Prelude by Debussy

My first venture beyond 'light-weight' Debussy. I love this piece and I think to really appreciate it you need to be aware of it's intentions, detailed below...
From Wikipedia:
Legend of Ys
This piece is based on an ancient Breton myth in which a cathedral, submerged underwater off the coast of the Island of Ys, rises up from the sea on clear mornings when the water is transparent. Sounds can be heard of priests chanting, bells chiming, and the organ playing, from across the sea. Accordingly, Debussy uses certain harmonies to allude to the plot of the legend, in the style of musical impressionism.

To begin the piece, Debussy uses parallel fifths. The first chord of the piece is made up of sonorous Gs and Ds (open fifths). The use of stark, open fifths here allude to the idea of church bells that sound from the distance, across the ocean. The opening measures, marked pianissimo, introduce us to the first series of rising parallel fifth chords, outlining a pentatonic scale. These chords bring to mind two things: 1) the Eastern pentatonic scale, which Debussy heard during a performance of Javanese gamelan music at the 1889 Universal Exhibition in Paris, and 2) medieval chant music, similar to the organa in parallel fifths from the Musica enchiriadis, a 9th century treatise on music. The shape of the ascending phrase is perhaps a representation of the cathedral's slow emergence from the water.

After the beginning section, Debussy gently brings the cathedral out of the water by modulating to B major, shaping the melody in a wave-like fashion, and including important narrative instructions in measure 16: Peu à peu sortant de la brume (Emerging from the fog little by little). This shows Debussy at his closest manifestation of musical impressionism. Then, after a section marked Augmentez progressivement (Slowly growing), the cathedral has emerged and the grand organ is heard at a dynamic level of fortissimo (measures 28-41). This is the loudest and most profound part of the piece, and is described in the score as Sonore sans dureté. Following the grand entrance and exit of the organ, the cathedral sinks back down into the ocean (measures 62-66) and the organ is heard once more, but from underwater. To attain this underwater effect, most performers use a "half-pedal," so that the dampers of the piano are only slightly off of the strings, creating a murky, muffled sound (measures 71-82). Finally, the cathedral is gone from sight, and only the bells are heard, at a distant pianissimo.

Category:

Comedy

Tags:

• Debussy
• Piano

[Joanneswim]

Hi- What's light-weight Debussy? Clair de Lune /Reverie? I'm still working on Clair de Lune, it's been months, and I jist started Reverie.

Thanks for telling me name of book for Autumn Leaves. I ordered, and just received in the mail. I'm in USA, book is European looks like. Might be too hard for me in the jazz middle section, but I'm going to give it a try. Surprised to see you're soo young and playing Autumn Leaves! I'm in the grandparent category!