The Suite bergamasque is one of the most famous piano

Piano

The piano is a musical instrument played by means of a keyboard. It is one of the most popular instruments in the world. Widely used in classical and jazz music for solo performances, ensemble use, chamber music and accompaniment, the piano is also very popular as an aid to composing and rehearsal...

 suites by 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...

. Debussy commenced the suite in 1890 at age 28, but he did not finish or publish it until 1905.

History

The Suite bergamasque was first composed by Debussy around 1890, but was significantly revised just before its publication in 1905. It seems that by the time a publisher came to Debussy in order to cash in on his fame and have these pieces published, Debussy loathed the earlier piano style in which these pieces were written. While it is not known how much of the Suite was written in 1890 and how much was written in 1905, we do know that Debussy changed the names of at least two of the pieces.

"Passepied" was called "Pavane", and "Clair de lune" was originally titled "Promenade Sentimentale." These names also come from Paul Verlaine

Paul Verlaine

Paul-Marie Verlaine was a French poet associated with the Symbolist movement. He is considered one of the greatest representatives of the fin de siècle in international and French poetry.-Early life:...

's poems. It is interesting, however, to note that "Promenade Sentimentale" alludes specifically to one of Verlaine's earliest collections, "Poèmes saturniens," a fact that Debussy obviously took into account when he changed the name (and most likely a lot of the music) in order to suit both his later style, and Verlaine's.

Structure

The Suite bergamasque consists of four movements

Movement (music)

A movement is a self-contained part of a musical composition or musical form. While individual or selected movements from a composition are sometimes performed separately, a performance of the complete work requires all the movements to be performed in succession...

:

1. "Prélude"
2. "Menuet"
3. "Clair de lune"
4. "Passepied"

The suite has been orchestrated by many composers, including André Caplet

André Caplet

André Caplet was a French composer and conductor now known primarily through his orchestrations of works by Claude Debussy.-Biography:...

, Leopold Stokowski

Leopold Stokowski

Leopold Anthony Stokowski was a British-born, naturalised American orchestral conductor, well known for his free-hand performing style that spurned the traditional baton and for obtaining a characteristically sumptuous sound from many of the great orchestras he conducted.In America, Stokowski...

 and Lucien Cailliet

Lucien Cailliet

Lucien Cailliet was an American composer, conductor, arranger and clarinetist.-Biography:Born at Dijon, in France, Cailliet studied at the Conservatory in his native city before migrating to the United States in 1918....

.

Prélude

The first piece in the suite is entitled "Prélude". The Prélude is in the key of F, in tempo rubato. It is full of dynamic contrasts with a vigorous beginning and ending. It is a festive piece, which holds much of the baroque style that is commonly found in preludes.

Menuet

The second part of the Suite Bergamasque is the "Menuet." Its playful main theme contrasts with an alternatively mysterious and dramatic middle section. This piece is particularly original, as it does not conform to the particular style that most minuets share. Rather than being very airy and dainty, this piece shows much more raw comedy. Again, Debussy sets a very novel piece in the guise of an old song style.

Clair de lune

The third and most famous movement of Suite bergamasque is "Clair de lune," meaning "moonlight" in French. Its name comes from Paul Verlaine

Paul Verlaine

Paul-Marie Verlaine was a French poet associated with the Symbolist movement. He is considered one of the greatest representatives of the fin de siècle in international and French poetry.-Early life:...

's poem of the same name

Clair de Lune (poem)

Clair de Lune is a French poem written by Paul Verlaine in the year 1890. It is the inspiration for the third and most famous movement of Debussy's Suite bergamasque of the same name....

 which also refers to 'bergamasques' in its opening stanza: Votre âme est un paysage choisi / Que vont charmant masques et bergamasques / Jouant du luth et dansant et quasi / Tristes sous leurs déguisements fantasques.

The first three movements include a common motif

Motif (music)

In music, a motif or motive is a short musical idea, a salient recurring figure, musical fragment or succession of notes that has some special importance in or is characteristic of a composition....

:

• Prélude - F - E - F - E - D (bar 11)
• Menuet - G - F - G - F - E (bar 6)
• Clair de lune - F - E - F - E - D (bars 1-2)

Passepied

The final movement is "Passepied" in F-sharp minor, allegretto ma non troppo. A passepied

Passepied

The passepied is a 17th- and 18th-century dance that originated in Brittany. The term can also be used to describe the music to which a passepied is set...

 is a type of dance, which originated in Brittany

Brittany

Brittany is a cultural and administrative region in the north-west of France. Previously a kingdom and then a duchy, Brittany was united to the Kingdom of France in 1532 as a province. Brittany has also been referred to as Less, Lesser or Little Britain...

, and means "pass foot". Debussy's Passepied is a happy, yet strangely medieval piece, which is surprisingly faster than its Baroque counterparts. Throughout most of its duration, the piece is played with staccato arpeggios in the left hand.

Recordings

• Complete Recording of Suite bergamasque on Piano, at Piano Society.com - Free Classical Piano Recordings
• Clair de lune on piano (video), performed by Anthony Tobin
• Clair de lune played by Tom Hazleton on the Wurlitzer
  Wurlitzer
  The Rudolph Wurlitzer Company, usually referred to simply as Wurlitzer, was an American company that produced stringed instruments, woodwinds, brass instruments, theatre organs, band organs, orchestrions, electronic organs, electric pianos and jukeboxes....
  
   theatre organ
  Theatre organ
  A theatre organ is a pipe organ originally designed specifically for imitation of an orchestra. New designs have tended to be around some of the sounds and blends unique to the instrument itself....
  
   at the Alabama Theatre
  Alabama Theatre
  The Alabama Theatre is a movie palace in Birmingham, Alabama. It was built in 1927 by Paramount's Publix Theatre chain as its flagship theater for the southeastern region of the United States. Seating 2,500 people at the time, it was the largest in the Birmingham Theatre district...
  
  
• First complete recording for orchestra (orchestration by Gustav Gloez and Andre Caplet
  André Caplet
  André Caplet was a French composer and conductor now known primarily through his orchestrations of works by Claude Debussy.-Biography:...
  
  ) conducted by Emil de Cou
  Emil de Cou
  Emil de Cou, ConductorEmil de Cou is an American conductor who became associate conductor of the National Symphony Orchestra in September 2003 and has been an active participant in a wide range of NSO performances and events since his debut at Wolf Trap in 2000...
  
  with the San Francisco Ballet Orchestra

Scores

• Free sheet music for piano and piano 4-hands from Cantorion.org
• String Quartet Arrangement of Prelude
• String Quartet Arrangement of Menuet
• Orchestral Arrangement of Passepied
• Orchestral Arrangement of Prelude