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Technical Notice
| Classical Composer: | Debussy, Claude |
|---|---|
| Work: | Cello Sonata in D Minor |
| Year Composed: | 1915 |
| Instrumentation: | vc, pf |
| Publishers: |
SDRM Universal Music MGB Songs Éditions Durand |
| Duration: | 00:12:00 |
| Period: | 20th Century |
| Work Category: | Chamber Music |
Work Information
Available Recording(s)
In 1915, Debussy embarked on the composition of a planned set of six sonatas, offered in hommage to his second wife, Emma-Claude. Of these only the first three were complete, the Cello Sonata, a sonata for flute, viola and harp, and a final work for violin and piano. Debussy, who proudly announces himself as musicien français on the title page, described the first of these as 'presque classique dans le bon sens du mot' (almost classical in the good sense of the word). There is, indeed, something of the eighteenth century about the work, although it is rather the eighteenth century of Verlaine and the Fêtes galantes, a curious, ghostly past that is reconjured. The original intention was to give the Cello Sonata the title Pierrot fâché avec la lune (Pierrot angry with the moon), a reference to Debussy's continued preoccupation with the strange figures of the harlequinade, 'les fébriles fantômes, menant leur ronde vaste et morne' (the feverish ghosts, leading their vast, dismal dance). Debussy seems to have identified himself with the figure of Pierrot.
The 'Prologue', unified by the rhythmic figure that appears in the first bar, leads to a poignant theme, marked Poco animando. There is a central section of greater activity and tension, before the return of the opening material, the exposition. The 'Sérénade', marked Modérément animé, with the subsidiary instruction fantasque et léger, casts the cello as the guitar, to re-appear, it would seem, as a mandolin and as a flute. The Finale follows without a break, its relatively cheerful course interrupted by moments of introspection. Here again the figures appear, in the words of Verlaine, 'quasi tristes sous leurs déguisements fantasques' (as if sad under their fantastic disguises).
Writer: Keith Anderson
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