Classical Music | Soprano

Recorded on 10/06/2010, uploaded on 02/28/2011

Musician's or Publisher's Notes

Nuit d’étoiles (“Starry night”) was Claude Debussy’s first published composition. A youthful work, composed in 1880, it nonetheless foreshadows in its wistful melancholy the composer’s mature works of later years. Debussy chose to set only three of the four stanzas (omitting the third) in Théodore de Banville’s poem, and additionally to use the first stanza as a refrain, thus creating in effect a sort of rondo. The poet, here, sits beneath a starry night sky, lyre in hand, and sings melancholic of a past love. Yet, in the last stanza it is revealed that he holds onto some hope. The vocal line in Debussy’s setting is particularly tuneful, and the piano accompaniment principally supports the voice with little independence of its own. Rippling arpeggios accompany the first appearance of the refrain, which is embellished in some manner upon each reappearance.  The stanzas, marked to be played in a more animated manner, employ a related, but still different accompaniment. Overall, Nuit d’é’toiles reflects a young composer, still influenced by the amiable salon music of his time, as of yet partially unaware of the sensitivity in combining poetry and music and plunging the necessary depths to heighten and strengthen the meaning of words with tones.      Joseph DuBose

Courtesy of International Music Foundation.