Rediscovery

My first real love in music was the music of Debussy. Throughout my early teens it became a goal of mine to own and listen to every note, every scribble that man ever put on paper. I listened to dozens of obscure works and unpopular pieces, some unpublished works that i could find recordings of.... and yet my thirst for finding unheard works never ended. I still bemoan the fact that he didn't write more. Its safe to say that Ive heard the entire bedth of his musical language. I know all kinds of pieces... from the Six épigraphes antiques of 1915 to the Printemps of 1888. and everything obscure in between.

Originally I preferred his earlier, lush and pretty pieces like the Arabesques to his more abstract, fragmented and dissonant later work. This changed. I soon found his earlier compositions to be too "fluffy", too "belle epoque" for me, and I began to favor his later, more angular pieces like En Blanc et Noir. Recently I found the Images pour Orchestre ( including Iberia) on glorious Imeem, re-affirming my old love of these works. Its from his Images pour orchestra that I found out what a cor anglais is. I heard the solo lines of that instrumentin the Gigues And Rondres des Printemps - and It mystified me. I still remember listening to it over and over again to figure out what instrument it was. I searched all over to try and figure it out.Anyway, those floating melodic fragments still make me melt.

how can you not love this? So many sublimely beautiful moments in this opening of Iberia:

Images, II. Ibéria: 1. Par les rues et par les chemins - Sir Simon Rattle

And that slow, languid Gigues, with its haunting cor anglais.

Images: I. Gigues - Sir Simon Rattle


///love

Debussy- Nuages, favorite music

When asked the question "Whats your favorite piece of Debussy?" I have to hesitate. I guess the answer "everything" doesnt really fly, so i narrowing it down is my only option, and it comes down to this languid piece of sublime eargasmic goodness. Sure his Etude pour octaves, his Sons et parfums qui tourne dans L'air du soir, his Reflets Dans L'eau, his Images Pour Orchestre, are everything that is sublime in music and in art, but this one is the most dreamy, melancholy and visual- at least for me. Then again, who better to romanticize clouds than someone raised in Seattle?

Aug 2006 improv, l'isle joyeuse(?)

Alright, not much news, im currently on vacation and am going to start traveling again in march. For the moment i will post this seriously piss-poor recording of a (thankfully) short excerpt from my own, uh, take on Debussy's classic piece l'isle joyeuse. (the french title sounds a lot more impressive than the happy island)

yesterday i listened to my handful of shitty-recorded improvisations that i've made over last summer and kept on this computer. Most of it is crap, but this one i think is mildly less crappy than the rest. Playing debussy beforehand helped, though i dont think theres a real resemblance between this music and debussy, maybe they're vaguely similar. It appears i have the remarkable ability of sustaining fff for excessive periods of time, which results in audio-overload for the recording device and lots of noise, but, uh... thats the fun of it.

Anyway, Here's the stuff im talking about.

I am once again sick.

and i hate, with a burning passion, all things that are viral in this world.

Debussy is comforting me today. I have always loved those languid and unresolving augmented chords in Nuages, but they seem all the more poignant in times when everything sucks and your head hurts. I couldnt really do much but sit with a fever and listen to debussy....i couldnt read because my headache, so the music was all i had for comfort, but it worked well. I hear that my two favorites, the above mentioned mr. D and his friend mr. R, are not as favored here in france as they are elsewhere. I think the academics still prefer d'indy, franck and saint saens.


pretty sad. Also, there are no pianos here, making m. keiser very grouchy. Pianos make me a happier person, and i'd have to audition to get into the conservatory to take a class to get to a piano (which i dont want to do anyway) but i cant do that because id have to learn or relearn something on a non-existant piano, thus i'd have to have a piano to get a piano. No piano, so, life sucks.

Debussy! Clowns!

what do clowns have to do with this stargazer version of Debussy's Arabesque #1? Fuck i dont know but i laughed harder than i have all month. Its also somewhat disturbing.

ENJOY!

I am one of those strange people who are utterly convinced that the some of the greatest (if not the greatest) piano music of the 20th century is represented by the middle and late works of Debussy...

The Etudes (1915), which im listening to today, are incredible in everyway. I have known these pieces for years and years but they're still fresh to my ears. They are timeless works- the first etude in particular, with its dark humor, warmth and brilliance, feels contemporary, as if born from post-minimalism. There is such richness and gorgeous music here,sharp irregularities and striking contrasts.

These works are quite deceptive; the technical difficulty can be substantial, though, like ballet, it always seems so simple and refined. There are all kinds of unusual things the pianist has to perform, patterns and tricks of all sorts that the pianist has get used to- there are all types of challenges, including a piece composed in a manner that essentially forces you to do Debussy's bidding - to play with only 8 fingers. This is radical stuff, Debussy produces un-heard of sounds out of the piano which are still quite new to the ears today- you don’t hear many pianos produce these sounds! There is lyricism, concentrated and fragmented musical ideas and intense emotions scattered about. In short, these etudes kick ass.

Did this man ever go wrong? really.... did he?