# Debussy Playing Debussy



## Captainnumber36 (Jan 19, 2017)

Why do people dislike this so much, I like his interpretations of his own works! Fast paced, indeed, but still with great rhythm and feel.

A composer's take on his own music is just another interpretation in the end!

:tiphat:


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## larold (Jul 20, 2017)

_A composer's take on his own music is just another interpretation in the end!_

It is? Isn't it the famous "definitive" version people talk about?

If so that's what people don't like about it; it doesn't conform to the standard they know.


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## Mandryka (Feb 22, 2013)

Captainnumber36 said:


> Why do people dislike this so much, I like his interpretations of his own works! Fast paced, indeed, but still with great rhythm and feel.
> 
> A composer's take on his own music is just another interpretation in the end!
> 
> :tiphat:


If you like it then try Cortot (especially the first recording)


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## eugeneonagain (May 14, 2017)

Do you mean those Welte-Mignon paper-roll recordings? I wouldn't say the reproducing piano reproduces exactly. In any case I like his own interpretations. 

If I want to get near to Debussy's performance wishes though, I go to the Marcelle Meyer recordings because he knew her playing and she premiered many of his works.


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## Captainnumber36 (Jan 19, 2017)

larold said:


> _A composer's take on his own music is just another interpretation in the end!_
> 
> It is? Isn't it the famous "definitive" version people talk about?
> 
> If so that's what people don't like about it; it doesn't conform to the standard they know.


I see it as just another interpretation, not the definitive one. In my eyes, there is no such thing as a definite version!


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## Captainnumber36 (Jan 19, 2017)

Mandryka said:


> If you like it then try Cortot (especially the first recording)


I will give them a listen, thanks!


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## Xisten267 (Sep 2, 2018)

Captainnumber36 said:


> Why do people dislike this so much, I like his interpretations of his own works! Fast paced, indeed, but still with great rhythm and feel.
> 
> *A composer's take on his own music is just another interpretation in the end!*
> 
> :tiphat:


I disagree with that statement. The composer created his own music, and his own way of playing it may not be the only one or the definitive, but it's the benchmark - whatever another person does to this piece, he should know the composer's intention and way of playing first in my opinion, if that's possible of course.


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## RICK RIEKERT (Oct 9, 2017)

It's interesting that although Debussy instructed his students to play his music exactly as written, his own recordings show him taking artistic liberties and interpretive freedom with the score. Many of the interpretive gestures he uses are consistent with the highly stylized playing techniques of French Baroque clavecinistes and contrast with later recordings of these works.


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## Mandryka (Feb 22, 2013)

RICK RIEKERT said:


> It's interesting that although Debussy instructed his students to play his music exactly as written, his own recordings show him taking artistic liberties and interpretive freedom with the score. Many of the interpretive gestures he uses are consistent with the highly stylized playing techniques of French Baroque clavecinistes and contrast with later recordings of these works.


There's a comment in Robert Orledge's essay for Michael Korstick's recording of the Debussy Etudes



> Once again, Michael Korstick shows us that
> the primary requirement for revealing Debussy's challenging piano music at its best is
> to keep exactly to what the composer wrote,
> for even his untidiest looking sketches reveal
> an extreme precision with detail.


But this thread started with an observation about tempo, and there things are different. This also comes up in the essay in Korstick's recording, Robert Orledge says that he didn't put any metronome markings in the etudes, and commented



> they were only
> "right for a single bar", like "the roses, with a
> morning's life" from François de Malherbe's
> famous poem.


But I can't find a reference for this, so it may not be totally accurate.

Your comment about harpsichord music may well be spot on, in the preface he justifies not including fingering with



> Nos vieux Maîtres, - je veux nommer « nos » admirables clavecinistes - n'indiquèrent jamais de doigtés, se confiant, sans doute, à l'ingéniosité de leurs contemporains. Douter de celle des virtuoses modernes serait malséant


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## RICK RIEKERT (Oct 9, 2017)

Debussy conceived of his piano pieces with an acute awareness of the French keyboard tradition and its performing style, at a time when artistic liberties and flexibility of performance were the status quo. Debussy's letters and personal statements abound professing his admiration of François Couperin, d’Anglebert, and Rameau. Those who heard Debussy play his own pieces recall a spontaneity and overall sense of improvisatory flexibility in Debussy’s playing, as if he was creating the music in his head as he went (see Nichols, Debussy Remembered, 153-187). To this extent, Debussy stands as part of the larger French keyboard tradition dating back to Rameau and Couperin who played with an innate sense of improvisation. 

Without going into details here, pieces from the piano rolls where several stylistic features reminiscent of the French harpsichord tradition may be noticed are “La soirée dans Grenade”, “Danseuses de Delphes”, “Le danse de Puck”, “La cathédrale engloutie”, “La plus que lente”, and “Minstrels”.


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