Images for Orchestra CLAUDE DEBUSSY

Born August 22, 1862, in St. Germain-enLaye, just outside Paris, France Died March 25, 1918, in Paris Work composed Gigues, 190912, Andr Caplet assisting in the orchestration; Rondes de printemps, 190509; Ibria, 190508. Rondes de printemps is dedicated to Debussys second wife, Emma. World premiere Gigues, January 26, 1913, by the Orchestra of the Concerts Colonne in Paris (in the complete Images premiere), Gabriel Piern, conductor; Rondes de printemps, March 2, 1910, by the Orchestra of the Concerts Durand in Paris, the composer conducting; Ibria, February 20, 1910, Piern conducting the Orchestra of the Concerts Colonne at Pariss Thtre du Chtelet New York Philharmonic premiere Gigues, September 19, 1943, as part of the complete triptych, Howard Barlow, conductor; Rondes de printemps, in its U.S. premiere, November 15, 1910, Gustav Mahler, conductor; Ibria, in the U.S. premiere, January 3, 1911, Mahler again conducting Most recent New York Philharmonic performance Gigues and Rondes de printemps, as part of the complete Images, May 8, 2001, Charles Dutoit, conductor; Ibria, October 11, 2003, Lorin Maazel, conductor Estimated duration ca. 35 minutes

laude Debussys Images for Orchestra underwent a protracted and difficult gestation that extended across seven years. In 1905 the composer conceived of Rondes de printemps and Ibria as pieces for two pianos, settings he would never realize. By the time Gigues was finished, in 1912, the earlier two pieces had already been premiered in concerts ten days apart in the winter of 1910. It seems clear that Debussy considered these works as a cycle only in the loosest sense, and he voiced no objections to their being performed as stand-alone works even after the complete set was played together in 1913. (To this day the three-movement Ibria is probably heard as often individually as it is in its larger context.) Debussy expressed no strong preference about the order in which the three works should be presented, and he allowed that the decision to place them as they were when printed as a group Gigues, Ibria, Rondes de printemps was an arbitrary choice made by his publisher, Jacques Durand. Still, that is the ordering most often followed when the full set is performed, and it does address what we might call a problem of architectural balance. Whereas Gigues and Rondes de printemps are single movements, Ibria is itself a three-movement suite. Placing Ibria in the middle, sandwiched between the other movements, yields an overall design that is nicely symmetrical in a Palladian sort of way. Then again, maybe Classical balance is not what one is after in a Debussy performance. Rondes de printemps and Ibria both provide convivial finales, and switching their order offers an advantage. Each of the component pieces of Images is based on a different national music: England for Gigues, Spain for Ibria, and France for Rondes de printemps.

Since the Spanish section is itself tripartite and lasts nearly three times as long as either of the other two pieces, one settles into its sound-world as it unrolls. Therefore, Rondes de printemps can sound rather like an afterthought when it follows all that Ibria, whereas if Ibria comes last, it can roll on and build its Spanish-flavored momentum without in the least diminishing what came before. That is how we hear it in this concert. Disparate opinions greeted these pieces when they were new. Ibria, the first to be premiered, received a powerful ovation and the conductor, Gabriel Piern, was about to repeat it when a counter-demonstration broke out in the audience; the critics were similarly divided. Among its admirers, however, was the great Spanish composer Manuel de Falla, which counts for something. Ten days later, when Rondes de printemps (Round Dances of Spring) was unveiled, the reception was muted. Possibly the audience didnt find the piece as sensuous as they might have expected of a springtime piece one that spends a good deal of time quoting a French traditional song and that is headed by a couplet reading, exuberantly, Vive le mai, bienvenu soit le
Sources and Inspirations

mai / Avec son gonfalon sauvage! (Long live May, let it be welcomed / With its woodland banner!), a phrase that is derived from a 15th-century description of a May-time celebration in Tuscany. For Gigues, the last of the pieces to be written, Debussy turned to his colleague Andr Caplet for help with the orchestration, as he often did. In 1923 Caplet would publish an article in which he wrote of Gigues sad Gigues tragic Gigues The portrait of a soul in pain, uttering its slow, lingering lamentation on the reed of an oboe damore. He continued: Underneath the convulsive shudderings, the sudden efforts at restraint, the pitiful grimaces, which serve as a kind of disguise, we recognize the spirit of sadness, infinite sadness. Instrumentation: four flutes (two doubling piccolo), two oboes plus oboe damore and English horn, three clarinets and bass clarinet, three bassoons and contrabassoon, four horns, four trumpets, three trombones, tuba, timpani, cymbals, snare drum, xylophone, triangle, tambourine, castanets, three chimes, celesta, two harps, and strings.

The three pieces of Debussys Images evoke three different cultures: Gigues points to England, with its use of the Northumbrian folk song, The Keel Row, and Rondes du printemps draws on two French folk songs, Nous nirons plus au bois, and Do, lenfant, do. Ibria contains no specific national musical references, but a Spanish feeling can surely be felt throughout it, so much so that it could surprise a listener to learn that Debussy had never spent any significant time in that country. The Spanish composer Manual de Falla inferred that his French colleague learned the sights, sounds, scents, and sense of Spain though the art created by Spaniards, such as Jaquin Sorolla y Bastida (18631923). The Editors
Sorollas The Two Sisters (1909)