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continued from previous page Program Notes Debussy had composed two sets of Images for the piano and intended his third set to be for two pianos. He soon realized, though, that he needed an orchestral palette to bring his musical ideas to life. His Images for orchestra is a work in three parts: Gigues, Ibéria, and Rondes de printemps, and Ibéria itself is in three parts. The first of these is Par les rues et par les chemins (In the streets and by-ways). It begins with a pervasive rhythm and a jaunty clarinet melody, both of which will lead us through the sunny streets—streets that are teeming with life. Part way through we come to a shady area, with a theme that will return in the other movements, but soon enough we burst into the light once again. As evening falls, the traffic thins out, and the piece doesn’t simply end: it evanesces. Les parfums de la nuit (The fragrance of the night) comes next, a stanza of sheer musical poetry. We begin in a quiet and mysterious garden, but as the night deepens so does the intensity of the music. But before long we return to soft blankets of sound. When we hear the tolling of the bells we know we have reached Le matin d’un jour de fête (The morning of a festival day), which follows without pause. This is simply dazzling with its bright colors and joyous bustle. “There is a watermelon vendor and children whistling,” wrote the composer. “I see them all clearly!” And so can we. In a letter to his publisher about Images, Debussy wrote, “I am attempting to write something different, an effect of reality—what the imbeciles call impressionism.” That reality was good enough for Manuel de Falla, who said, “Claude Debussy wrote Spanish music without knowing Spain, that is to say without knowing the land of Spain, which is a different matter. As far as Ibéria is concerned, he made it clear that he did not intend to write Spanish music but rather to translate into music the associations that Spain had aroused in him. This he triumphantly achieved.” ©2016 Mark Rohr | Questions or comments? markrohrprogramnotes@gmail.com 54


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