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Tag: “Children’s Corner” – Debussy

__________
if a sonata is a piece of music with
more than one segment, and a
suite is also a piece of music with
more than one segment, what’s
the difference, you’ll ask, not
unreasonably
a sonata speaks for itself, as itself,
is itself, whereas a suite, also in
several sections, describes
something else, something not
itself, but a place, or an action, it’s
a tale, not an autobiography
this has some implications, the
sonata will consequently be more
expansive, displaying not only
emotional impact, but also
technical wizardry, will beat its
chest, in other words, whether in
agony or in bombast, whereas a
suite, while not excluding
necessarily those aspects, will
usually be more demure, objective,
snap its suspenders less
a suite also has more movements
than the sonata’s usual three or
four, consider the difference
between, in art, a triptych, for
instance, and a collage, they’re
in either case artworks, but with
different intentions
does any of this matter, to the
aficionado it does, if you want to
buy a home, you could be looking
for a duplex instead of a condo, if
you’re listening to music, you
might prefer chamber pieces to
large orchestras, suites to sonatas
though not yet identified, in 1838,
as a suite, since the term hadn’t
been used that way yet, is
nevertheless not any different
in kind from Debussy’s later
that the label fits, however
retroactively
you could say the same of Beethoven’s
it’s also, however retroactively, a suite
Sonata, to compare with his
original subject, the difference
between a suite an a sonata
listen
R ! chard

___________
for John, who would’ve
been 60 today
though the suite might’ve started with
Bach’s string of dance pieces in the
early 18th Century, it becomes evident
during the 19th Century, after a lapse
of nearly 100 years, while it fell into
disfavour, that its resurrection as a
valid musical form might’ve kept the
original structure, which is to say its
several separate parts to make up a
whole, its movements, but that it
now was serving a different purpose
where music had, through to the early
Romantic Period, followed dance
rhythms, or variations of tempo,
adagio, andante, allegro, and the like,
it now presented itself as a background
for settings, be it ballets, as in
Tchaikovsky’s, plays, as in Edvard
after Ibsen‘s eponymous play,
specific locations, as in Debussy’s
expansively, both geographically
and in its compositional length,
these very “Années de pèlerinage”
of Liszt
this is in keeping with the exploration
of consciousness of that era, which
would lead to not only Impressionism,
but to Freud, and the others, and the
development of psychoanalysis
you’ll note that music seems much
more improvisational in Liszt than in
already even jazz, more evocative,
less emotional, more personal, not
generalized, idiosyncratic, a direct
development of the newly acquired
concept of democracy, one man, at
the time, one vote, one, indeed,
voice, however individual, however
even controversial
listen, for instance, to Liszt’s “Années
1. Sposalizio
2. Il penseroso
7. Après une lecture de Dante: Fantasia Quasi Sonata
today you can listen to suites
from famous films, for instance
other words, goes on
but note the renovations, find them,
I dare you, you’ll be surprised at
your unsuspected perspicacity
R ! chard

__________
it didn’t take me long, after wondering
with a similar theme, childhood
fantasies
but the Nutcracker Suite
l. Miniature Overture
ll. Danses caractéristiques
a. Marche
b. Dance of the Sugar Plum Fairies
c. Russian Dance
d. Arabian Dance
e. Chinese Dance
f. Reed Flutes
lll. Waltz of the Flowers
is not to be confused with the complete
ballet, from which it had been excerpted
to great acclaim before the ballet itself
was presented, but to much less
enthusiasm, until George Balanchine
revived it in the 1960s
note that Tchaikovsky’s Suite, in 1892,
contains still the traditional elements
of the suite – see above – a prelude, or
overture, followed by a series of
dances, only a few years before
redefined the form, made the
movements indiscriminate, not
confined to dance rhythms
note also that Tchaikovsky sounds
a lot more like the Strausses, father
and son, Romantics both, than he
does like Debussy, an Impressionist,
a generation later only
a suite, in other words, is not limited
to one instrument
pianos, not to be missed
R ! chard

__________
two suites
how are they similar
how are they different
you tell me
a couple o’ clues
Prélude
Menuet
Clair de lune
Passepied
Doctor Gradus ad Parnassum
Jimbo’s Lullaby
Serenade for the Doll
The Snow is Dancing
The Little Shepherd
Golliwog’s Cakewalk
R ! chard
psst: if you said, there are no dance
and only three of the four
movements in “Suite
you’d be right, the others all
have evocative titles, nothing
to do with the cadence, the
step
but that begs the question,
what happened to the traditional
well, time, and the vagaries of
language, intentions, essentially,
Debussy did to the suite what
changed its meaning, took away
its original purpose, for better or
for worse, a suite is now, in a
similar transformation, a piece
of music, merely, any kind of music,
with several segments, without
even, necessarily, gasp, a
prelude
you can never step into the same
river twice, in other words, the
current just keeps on inexorably
moving, even immutable,
apparently, concepts fall by the
wayside, see democracy, at
present, for instance