Classical Music | Cello Music

Claude Debussy

Sonata for Cello and Piano  Play

Adriana La Rosa Ransom Cello
Jason Alfred Piano

Recorded on 09/20/2005, uploaded on 01/10/2009

Musician's or Publisher's Notes

In his later years, Claude Debussy planned a series of six chamber sonatas under the title Six sonates pour divers instruments. Only three of the planned works, however, materialized—the two solo sonatas for violin and cello, and the chamber sonata for flute, viola and harp. Each is a testament to Debussy’s skill in the realm of chamber music, but also examples of the composer’s gradual progression toward absolute music and abandonment of the overtly visual and textual elements that had dominated nearly all of his earlier music.

First to be composed was the Cello Sonata in D minor, completed in 1815. Possessing a severe brevity (most performances last only eleven minutes), it is nonetheless filled to the brim with material. The sonata is structured in three movements, though the last two are played without break, but it is not to the familiar Classical sonata structure the Debussy turned for inspiration. Instead, Debussy adopted a plan inspired by the music of an even earlier period, namely that of François Couperin. Mixed with this Baroque influence, however, is Debussy’s modern compositional language of modes, whole-tone and pentatonic scales, and advanced techniques required of the soloist.

The opening Prologue begins with a declamatory statement of the movement’s principal theme in the piano answered, in turn, by a flourish from the cello. Much of the cello’s part is highly ornamental with the piano mostly resigned to harmonic support. This changes, however, in the movement’s central episode as the serene and lyrical music gives way to an animated ostinato in the cello and the piano takes on a somewhat more melodically important role. The peaceful music of the opening returns to round out the movement’s ternary design and closes with quiet harmonics from the cello. The ensuing Sérénade is an unusual movement with a majority of the solo part played pizzicato. Save for a few arco passages in the opening section, only the middle episode features any prominent use of the bow. A truncated reprise of the opening gives way to a bowed passage that serves as a transition to the sonata’s finale. An energetic movement, the finale is not without its moments of tender beauty and much of it is indeed lyrical.       Joseph DuBose

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Sonata for Cello and Piano       Claude Debussy

I.  Prologue; II. Serenade et Finale

Debussy completed his Sonata for Cello and Piano in 1915, the first in a projected set of six chamber works.  He finished only three of the intended six, completing the Sonata for Viola, Flute, and Harp the same year and the Sonata for Violin and Piano in 1917.   At one time Debussy thought to name the cello sonata "Pierrot faché avec la lune," ("Pierrot argues with the moon"), referring to the moonstruck commedia dell'arte character.  The image of the serenading dreamer questioning his most trusted ally is symbolic of the disillusionment that Debussy experienced after the onset of World War I as well as with his own failing health. 

The Prologue is constructed in a highly efficient sonata form.  The piano opens the movement with a bold declamation which the cello answers with a commanding phrase of its own.  This quickly gives way to the primary theme, a ruminating melody in D minor. In the Serenade, the cello's chromatic and sometimes harsh pizzicato seems to be representative of a more cynical Pierrot.  The two instruments are in constant dialogue, never resting on any one musical thought for long.  The Serenade leads directly into the Finale, where shadowy interludes contrast the spirited dominant theme.    Adriana La Rosa Ransom