La Mer (Debussy)

"La mer, trois esquisses symphoniques pour orchestre" (French for "The sea, three symphonic sketches for orchestra"), or simply "La Mer" (i.e. "The Sea"), is an orchestral composition (L 109) by the French impressionist composer Claude Debussy. It was started in 1903 in France and completed in 1905 on the English Channel coast in Eastbourne. The premiere was given by the Lamoureux Orchestra under the direction of Camille Chevillard on 15 October 1905 in Paris. The piece was initially not well received - partly because of inadequate rehearsal and partly because of Parisian outrage over Debussy's having recently left his first wife for the singer Emma BardacFact|date=February 2007. But it soon became one of Debussy's most admired and frequently performed orchestral works, and has become more so in the ensuing century. The first recording was made by Piero Coppola in 1928.

Instrumentation

La Mer is scored for 2 flutes, piccolo, 2 oboes, cor anglais, 2 clarinets, 3 bassoons, contrabassoon, 4 horns, 3 trumpets, 2 cornets, 3 trombones, tuba, timpani, bass drum, cymbals,
triangle, tamtam, glockenspiel, 2 harps and strings.

Track listing

A typical performance of this piece lasts about 23 or 24 minutes. It is in three movements:

# (~09:00) "De l'aube à midi sur la mer" - "très lent (si mineur)"
# (~06:30) "Jeux de vagues" - "allegro (do dièse mineur)"
# (~08:00) "Dialogue du vent et de la mer" - "animé et tumultueux (do dièse mineur)"

Usually translated as:

# "From dawn to noon on the sea" or "From dawn to midday on the sea" - "very slowly (B minor)"
# "Play of the waves" or "Play of waves" - "allegro (C sharp minor)"
# "Dialogue of the wind and the sea" or "Dialogue between wind and waves" - "animated and tumultuous (C sharp minor)"

Commentary

Today, "La Mer" is widely regarded as one of the greatest orchestral works of the twentieth centuryFact|date=February 2007. It is a masterpiece of suggestion and subtlety in its rich depiction of the ocean, which combines unusual orchestration with daring impressionistic harmonies. Several authors have claimed that "La Mer" sounds like nothing before itFact|date=April 2007. The work has proven very influential.

Debussy called "La Mer" "three symphonic sketches," avoiding the loaded term symphony. Yet the work is sometimes called a symphony; it consists of two powerful outer movements framing a lighter, faster piece which acts as a type of scherzo. But the author Jean Barraque (in "La Mer" de Debussy," "Analyse musicale" 12/3, June 1988,) describes "La Mer" as the first work to have an "open" form - a "devenir" "sonore" or "sonorous becoming... a developmental process in which the very notions of exposition and development coexist in an uninterrupted burst." Simon Tresize, in his book "Debussy: La Mer" (Cambridge, 1994) notes, however, that "motifs are constantly propagated by derivation from earlier motifs" (p. 52).

Simon Trezise notes that "for much of "La Mer," Debussy spurns the more obvious devices associated with the sea, wind, and concomitant storm in favor of his own, highly individual vocabulary" (p. 48-49). Caroline Potter (in "Debussy and Nature" in "The Cambridge Companion to Debussy", p. 149) adds that Debussy's depiction of the sea "avoids monotony by using a multitude of water figurations that could be classified as musical onomatopoeia: they evoke the sensation of swaying movement of waves and suggest the pitter-patter of falling droplets of spray" (and so forth), and — significantly — avoid the arpeggiated triads used by Wagner and Schubert to evoke the movement of water.

The author, musicologist and pianist Roy Howatt has observed, in his book "Debussy in Proportion", that the formal boundaries of "La Mer" correspond exactly to the mathematical ratios called The Golden Section. Trezise (p. 53) finds the intrinsic evidence "remarkable," but cautions that no written or reported evidence suggests that Debussy consciously sought such proportions.

Other

In a book of interviews ("Sviatoslav Richter: Notebooks and Conversations," ed. B. Monsaingeon, 1998), the great Ukranian/ Soviet pianist Sviatoslav Richter called "La mer" "A piece that I rank alongside the St. Matthew Passion and the Ring cycle as one of my favorite works" (p. 121). Richter said further, on listening to his favorite recording (by Roger Désormière), "La mer" again; shall I ever tire of listening to it, of contemplating it and breathing its atmosphere? And each time is like the first time! An enigma, a miracle of natural reproduction; no, even more than that, sheer magic!" (p. 187).

Richter also mentioned two other Soviet admirers of the work: "One day, after listening to this work, Anna Ivanovna exclaimed, 'For me, it's exactly the same miracle as the sea itself!'" (p. 171.). Richter also said that for his teacher, the legendary Heinrich Neuhaus, "La mer" was "the work by Debussy that he loved above all others ('Slava, put on La mer,' he almost always used to say whenever he came round here.)" (p. 177).

Of the Désormière recording, which he played for Neuhaus, Richter said it is "The most beautiful in the whole history of the gramophone." (p. 121).

In 1991, the Japanese composer Toru Takemitsu based a work, "Quotation of Dream: Say Sea, Take Me!" on a theme from "La mer." (Takemitsu said, "I am self-taught, but I consider Debussy my first teacher!")

In 2002, Norwegian composer Geir Jenssen (alias Biosphere) loosely based his ambient album "Shenzhou" around looped samples of "La Mer" [http://www.junkmedia.org/index.php?i=193] .

References

* [http://infopuq.uquebec.ca/~uss1010/catal/debussy/debccat.htm The works of Claude Debussy, after the 1977 'L' catalog of François Lesure] (in French)

External links

* dariogalimberti.interfree.it/htm/debussy2.htm "La Mer" in free MIDI files by Dario Galimberti (0.2 MB) Compact, but may require a good General MIDI player Site down Aug 8 2008
* dariogalimberti.interfree.it/htm/mp3eng.htm#debussy%20la%20mer "La Mer" in free MP3 files by Dario Galimberti (22 MB) Bigger, but doesn't require a good General MIDI player Site down Aug 8 2008
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* [http://www.peabody.jhu.edu/psorecordings Live recording of "La Mer" by the Peabody Symphony Orchestra] (2002-2003 Season) is available here.