7/23/2019 Prelude to 'the Afternoon of a Faun' by Claude Debussy; William w. Austin.

1/3

Prelude to 'The Afternoon of a Faun' by Claude Debussy; William W. AustinReview by: J. A. W.Music & Letters, Vol. 54, No. 1 (Jan., 1973), pp. 117-118Published by: Oxford University PressStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/734212.

Accessed: 24/01/2015 15:33

Your use of the JSTOR archive indicates your acceptance of the Terms & Conditions of Use, available at.http://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsp

.JSTOR is a not-for-profit service that helps scholars, researchers, and students discover, use, and build upon a wide range of

content in a trusted digital archive. We use information technology and tools to increase productivity and facilitate new forms

of scholarship. For more information about JSTOR, please contact support@jstor.org.

.

Oxford University Pressis collaborating with JSTOR to digitize, preserve and extend access toMusic

&Letters.

http://www.jstor.org

This content downloaded from 128.163.2.206 on Sat, 24 Jan 2015 15:33:06 PMAll use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions

http://www.jstor.org/action/showPublisher?publisherCode=ouphttp://www.jstor.org/stable/734212?origin=JSTOR-pdfhttp://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsphttp://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsphttp://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsphttp://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsphttp://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsphttp://www.jstor.org/stable/734212?origin=JSTOR-pdfhttp://www.jstor.org/action/showPublisher?publisherCode=oup

7/23/2019 Prelude to 'the Afternoon of a Faun' by Claude Debussy; William w. Austin.

2/3

A

perhaps lightly

moreunusual

spect

of the core s found n

the

fourth

movement,

which

is

entirely leatory

in

design,

the

length

of

the

individual notes being indeterminate nd the

entries

of individual

instrumental roups

eft

o

the

conductor's iscretion. he 'Sinfonietta'

is an interestingompromise etween he traditional nd the new, suc-

ceeding fully n

its

aim,

to divert . Convention nd charm are also

united

n

the Norwegian

gil

Hovland's

Fanfare nd

Choral', composed

in

i

967, a formally

ather urious onstruction hichnot

only ncludes

whatits titlepromises ut throwsn

a

lively ugue

nto the

bargain.

Josephs'sVariations

n a Theme

of

Beethoven',

British

ontribution

to

the bicentenaryelebrations, ake as

their heme the tunefrom he

opening

of the

second

movement

f

the

piano sonata,

Op.

49,

no.

2,

arrangedfor percussion

xylophone,marimba), harp,

solo

strings

nd

wind,following hich he istener

s

immediately lunged nto new

and

verydifferent orld.The ninevariations o not continue he traditionf

Brahms nd Reger

but, seizing

on individual

lements rom hetheme,

subject these

to a

varietyof

generally

twentieth-centuryrocedures

before eturningo theoriginal heme n the ast

variation.

he

result s

interestingnough,

hough

without

ny

verypronounced ersonality f

itsown-perhaps not

altogetherurprisingn view of its

august source

a-nddedicatee.

John

McCabe's

'ConcertanteMusic'

of

I968

is

another

useful

iece,apparently

ritten ith mateurs

n mind.The conventional

orchestra, ncludingpiano,

is

supplemented

y

two

percussion

roups,

one

of

Orff

nstruments

nvolving

ix

players

and the

other

for

four

players) with such unusual extras s Indian bells and Japanese wind-chimes.The fourmovementsre byno means without heir ttractions,

though hey ontainittle

o

add anything ewto

one'srange

f xperience.

Pierre

Mercure's Lignes

et

Points' i

964) prove

to

be

a

not untypical

melange

of various twentieth-century

echniques,

ranging

over

eight

movements

from the

strictlythrough-composed' o

the

controlled

freedom eatured n

so many scores

of

today. Although

he composer's

intentions re not

always easy to

decipher

from

he printed ext,the

general impression s

of a

fairly

timulating,

f

at

times cluttered,

conception.

R.

T.

B.

Debussy,

Claude, Prelude

o

The

Afternoonfa

Faun'.

Miniature core,

with

historical ntroduction,critical

notes, essays, etc.,

ed. by William

W. Austin.

(Chappell,

London, I972, cloth,

f2.25;

paperback,

?I.5o.)

The latest

addition to the series of

'Norton Critical

Scores'

is

particularly

interesting,

not

only

because of

the

literary associations of

the

work but also

because for the first

ime,

it

would seem, we have an

accurate text.

The music

appears

to

be a

photographic

reproduction of

the

original Fromont

(Jobert) score;

but

corrections

have

been introduced

in a style

which makes them

virtually ndistinguishable

from the original

engraving. Some of the corrections come froma copy, now in private

possession,marked

by

Debussy himself,

thers from

the

printed

orchestral

parts.

A

typical

example

of

an errorwhich

escaped

the

composer's

notice

is

the G: missing from

the first

lute

n

bar

27 (i2th

demisemiquaver),

though, as

Professor

Austin

points out,

it is

improbable

that any flautist

has

failed to

play

it.

He

gives

a

good

account of theorigin of

the work, but

is

less happy

with his

translation

of

Mallarme's poem: I

find

it

difficult

to

stomach

chord-besprinkled

thickets for

bosquet

arrose d'accords .

However,

he is

modest enough

to

invite

readers to

emend his version. An

analysis byJean

Barraque, printed

at

the end

of the

volume, concludes:

Thus the

Debussy

technique eludes any rule

of

procedure -in other

II7

This content downloaded from 128.163.2.206 on Sat, 24 Jan 2015 15:33:06 PMAll use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions

http://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsphttp://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsphttp://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsp

7/23/2019 Prelude to 'the Afternoon of a Faun' by Claude Debussy; William w. Austin.

3/3

words,

whytry

o analyse t all?

Professor ustin

ssays

moredetailed

analysis,

ut

he too admits

hat

critical

nterpretations

re as uncertain

as

the

faun'smemories .

doubt whethernyone

would

enjoyDebussy's

music

moreby reading

hem.

J.

A. W.

Nordheim,

Arne,

Floating.

core (24k'

X

9').

(Hansen,

Copenhagen,

1972, C2.6o.)

A slow-moving,

tmospheric

nd

on the

whole rathergloomy

work,

in which

much s made

of the deep sonority

f

divided

ellos

nd

basses.

After

ome

freneticutbursts

rom

he

wind the upper

strings

oin

in,

ppp, n a sort

f compote

f

48-part

harmony.

ne

cannot

help

wondering

whether

the

publisher's

ddiction

to scores

of this

extravagant

nd

inconvenient ize encouragescomposers o divide the strings o

this

extent. he clarinets resaid to be inBb and thehornsn F, but nternal

evidence uggests

hattheir

arts

are written

t sounding itch,

though

there

does

not seem to be any

note to say

so.

J. A.

W.

ORGAN SOLO

Buck,Ole,

Sumers cumen

n.

Hansen, openhagen,

971,

TI

25.)

Gowers, atrick,Toccata.OxfordUniversity ress,1971, fI.00.)

Kjellsby,Erling, Forspill

il

Norske

olkstoner.

NorskMusikforlag, slo,

1971,

6op.)

Williamson,Malcolm,PeacePieces. books. Weinberger,ondon,

1972,

70p.

&

9op.)

The fourworks have nothing

n common nd are varied

n

length,

difficulty,style',

use

of

organ,registration,tc.; yet

none of them

quite

seems o hit he

rue

ath

offuture

ood organ

music.The

bits

f

bitonality

and jarring concord

n

the Gowers

and Williamson

have the triadism

deja

vu n

British

music;

the

experimentalism

f the

Buck is

pretty

ilute

Messiaen,despite

he

exuberance;

he neo-classicismf

the

Kjellsbymay

well

be

more

consistentnd less flirtatious

han, ayPepping

or

Pfortner,

butcanhardly e an answer o theproblem. he problemtself

s

difficulteven to stateclearly, ut is somethingike giventhe basic character f

theorgan

as a

Renaissance

nstrument,

hat

s

there

eft or t

to do that

is expressive,

ew and idiomatic?'

Most reviews

ould begin

with

that

text,

but

the extremes-in-little

f these four works raise

the

matter

strikingly.

Despite

its

naivety,

t

could well

be

that Buck's piece has the

nearest

nswer. Sumer s

icumen n' is a

repetitive

5-minute

antasia,

devoted

for everal

pages to

variants

f the song

above a fewheld quasi-

organumifths,henthrowingn tinybird-like lusters,ouleurse la citi

celeste,anons

ad

lib.

and increasingly renzied lain

repetitions f the

theme, he wholefullof antiquefifthsnd loud-softontrasts. he page-

turner as his own canon to contribute, ut the piece

is

not difficulto

play and manage.

There

is

also

a kind

of soft oda which

eemsto invite

a few dded

percussionnstruments,ut alas theDanish

s

not translated.

The piece

can

hardlybe

taken

eriously, et there s a

welcome enseof

vigour nd, very ikely, ffectivenessbout t that houldmake t attractive

for

recital n

a

loud

classical

organ.

Gowershas

registered

is

piece for

the

Festival

Hall

organ,but the

changes

of

colour

are discreet. The

Toccata

is a

fairly ong quasi

perpetuum

obile ith

good

deal

of

alternate-hand

lay

based on broken

chordsvery oftenderived fromunrelated triads. t is hard to say if

ii8

This content downloaded from 128.163.2.206 on Sat, 24 Jan 2015 15:33:06 PMAll use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions

http://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsphttp://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsphttp://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsp