Debussy's La Mer

One of my favorite pieces is Debussy's La Mer. It is some of the best tone painting ever written. The orchestration is a masterpiece on it's own. My favorite movement is the second: Jeux de vagues, or "Play of the waves." I am providing links to MP3's and to the score if anyone wants to listen and study it. (Which I strongly recommend)

Score:

La Mer

Have fun.

please don't post to recordings.

most of them are covered by copyright laws.

Debussy would be one of my favourite classical composers. I never understood how he makes atonal music seem so melodic. I have heard OF La Mer, but I thought it was a piano piece. I will have to see whether I can get my hands on a copy. Thanks

Debussy would be one of my favourite classical composers. I never understood how he makes atonal music seem so melodic. I have heard OF La Mer, but I thought it was a piano piece. I will have to see whether I can get my hands on a copy. Thanks

umm, FYI, Debussy never wrote anything "atonal".

It's actually about as FAR from "atonal" as you can get.

Sorry, I am pretty clueless. What I meant is that his songs don't use conventional keys and traditional melody/harmony like music from the classical and romantic periods.

They're not songs. Please call them PIECES, ffs. Songs are short compositions for solo voice, NOT orchestral pieces. With all due respect, calling pieces "songs" makes you look idiotic.

You can't really be unconventional with keys, although his harmony was new for his age.

Well songs can be fully blown orchestral pieces - as long as there's a voice, and it's written as a song.

The classical (incl. Schubert) lied was with piano, but the romantic one was with orchestra (cf Mahler, Strauss etc.).

Yeah yeah okay. PIECES!! There!

Couldn't you find better things to do with your time than picking up on other people's bad vocabularies? :laugh:

Stupid is as stupid does.

Can't we all just get along?

I mean... I really like that piece by Britney Spears... what was it? "Hit me one more time" or something?

:shifty:

But yes. I like La Mer too.

I think it was "You Drive me Crazy."

Oh yes this is a great piece!

Whenever I listen to Debussy, I try to manifest the music visually in my head in the form of an impressionist painting; say a Van Gogh or a Monet.

I also got the chance when I was in Rochester a year ago to look at Debussy's unifinished score of La Mer (pretty sure that's what it was) in his own handwriting, at Sibley library. Very interesting stuff.

Rochester New Hampshire? Or is there a Rochester in the UK

lol I probably should've specified.

Rochester New York, the Eastman School of Music

O. Right. Their collection is fantastic. Eastman is one of the two schools I really want to go to. I've never been, but my composition teacher got her Master's and Doctor's from Eastman, and raves about the library all the time.

When you make posts, you are asked to use good quality written English in order to aid communication. Try not to use abbreviations such as "ur" in place of "your" or "u" in place of "you". Also try to include apostrophes where necessary (e.g. "I'm", not "im"). Excessive usage of acronyms such as "lol", "lmao" and "rofl" is also frowned upon. Try to ensure your overall spelling and grammar is good (if English is not your first language then this is of less importance).

I think that's what Tom

[[Welcome]] "Avoid referring to your work as a song, instead using the term piece, or work (unless it is in fact a song - a short vocal piece). "

Please keep on topic (or should I say, keep less spammy)

Mark has correctly quoted the forum's advice - we suggest referring to pieces not as songs, unless they are one, but as what they are - pieces.

It's is very amateurish to call a piece a song, but there's no need to do anything but pass this information on - no argument is necessary.

They're not songs. Please call them PIECES, ffs. Songs are short compositions for solo voice, NOT orchestral pieces. With all due respect, calling pieces "songs" makes you look idiotic.

Can we call them tunes? :P:whistling:

Call 'em tunes if you want. Makes no difference what you call a piece. M (among others) whine way too much about political correctness.

Ooh yucky. I'm not such a huge Debussy fan. La mer, while quite lovely, is not my style of listening. I honestly find much of Debussy's music, what I've heard anyway, quite boring.

Call 'em tunes if you want. Makes no difference what you call a piece. M (among others) whine way too much about political correctness.

On topic: I like La Mer, though I like his Preludes better.

As a general rule I detest Debussy. This piece follows the rule.

I really love that work! It's the most colorful piece I have ever heard (which is not necessarily something positive, but I like it).

I have the score, and reading it makes it much more interesting when you play the recording. Try doing that and you will love "La Mer". The score is really easy to follow, it may seem hard but it is not, so give it a try.

I really like La Mer...I listened to it in its entirety over the summer once, and it was great!