Classical Music | Violin Music

Violin Sonata, L. 140 (14’)                                                                                                 Debussy

Claude Debussy wrote the Violin Sonata at the very end of his life. In 1914, his publisher encouraged him to write a set of six sonatas for various instruments. The project included sonatas for cello and piano, flute, viola and harp, violin and piano, oboe, horn and harpsichord, trumpet, clarinet, bassoon and piano, and a concerto for small mixed ensemble. Only the first three were completed as Debussy was already terminally ill when he began this project.

The poignant opening chords of the first movement of Debussy's Sonata immediately transport the listener into a subdued atmosphere, one of nostalgia and sadness. The movement is filled with rhythmic and harmonic ambiguity with an ongoing momentum, regardless of speed. A contrasting middle movement, Fantasque et léger, is mostly light and capricious. The last movement, Très animé, was completed four months before the preceding two. It begins with running notes in the piano, punctuated with a melodic emphasis from the second theme of the second movement. The violin then enters in a slightly modified handling of the nostalgic theme from the very opening of the sonata.     Veronique Mathieu