Still more influential were the Japanese artists Hokusai and Hiroshige, whose work became enormously popular in France by the end of the 19th century. Debussy had admired the sea paintings of Turner, with their misty impalpability, which had been on display in Paris and which he may also have seen during London visits in 19, shortly before he began composing La Mer. The first came from Mauclair’s story, to be changed in the end to “From Dawn to Noon on the Sea.” The last (“The Wind Makes the Sea Dance”) was later turned into the rather more neutral “Dialogue of the Wind and the Sea.”īut the most direct inspiration for La Mer was probably from art. It is even conceivable that Debussy was thinking of writing a sea-piece using this title as early as the 1890s, though in fact the first clear reference to La Mer comes from a letter of September 12, 1903, to André Messager: “I am working on three symphonic sketches under the title La Mer: Mer belle aux Îles Sanguinaires Jeux de vagues and La Vent fait danser la mer.” Only the second of these titles (“Play of the Waves”) remained in the final version. One hint of a source for the piece comes from the title Debussy originally thought of giving the first movement: “Calm sea around the Sanguinary Islands.” This was, in fact, the title of a short story by Camille Mauclair that had apparently been published in 1893 (“Îles Sanguinaires” is the French name for Sardinia and Corsica). Still, when he came to write La Mer thirty years later, Debussy commented that he was able to draw upon “innumerable memories” and that these were “worth more than reality, which generally weighs down one’s thoughts too heavily.” In the meantime, Debussy’s memories were charged with images drawn from literature and art. Mauté, who was giving the 9-year-old boy piano lessons, discovered his musical talent, and within a year he was studying piano and theory at the Paris Conservatoire. His parents even made plans that he should become a sailor (a life that could hardly have suited him for long), but they were scotched when a certain Mme. Yet among the few views of his childhood that the unusually private composer vouchsafed to the world was the occasional affectionate reference to summer vacations at Cannes, where he learned to love the sea. The string section Debussy hoped for was an unusually large one, including 16 cellos.ĭebussy had very little real experience of the sea, and that usually from the vantage point of a sandy beach. ![]() ![]() ![]() La Mer is scored for 2 flutes and piccolo, 2 oboes and English horn, 2 clarinets, 3 bassoons and contrabassoon (the latter in the 3rd movement only), 4 horns, 3 trumpets, 2 cornets à piston (3rd movement only), 3 trombones, bass tuba, timpani, cymbals, tam-tam, triangle, glockenspiel, bass drum, two harps, and strings (first and second violins, violas, cellos, and double basses). First BSO performance: March 1, 1907, Karl Muck conducting. ![]() First performance: October 15, 1905, Lamoureux.Composer’s life: Born August 22, 1862, in St.-Germain-en-Laye, France died on March 25, 1918, in Paris.
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