Nocturnes

Claude Debussy opened the door to a new century of innovation with his nuanced approach to musical texture in works such as his breakout Prelude to the Afternoon of a Faun and the subsequent three-part Nocturnes. The “nocturnal” aspect indicated by the title derives from Debussy’s inspiration by the French Symbolist poet Henri de Régnier — in particular, from his collection Trois Scènes au Crépuscule (Three Twilight Scenes).

At first, Debussy thought about writing the pieces as a sort of violin concerto, which he had sketched out by 1894, for the eminent virtuoso Eugène Ysaÿe. However, before the music reached the public, Debussy recast Nocturnes, omitting the violin solo and, for the final panel, adding a wordless soprano and alto chorus.

Debussy famously bristled at the comparisons routinely made between his style and that of the Impressionist painters. He particularly objected to the one-size-fits-all application of the term by critics to all manner of artists. Yet Debussy was deeply sensitive to the visual arts. Describing his Nocturnes to Ysaÿe, he said, “It is an experiment with the various combinations of texture that can be made from one color — like a study in grays in the realm of painting.”

In the preface to his score, Debussy elaborated: “The title Nocturnes is to be interpreted here in a general and, more particularly, in a decorative sense. Therefore it is not meant to designate the usual form of a nocturne, but rather all the various impressions and the special effects of light that the word suggests.” Indeed, each movement of Debussy’s three-part work pursues a distinctive form and characteristic tone color. The first, Nuages (Clouds), presents “the slow motion of the clouds” in pastel shadings that drift against a plaintive figure from the English horn. Toward the end, flute and harp float amidst an atmosphere of languid lyricism.

Of the contrastingly extroverted Fêtes (Festivals), the composer wrote that this movement began as an impression of a village fair at night, through which passes a unit of the Garde Républicaine, on horseback and with a regimental band, lit by torchlight. Debussy further writes that the music “gives us the vibrating, dancing rhythm of the atmosphere with sudden flashes of light. There is also the episode of the procession (a dazzling fantastic vision), which passes through the festive scene and becomes merged in it. But the background remains resistantly the same: the festival with its blending of music and luminous dust participating in the cosmic rhythm.”

In the third movement, Sirènes (Sirens), Debussy returns to the ambiguously floating sensibility of Nuages. The title refers to the mythic creatures of Homer’s Odyssey, the island nymphs whose beautiful singing — evoked by the wordless chorus — is fatal to passing sailors, causing them to cast themselves into the sea.

— Thomas May

Thomas May is a writer, critic, educator, and translator. A regular contributor to The New York Times, The Seattle Times, Gramophone, and Strings magazine, he is the English-language editor for the Lucerne Festival.