Its charming melody is a remarkable achievement for a fourteen-year-old boy, but the naïveté of its chordal accompaniment reveals the youth of its composer.Tous les morts restant se l&232 veront pour rencontrer Dieu. 30 Et voici, deux aveugles, assis au bord du chemin, entendirent que Jsus.Although the date of this song is somewhat uncertain (probably 1876), it is surely the earliest of the fifty-five songs Debussy published over a period of almost forty years. Nuits d’horreur.20 1 Car le royaume des cieux est semblable un matre de maison qui sortit. Tnbres paisses, profondes. Car Je suis Dieu avec vous. N’en ressortez qu’ Mon signal.

Its author, Théodore de Banville, like all “art for art’s sake” purists, has no message to convey, no moral to expound. Quand J&233 sus viendra, il &233 tablira son gouvernement sur la terre.The poem is of equal charm and youthful innocence. Il prendra la place de Roi des cieux et de la terre qui lui revient.

From the very first measure one is intrigued by the rhythmic pattern—a simple triplet subdivision of the three quarter notes, but with an unexpected chord on the last triplet eighth note. The tempo indication— allegro —warns against too languid a feeling, especially since the 6/8 rhythm can lure one into a lullaby.Lorsque au soleil couchant les rivières sont roses,Et qu’un tiède frisson court sur les champs de blé,Un conseil d’être heureux semble sortir des chosesUn conseil de goûter le charme d’être au monde,Cependant qu’on est jeune et que le soir est beau,Car nous nous en allons comme s’en va cette onde,This second of Debussy’s published songs, written no later than two years after the first, is already the work of a master. Surpassing of Jesus also takes another form during this phase of Hugos life.The piano introduces the E♭ tonality with harplike broken chords. ' moi la vengeance et la rtribution, quand leur pied chancellera car le jour de leur malheur est proche, et ce qui les attend ne tardera pas dit l'ternel.' (Dt.32 :35).means), he reportedly said Voyez, messieurs, voici Napolon-le-petit.

Both are gay and witty, and both tell incomprehensible stories about characters from the Italian comic stage. The poem and the music for “Pantomime” closely resemble “Fantoches” from Fêtes galantes I (see page 341). Because of the discordant As and Gs, one is reminded of an instrument tuning up!Ten years before the first of the two Fêtes galantes cycles appeared, Debussy had already dipped into that charming collection of poems by Paul Verlaine, setting “Mandoline,” “Clair de lune,” and “Pantomime” to music (there are two versions of “Clair de lune”). Since Verlaine’s poetry has the same fluidity of form, absence of rhetoric, and blend of the precise and the vague that we associate with Impressionism in art and music, this was a most felicitous and natural combination.One collection of Verlaine’s, Les Fêtes galantes , proved particularly inspiring to Debussy from it came the songs “Pantomime,” “Clair de lune,” “En Sourdine,” “Fantouches,” “Colloque Sentimental,” “Le Faune,” “Les Ingénus,” and “Mandoline.”“Mandoline” opens with a brightly struck G, preceded by a grace note which adds to the sonority and “ping.” The sound is allowed to fade away and then the mandolinlike chords begin their sprightly introduction. This contact with Verlaine led to a close artistic relationship—Debussy, in fact, used Verlaine’s poems for eighteen of his fifty-five songs. A few measures later the singer’s D♯ flows from the D♮ of the G minor chord with the same ease and effectiveness.One of the first to recognize the talents of the young Debussy was Mme Mauté de Fleurville, the mother-in-law of poet Paul Verlaine.

However the line ends with a return to the chromatic. Melody and harmony continue to be highly chromatic until the words “Et pratique,” which are made to stand out. Since the most effective comedy has an underlying note of sadness, this is not inappropriate. The voice enters with a joyous V-I (the original key is E major) but the F double sharp in the accompanying chord gives a fleeting hint of the minor mode, as does the chromaticism in the melody. Pierrot is just an ordinary fellow and Clitandre is an amorous type, so “Pierrot qui n’a rien d’un Clitandre” is a Pierrot with no romantic sentimentality Cassandre is an old curmudgeon—a man in this case Arlequin is another practical man of action, and Colombine is his beloved.The piano has an attention-getting little introduction with a perky rhythmic pattern and a jaunty trill.

Since the Pierrot of the title figures in the nursery tune which we know as “Au clair de la lune,” Debussy uses the first eleven notes of this familiar ditty throughout the song. After this promising start, however, we have two measures of very ordinary tonic chords on which the vocal line begins.It is interesting to compare the harmonization of the line “Tout en chantant sur le mode mineur” (“While singing in the minor mode”) in the three versions of “Clair de lune”: in all three cases obvious use of a minor chord at the word “mineur” has been avoided, although in both the Debussy songs the surrounding modality is minor.This little song is a charmer which should appeal to audiences of all ages. The dominant chords are extended beyond the traditional 7th to include the 9th, which creates the polytonality of C♯ and G♯ minor. 69).The piano begins with a dominant-oriented introduction, whose most interesting feature is the use of the flatted second (G♮ since the key is F♯) as part of the harmonic scheme. In fact, this earlier rendition is weak even in comparison with such songs as “Pantomime,” “Apparition,” and “Pierrot,” which were composed at the same time nor does it in any way compare with Fauré’s masterful setting of the same poem (see p. 337) has become a staple thereof.

Its range is enormous—from the E above middle C to the C two octaves above in the original key of E minor. After “les noces d’Arlequin” there is a half step between the first two notes of the tune, a further alteration.The vocal line is bright and perky. In other instances the ubiquitous theme is itself minor. Sometimes, as in its first three appearances, the air is unaltered (in the first half of the introduction it is in C major), but its effect is changed by the surrounding chords. It is interesting to see how Debussy accommodates the nursery tune, which is originally in the major mode, to the overall minor tonality.

Voici Jesus Revient Des Cieux