Claude Debussy (1862-1918):
Nuit d?étoiles 
(composed ca. 1880; first published 1880*)
Text:  Théodore de Banville

Original Key/Recorded Key:  E-flat Major
Teach-Track begins:  m. 1
Accompaniment Track begins:  m. 1
Pianist:  Daniel Michalak

N. B.  Debussy?s tempo indication of ?allegro? should probably be taken with a very large grain of salt--the piece seems to call for a naturally flowing tempo, to be sure (say, andante con moto), but it loses all sense of atmosphere if performed too quickly.  Perhaps his marking was simply meant as a corrective to the worst excesses of late-19th century performance practice: a warning not to misuse the piece as an opportunity to indulge in languid sentimentality.  Such a warning would have been less necessary, of course, if the music itself didn?t veer so perilously--and, for Debussy, uncharacteristically--close to schmaltz. 

*  James R. Briscoe, editor of the Hal Leonard ?V ocal Library? edition of Debussy?s songs (Milwaukee, 1993), points out that this song first appeared in a music magazine (the review Fantaisie artistique et litteraire) in 1880, two years before being published as an independent piece of sheet music.  The publication date of 1882 given in The New Grove?s Dictionary of Music and Musicians (Macmillan, London, 1980, ed. Stanley Sadie) thus refers to this latter, more conventional form of publication; and the estimated date of composition has presumably been inferred from its earlier magazine appearance.


Notes © 1999 by Daniel O. Michalak