''Pour le piano'' (''For the piano''), L. 95, is a suite for solo piano 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 ...

. It consists of three individually composed

movement Movement may refer to: Common uses * Movement (clockwork), the internal mechanism of a timepiece * Motion, commonly referred to as movement Arts, entertainment, and media Literature * "Movement" (short story), a short story by Nancy Fu ...

s, Prélude, Sarabande and Toccata. The suite was completed and published in 1901. It was premiered on 11 January 1902 at the

Salle Érard Salle Érard The salle Érard is a music venue located in Paris, 13 rue du Mail in the 2nd arrondissement of Paris. It is part of the hôtel particulier which belonged, from the 18th century, to the family of piano, harp and harpsichord manufact ...

, played by

Ricardo Viñes Ricardo Viñes y Roda (, ca, Ricard Viñes i Roda, ; 5 February 1875 – 29 April 1943) was a Spanish pianist. He gave the premieres of works by Ravel, Debussy, Satie, Falla and Albéniz. He was the piano teacher of the composer Francis Pou ...

Maurice Ravel Joseph Maurice Ravel (7 March 1875 – 28 December 1937) was a French composer, pianist and conductor. He is often associated with Impressionism along with his elder contemporary Claude Debussy, although both composers rejected the term. In ...

orchestrated the middle movement. Regarded as Debussy's first mature piano composition, the suite has frequently been recorded.

Bärenreiter Bärenreiter (Bärenreiter-Verlag) is a German classical music publishing house based in Kassel. The firm was founded by Karl Vötterle (1903–1975) in Augsburg in 1923, and moved to Kassel in 1927, where it still has its headquarters; it also ...

published a critical edition in 2018, on the occasion of the centenary of Debussy's death.

History

Pierre-Auguste Renoir - Yvonne et Christine Lerolle au piano

composed the three pieces forming the suite at different times. The second

, a

sarabande The sarabande (from es, zarabanda) is a dance in triple metre, or the music written for such a dance. History The Sarabande evolved from a Spanish dance with Arab influences, danced by a lively double line of couples with castanets. A dance cal ...

, dates to the winter of 1894 when it belonged to the series of ''Images oubliées'', dedicated to Yvonne Lerolle, the daughter of

Henry Lerolle Henry Lerolle (3 October 1848 – 22 April 1929) was a French painter, art collector and patron, born in Paris. He studied at Académie Suisse and in the studio of Louis Lamothe. His work was exhibited at the Paris Salon in 1868, 1885, and 189 ...

. Debussy composed little piano music during the 1890s and focused on opera and orchestral music. He completed the suite in 1901, revising Sarabande. He also dedicated the revised version of Sarabande, as well as the third movement, Toccata, to Yvonne Lerolle, now Mme E. Rouart. The suite was published in 1901 by Eugène Fromont.Eugène Fromont
(BnF) It was premiered on 11 January 1902 at the

in Paris for the

Société Nationale de Musique Lactalis is a French multinational dairy products corporation, owned by the Besnier family and based in Laval, Mayenne, France. The company's former name was Besnier SA. Lactalis is the largest dairy products group in the world, and is the sec ...

was the pianist, who knew about the suite from his friend

. ''Pour le piano'' marked a turning point in Debussy's creative development, who now turned to a prolific production of piano music. On the occasion of the centenary of Debussy's death,

published in 2018 a critical edition of some of his piano music, including ''Pour le piano''. The publisher remarked that the "improvisational and fugitive" parts of Debussy's compositions were "governed by a precisely calibrated formal design" that left "little room for chance".

Structure and music

''Pour le piano'' has been regarded as Debussy's first mature piano work. The suite consists of three movements: # Prélude # Sarabande # Toccata The first movement, called Prélude, is marked "Assez animé et très rythmé" (With spirit and very rhythmically). It was dedicated to Debussy's student Mlle Worms de Romilly, who notes that the movement "tellingly evokes the gongs and music of

Java Java (; id, Jawa, ; jv, ꦗꦮ; su, ) is one of the Greater Sunda Islands in Indonesia. It is bordered by the Indian Ocean to the south and the Java Sea to the north. With a population of 151.6 million people, Java is the world's List ...

". The pianist

Angela Hewitt Angela Hewitt, (born July 26, 1958) is a Canadian classical pianist. She is best known for her Bach interpretations. Career Hewitt was born in Ottawa, Ontario, daughter of the Yorkshire-born Godfrey Hewitt (thus she also has British nationality ...

notes that Prélude begins with a

theme Theme or themes may refer to: * Theme (arts), the unifying subject or idea of the type of visual work * Theme (Byzantine district), an administrative district in the Byzantine Empire governed by a Strategos * Theme (computing), a custom graphical ...

in the bass, followed by a long

pedal point In music, a pedal point (also pedal note, organ point, pedal tone, or pedal) is a sustained tone, typically in the bass, during which at least one foreign (i.e. dissonant) harmony is sounded in the other parts. A pedal point sometimes function ...

passage. The theme is repeated in chords marked

fortissimo In music, the dynamics of a piece is the variation in loudness between notes or phrases. Dynamics are indicated by specific musical notation, often in some detail. However, dynamics markings still require interpretation by the performer dependi ...

, together with

glissando In music, a glissando (; plural: ''glissandi'', abbreviated ''gliss.'') is a glide from one pitch to another (). It is an Italianized musical term derived from the French ''glisser'', "to glide". In some contexts, it is distinguished from the co ...

runs that Debussy connected to "d’Artagnan drawing his sword". In a middle section, the left hand holds a pedal point in A-flat whole-tone, to which the right hand adds colours. The conclusion is marked "Tempo di cadenza", again with glissando-figures. Sarabande is marked "Avec une élégance grave et lente" (With a slow and solemn elegance). Debussy said it should be "rather like an old portrait in the Louvre".

Émile Vuillermoz Émile-Jean-Joseph Vuillermoz (23 May 1878 – 2 March 1960) was a French critic in the areas of music, film, drama and literature. He was also a composer, but abandoned this for criticism. Early life Émile Vuillermoz was born in Lyon in 1878. He ...

described Debussy's playing of the movement as "with the easy simplicity of a good dancer from the sixteenth century". Hewitt calls it "antique and modern at the same time". The movement has been regarded as "among the most intimate music for the keyboard", showing an affinity to

Erik Satie Eric Alfred Leslie Satie (, ; ; 17 May 18661 July 1925), who signed his name Erik Satie after 1884, was a French composer and pianist. He was the son of a French father and a British mother. He studied at the Paris Conservatoire, but was an und ...

such as his 1887 three dances called '' Sarabandes''. The last movement is a

toccata Toccata (from Italian ''toccare'', literally, "to touch", with "toccata" being the action of touching) is a virtuoso piece of music typically for a keyboard or plucked string instrument featuring fast-moving, lightly fingered or otherwise virtuo ...

, marked "Vif" (Lively). It has been described as "poised and energetic, extroverted and graceful" and shows influences from Scarlatti's sonatas. Hewitt notes about the virtuoso writing that speed alone wasn't Debussy's goal, but rather clarity. A reviewer described the suite as "possibly foreshadowing the neo-classical Debussy that emerged in his last years".

Recordings

''Pour le piano'' has been recorded often, sometimes in recordings of all piano music by Debussy, such as by

Walter Gieseking Walter Wilhelm Gieseking (5 November 1895 – 26 October 1956) was a French-born German pianist and composer. Gieseking was renowned for his subtle touch, pedaling, and dynamic control—particularly in the music of Debussy and Ravel; he made inte ...

in the 1950s and by Noriko Ogawa in the 2010s. Angela Hewitt recorded it, along with other music by Debussy, in 2011. Several pianists' recordings were published in 2018, the year of the centenary of the composer's death, including

Jörg Demus Jörg Wolfgang Demus (2 December 1928 – 16 April 2019) was an Austrian classical pianist who appeared internationally and made many recordings. He was also a composer and a lecturer at music academies. In composition and playing, he focused on ...

Peter Frankl Peter Frankl (born 2 October 1935) is a Hungary, Hungarian-born United Kingdom, British pianist. He mainly performs music from the Classical period (music), Classical period (particularly Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, Mozart), the Romantic music, Rom ...

Rafał Blechacz Rafał Blechacz (; born 30 June 1985) is a Polish classical pianist who rose to fame after decisively winning the XV International Chopin Piano Competition in 2005. Biography Blechacz began piano lessons at the age of five, and enrolled in the ...

and

Samson François Samson Pascal François (18 May 192422 October 1970) was a French pianist and composer. Biography François was born in Frankfurt where his father worked at the French consulate. His mother, Rose, named him Samson, for strength, and Pascal, for ...

within recordings of the composer's complete piano works.

References

External links

*
Pour le piano
(recording) The Piano Society *

Mary Jeanne van Appledorn Mary Jeanne van Appledorn (October 2, 1927 in Holland, Michigan – December 12, 2014 in Lubbock, Texas) was an American composer of contemporary classical music and pianist. Education and career Van Appledorn attended the Eastman School of Musi ...

An Analysis of Claude Debussy's Suite Pour Le Piano

Prelude (Suite pour le piano, 1901)
stevedebussy.wordpress.com
T is for Toccata – Debussy’s Toccata, from Pour Le Piano
notesfromapianist.wordpress.com 2012

jochenscheytt.de {{Authority control Suites by Claude Debussy Compositions for solo piano 1901 compositions