Marche écossaise sur un thème populaire

The story goes that one day in 1891 Debussy had a visit from a General Meredith Reid - which, since the distinguished soldier could speak no French and the young composer could speak no English, must have been an embarrassing occasion for both of them. It was only when they went out to the nearby Bar Austin and found someone to interpret for them that, the story goes on, Debussy was able to understand what his visitor wanted. As a descendant of the Earls of Ross, he had apparently come with a commission for Debussy to write a piece based on a bagpipe tune traditionally associated with the clan Ross. Scholarly opinions differ on whether that was really the origin of Debussy’s piano duet Marche écossaise sur un thème populaire (Scottish March on a Folk Tune) but it was certainly written in 1891 and eventually published with an explanation of the source of its thematic material of the piece and a formal dedication to General Meredith Reid.

The orchestral version was written as long as seventeen years later and first performed only in 1913, when the now middle-aged composer was heard to remark, to his evident surprise, “But it sounds pretty good.” It is, in fact, a little masterpiece in orchestration, not least in the atmospheric whole-tone introduction with anticipations of the march tune on flutes, cellos and oboes in turn. The main theme is introduced with an ingenious imitation of bagpipe sound on woodwind and trumpet, developed with allusions back to the introduction and recalled in full orchestral colours. The middle section, featuring a solo cor anglais over a syncopated string accompaniment, sounds more Russian (in the manner of Borodin) than Scottish, even though the new theme is actually a slower variant of the bagpipe tune. The closing section is based on another variant of the main theme, which is now presented not as a march but as a jig in an ever quicker tempo and ever more brilliant orchestration.