Debussy's Les collines d'Anacapri
An analyzation by Joseph Dunlap
Achille-Claude Debussy was born near Paris in 1862, in the town of St. Germain-en-Laye. His first piano teacher, Madame Maut de Fleurville (a former student of Chopin), sent Debussy to the Conservatory in Paris, where he studied for ten years, beginning in 1872. Debussy first wanted to be a virtuoso pianist, but two examination failures in a row deterred him from that goal. In 1880 he attended the composition class of Ernest Guiraud. Within a few years, he had shocked his professors with "bizarre" harmonies that defied the rules. Debussy won the second Prix de Rome in 1883 and the coveted first Prix de Rome the following year with his Cantata L'enfant prodigue, which enabled him to study composition at the Villa de Medici in Rome for three years.
In his lifetime, Debussy composed a large amount of music for the solo piano, including Suite bergamasque, Pour le piano, Etudes, and two books of Pr�ludes. He also wrote various chamber works, such as En blanc et noir for two pianos, Sonata for flute, viola, and harp, and the G Minor String Quartet. Debussy wrote suites for orchestra, which included ballets Jeux, Khamma, and La bo�te � joujoux, tone pieces Nocturnes, La mer, and Images, mystery play Le martyre de St. S�bastien, cantatas La damoiselle �lue and L'enfant prodigue, and his only complete opera Pell�as et M�lisande.
Claude Debussy composed Pr�ludes, Book 1 and Book 2 between late 1909 and early 1913. Each book contains 12 Preludes. These pieces range from short mood pieces (such as Des pas sur la neige, "Footprints in the snow"), to quasi-�tudes (Les tierces alter�es, "Alternating thirds"), to elaborate tone poems (La Cathedrale engloutie, "The Sunken Cathedral"). Les Collines d'Anacapri (The Hills of Anacapri), from Book 1, depicts life in the small Italian city of Anacapri, which is situated on an island and famous for its folksongs and dances.
Bibliography
Claude-Debussy.com; April 16, 2006.
The New Grove Concise Dictionary of Music; Standly Sadie; 1994; Macmillan.
The Music of Claude Debussy; Richard S. Parks; 1989; Yale University Press.
PianoSociety.com; April 16, 2006.
