote En Sourdine and Clair de lune, which three songs were published in 1903 as the first of what were to be two series of Fêtes galantes.

Verlaine opens his collection of Fêtes galantes - twenty poems influenced by the Second Empire vogue for the style Louis XV - with Clair de lune, which sets the scene in a landscape derived partly from the paintings of Watteau and partly from his own erotic imagination. Debussy preferred to begin with En Sourdine, which comes last but one in Verlaine’s collection and which suddenly emphasises the unhappy side of the emotional ambiguity of the foregoing scenes of flirtation and galanterie. Perhaps, before he ordered the first set of Fêtes galantes for publication in 1903, Debussy knew that he would later be setting Colloque sentimental, the last and the saddest of the poems as Verlaine presented them. Certainly, the song of the nightingale, “the voice of our despair,” which echoes through the piano part of En Sourdine is taken up again in Colloque sentimental at the end of the second set of Fêtes galantes. Fantoches, which is little different from the 1882 version - Debussy clearly was not too worried by his application of Spanish melodic and rhythmic idioms to a scene inspired by the commedia dell’arte - is intended as light relief before the lyrical intensity of Claire de lune.

There is no unhappy side to the coquetry described by Verlaine in Les Ingénus but at the same time there is something so breathtakingly erotic in it for the willing “dupes” of those revealing little games that Debussy sets it not so much lightheartedly as with a delicate kind of excitement. The scherzo in this set is Le Faune. Ignoring the warning in Verlaine’s text, Debussy has his terracotta faun identify himself with a characteristic flourish on the panpipes while a drum beats an ostinato accompaniment to the passing of this amorous little scene. The last song, Colloque sentimental, is clearly intended not as a reflection on Debussy’s relationship with Emma Bardac but as an expression of disillusionment with passed relationships. It is an unhappy ending but, as Debussy indicates by echoing the song of the nightingale from En Sourdine, it was there from the beginning.

Gerald Larner©

En Sourdine

Fantoches

Clair de lune

Nuit d’étoiles (1880)

Chansons de Bilitis (1897)

La Flûte de Pan

La Chevelure

Le Tombeau des Naïdes

Fleur des blés (1881)

Debussy set more of Verlaine than of any other poet - twenty poems in all, beginning with five texts from the Fêtes galantes in 1882 and ending with three more from the same collection in 1904. The dates are significant. Mandoline, Pantomime and the first versions of En Sourdine, Fantoches and Clair de lune date from the period of the composer’s association with the amateur but obviously seductive soprano Mme Vasnier, who no doubt introduced him to the work of Verlaine in the first place. Les Ingénus, Le Faune and Colloque sentimental were written shortly before Debussy left his first wife for Emma Bardac. Of the five early settings of poems from Verlaine’s Fête galantes, only one of them, Mandoline, was published in the composer’s lifetime. In 1891, however, Debussy revised Fantoches and more or less rewrote En Sourdine and Clair de lune, which three songs were published in 1903 as the first of what were to be two series of Fêtes galantes.

Verlaine opens his collection of Fêtes galantes - twenty poems influenced by the Second Empire vogue for the style Louis XV - with Clair de lune, which sets the scene in a landscape derived partly from the paintings of Watteau and partly from his own erotic imagination. Debussy preferred to begin with En Sourdine, which comes last but one in Verlaine’s collection where it emphasises the unhappy side of the emotional ambiguity of the foregoing scenes of flirtation and galanterie. Perhaps, as he ordered this first set of Fêtes galantes for publication in 1903, Debussy knew that he would later be setting Colloque sentimental, the last and the saddest of the poems as Verlaine presented them. Certainly, the song of the nightingale, “the voice of our despair,” which echoes through the piano part of En Sourdine is taken up again in Colloque sentimental at the end of the second set of Fêtes galantes. Fantoches, which is little different from the 1882 version - Debussy clearly was not too worried by his application of Spanish melodic and rhythmic idioms to a scene inspired by the commedia dell’arte - is intended as light relief before the lyrical intensity of Claire de lune.

Nuit d’étoiles was the first of Debussy’s works to appear in print and the only one of his fourteen Banville settings he actually published. Written in 1880, it was issued two years later with a dedication to Mme Moreau-Sainti, the singing teacher who employed him as piano accompanist in the classes where he met Mme Vasnier. Evidently preferring not to take up the precise musical assocations of La dernière Pensée de Weber, as Banville’s poem is actually entitled, Debussy changed its name and set it as a kind of serenade. The melodious refrain echoing Banville’s “triste lyre qui soupire” is accompanied by arpeggiated piano chords in a choice variety of rhythmic figurations.

When Pierre Louÿs published his Chansons de Bilitis in 1895 he claimed that the poems were “translated from the Greek” - a pretence which was taken seriously by many of his contemporaries but not by Debussy, who was well aware that the poems attributed to Bilitis, alleged contemporary of Sapho, were by Louÿs himself. What attracted him to the poems was not so much their classical associations as their sensualism combined with some very clear parallels with his own artistic interests. Louÿs’s La Flûte de Pan, for example, has much in common, in subject matter if not in quality, with Mallarmé’s L’Après-midi d’un Faune. As in his Prélude à L’Après-midi d’un Faune, Debussy sets the scene with a flourish of panpipes, although in this case they are tuned in the Lydian mode. The obvious parallel to La Chevelure is the voluptuous episode in the third act of Pelléas et Mélisande, where Mélisande lets down her hair to Pelléas from her window in the tower. Le Tombeau des Naïades is contrastingly bleak. If it has a parallel elsewhere in Debussy’s work it is with the then unwritten Des pas sur la neige in the first book of Préludes, which also proceeds on a dragging rhythmic ostinato in icy minor harmonies.

Fleur des Blés was written a year after Nuit d’étoiles for one of Mme Moreau-Sainti’s singing pupils – not Mme Vasnier this time but a Mme Deguingand, who no doubt appreciated the pretty compliment and surely also the piano melody swaying in even crotchets in counterpoint to the vocal line.