The Cello Sonata is a late work by the French composer Claude Debussy

Claude Debussy

Claude-Achille Debussy was a French composer. Along with Maurice Ravel, he was one of the most prominent figures working within the field of impressionist music, though he himself intensely disliked the term when applied to his compositions...

. It was the first of a planned series of 'Six sonates pour divers instruments', however Debussy only completed two others, the sonata for violin

Violin Sonata (Debussy)

The Violin Sonata in G minor, L 140, for violin and piano was composed by Claude Debussy in 1917. It was the composer's final composition , forming the third work in what had originally been conceived as a cycle of six sonatas for various instruments...

 and the sonata for flute, viola and harp. The sonata for cello and piano was written in 1915, and is notable for its brevity, most performances not exceeding 11 minutes. It is a staple of the modern cello repertoire and is commonly regarded as one of the finest masterpieces written for the instrument.

It is divided into three short movements:

• I. Prologue: Lent, sostenuto e molto risoluto
• II. Sérénade: Modérément animé
• III. Final: Animé, léger et nerveux

The two final movements are joined by an attacca. Instead of sonata form

Sonata form

Sonata form is a large-scale musical structure used widely since the middle of the 18th century . While it is typically used in the first movement of multi-movement pieces, it is sometimes used in subsequent movements as well—particularly the final movement...

, Debussy structures the piece in the style of the eighteenth-century monothematic sonata, and was particularly influenced by the music of François Couperin

François Couperin

François Couperin was a French Baroque composer, organist and harpsichordist. He was known as Couperin le Grand to distinguish him from other members of the musically talented Couperin family.-Life:Couperin was born in Paris...

.

The piece makes use of modes

Musical mode

In the theory of Western music since the ninth century, mode generally refers to a type of scale. This usage, still the most common in recent years, reflects a tradition dating to the middle ages, itself inspired by the theory of ancient Greek music.The word encompasses several additional...

 and whole-tone and pentatonic scales

Musical scale

In music, a scale is a sequence of musical notes in ascending and descending order. Most commonly, especially in the context of the common practice period, the notes of a scale will belong to a single key, thus providing material for or being used to conveniently represent part or all of a musical...

, as is typical of Debussy's style. It also utilises many types of extended cello technique, including left-hand pizzicato

Pizzicato

Pizzicato is a playing technique that involves plucking the strings of a string instrument. The exact technique varies somewhat depending on the type of stringed instrument....

, spiccato and flautando bowing, false harmonics and portamenti. Not surprisingly, the piece is considered technically demanding.

External links

• Performance of Cello Sonata by David Requiro (cello) and Elizabeth DeMio (piano) from the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum
  Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum
  The Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum or Fenway Court, as the museum was known during Isabella Stewart Gardner's lifetime, is a museum in the Fenway-Kenmore neighborhood of Boston, Massachusetts, located within walking distance of the Museum of Fine Arts and near the Back Bay Fens...
  
   in MP3
  MP3
  MPEG-1 or MPEG-2 Audio Layer III, more commonly referred to as MP3, is a patented digital audio encoding format using a form of lossy data compression...
  
  format