''Jeux'' (''Games'') is a ballet written by

Claude Debussy (Achille) Claude Debussy (; 22 August 1862 – 25 March 1918) was a French composer. He is sometimes seen as the first Impressionist composer, although he vigorously rejected the term. He was among the most influential composers of the ...

. Described as a "poème dansé" (literally a "danced poem"), it was written for Sergei Diaghilev's

Ballets Russes The Ballets Russes () was an itinerant ballet company begun in Paris that performed between 1909 and 1929 throughout Europe and on tours to North and South America. The company never performed in Russia, where the Revolution disrupted society. A ...

with choreography by Vaslav Nijinsky. Debussy initially objected to the scenario but reconsidered the commission when Diaghilev doubled the fee. Debussy wrote the score quickly, from mid-August to mid-September 1912. Robert Orledge has analysed the chronology of Debussy's composition and preserved manuscripts of the score. ''Jeux'' premiered on 15 May 1913 at the

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, Paris, conducted by

Pierre Monteux Pierre Benjamin Monteux (; 4 April 18751 July 1964) was a French (later American) conductor. After violin and viola studies, and a decade as an orchestral player and occasional conductor, he began to receive regular conducting engagements in ...

. The work was not well received and was soon eclipsed by

Stravinsky Igor Fyodorovich Stravinsky (6 April 1971) was a Russian composer, pianist and conductor, later of French (from 1934) and American (from 1945) citizenship. He is widely considered one of the most important and influential 20th-century clas ...

's '' The Rite of Spring'', which was premiered two weeks later by Diaghilev's company. The first commercial recording was made by Victor de Sabata with the

Orchestra Stabile Accademica di Santa Cecilia The Orchestra dell'Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia (Orchestra of the National Academy of Santa Cecilia) is an Italian symphony orchestra based in Rome. Resident at the Parco della Musica, the orchestra primarily performs its Rome concerts in ...

in 1947. A critical edition of the score, prepared by

Pierre Boulez Pierre Louis Joseph Boulez (; 26 March 1925 – 5 January 2016) was a French composer, conductor and writer, and the founder of several musical institutions. He was one of the dominant figures of post-war Western classical music. Born in Mont ...

and Myriam Chimènes, was published in 1988. There are about sixty different tempo markings in the work, enough for Émile Vuillermoz to describe the score as changing "speed and nuance every two measures". The thematic motifs of ''Jeux'' are likewise very short, often two measures long or constructed from two single-measure building blocks. L.D. Berman has analysed ''Jeux'' in the context of Debussy's earlier '' Prélude à l'après-midi d'un faune''. Jann Pasler has analysed in detail Debussy's motivic construction.

Scenario

According to Nijinsky's Diaries, made during the weeks before his psychological breakdown, Diaghilev intended the music to describe a

homosexual Homosexuality is romantic attraction, sexual attraction, or sexual behavior between members of the same sex or gender. As a sexual orientation, homosexuality is "an enduring pattern of emotional, romantic, and/or sexual attractions" to peop ...

encounter between three young men, and Nijinsky wanted to include an

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. The final version of the story involved a man, two girls, and a game of tennis. The scenario was described to the audience at the premiere as follows:

The scene is a garden at dusk; a tennis ball has been lost; a boy and two girls are searching for it. The artificial light of the large electric lamps shedding fantastic rays about them suggests the idea of childish games: they play hide and seek, they try to catch one another, they quarrel, they sulk without cause. The night is warm, the sky is bathed in pale light; they embrace. But the spell is broken by another tennis ball thrown in mischievously by an unknown hand. Surprised and alarmed, the boy and girls disappear into the nocturnal depths of the garden.

References

Bibliography

* ''Nijinsky's Bloomsbury Ballet: Reconstruction of Dance and Design for'' Jeux, by Millicent Hodson, Pendragon Press, 2008.

External links

San Francisco Symphony Program Notes
* {{Authority control Ballets by Vaslav Nijinsky Ballets by Claude Debussy 1913 ballet premieres Jeux (Debussy)