''Images'' (usually pronounced in French) is a

suite Suite may refer to: Arts and entertainment *Suite (music), a set of musical pieces considered as one composition ** Suite (Bach), a list of suites composed by J. S. Bach ** Suite (Cassadó), a mid-1920s composition by Gaspar Cassadó ** ''Suite' ...

of six compositions for solo piano by

Claude Debussy (Achille) Claude Debussy (; 22 August 1862 – 25 March 1918) was a French composer. He is sometimes seen as the first Impressionist composer, although he vigorously rejected the term. He was among the most influential composers of the ...

. They were published in two books/series, each consisting of three pieces. These works are distinct from Debussy's '' Images pour orchestre''. The first book was composed between 1901 and 1905, and the second book was composed in 1907. The total duration is approximately 30 minutes. With respect to the first series of ''Images'', Debussy wrote to his publisher,

Jacques Durand Jacques Durand (28 June 1920 – 16 August 2009) was a French engineer, model builder and automobile designer. He is primarily known for designing several sports cars, which were built in small volumes in France beginning in the 1950s and c ...

: "Without false pride, I feel that these three pieces hold together well, and that they will find their place in the literature of the piano ... to the left of Schumann, or to the right of Chopin... " Debussy wrote another collection, ''Images oubliées'' (L. 87), in the Winter of 1894 and dedicated it to Yvonne Lerolle, daughter of the painter Henry Lerolle.

Structure

*Book 1 (or "1st series") ( L. 110) # " Reflets dans l'eau" (Reflections in the water) in D major # "Hommage à Rameau" (Tribute to Rameau) in G minor # "Mouvement" (Movement) in

C major C major (or the key of C) is a major scale based on C, consisting of the pitches C, D, E, F, G, A, and B. C major is one of the most common keys used in music. Its key signature has no flats or sharps. Its relative minor is A minor and ...

*Book 2 (or "2nd series") (L. 111) # "Cloches à travers les feuilles" (Bells through the leaves) in B

whole-tone In Western culture, Western music theory, a major second (sometimes also called whole tone or a whole step) is a second spanning two semitones (). A second is a interval (music), musical interval encompassing two adjacent staff positions ( ...

(the middle section is in

E major E major (or the key of E) is a major scale based on E, consisting of the pitches E, F, G, A, B, C, and D. Its key signature has four sharps. Its relative minor is C-sharp minor and its parallel minor is E minor. Its enharmonic equivalent, ...

) # "Et la lune descend sur le temple qui fut" (And the moon descends on the temple that was) in E minor # "Poissons d'or" (Golden fish) in F major *''Images oubliées'' (L. 87) # "Lent (mélancolique et doux)" in F minor # "Souvenir du Louvre" in C minor # "Quelques aspects de '' parce qu'il fait un temps insupportable" in D minor No. 2 is the first version of "Sarabande" from '' Pour le piano'' (L. 95, 1901); no. 3 is an early version of "Jardins sous la pluie" from '' Estampes'' (L. 100, 1903).

Inspirations and musical analysis

"Reflets dans l'eau" is one of the many pieces Debussy wrote about water; in particular, light reflecting off its surface. The piece creates an image of water being not quite still, then becoming rapid, then decreasing in motion again. "Reflets dans l'eau" is also an example of the new tone colours Debussy discovered for the piano in this part of his life, and it is considered to be one of his greatest works for the instrument. Techniques such as

arpeggio A broken chord is a chord broken into a sequence of notes. A broken chord may repeat some of the notes from the chord and span one or more octaves. An arpeggio () is a type of broken chord, in which the notes that compose a chord are played ...

, pedal-point,

staccato Staccato (; Italian for "detached") is a form of musical articulation. In modern notation, it signifies a note of shortened duration, separated from the note that may follow by silence. It has been described by theorists and has appeared in music ...

tremolo In music, ''tremolo'' (), or ''tremolando'' (), is a trembling effect. There are two types of tremolo. The first is a rapid reiteration: * Of a single Musical note, note, particularly used on String instrument#Bowing, bowed string instrument ...

and

glissando In music, a glissando (; plural: ''glissandi'', abbreviated ''gliss.'') is a glide from one pitch to another (). It is an Italianized musical term derived from the French ''glisser'', "to glide". In some contexts, it is distinguished from the co ...

are used to depict moving water. "Hommage à Rameau" is more subdued. It is a

sarabande The sarabande (from es, zarabanda) is a dance in triple metre, or the music written for such a dance. History The Sarabande evolved from a Spanish dance with Arab influences, danced by a lively double line of couples with castanets. A dance cal ...

honouring the memory of

Jean-Philippe Rameau Jean-Philippe Rameau (; – ) was a French composer and music theory, music theorist. Regarded as one of the most important French composers and music theorists of the 18th century, he replaced Jean-Baptiste Lully as the dominant composer of Fr ...

. "Mouvement" is the most abstract designation of the pieces. It is a perpetuum mobile, meaning that it is built around a continuous stream of notes. "Cloches à travers les feuilles" was inspired by the bells in the church steeple in the village of Rahon in Jura, France. Rahon was the hometown of Louis Laloy, a close friend of Debussy and also his first biographer. "Et la lune descend sur le temple qui fut" (And the moon descends on the temple that was) was dedicated to Laloy. The name of the piece, which evokes images of East Asia, was suggested by Laloy, a

sinologist Sinology, or Chinese studies, is an academic discipline that focuses on the study of China primarily through Chinese philosophy, language, literature, culture and history and often refers to Western scholarship. Its origin "may be traced to the ex ...

. The piece is evocative of Indonesian gamelan music, which famously influenced Debussy. "Poissons d'or" was probably inspired by an image of a golden fish in Chinese

lacquer Lacquer is a type of hard and usually shiny coating or finish applied to materials such as wood or metal. It is most often made from resin extracted from trees and waxes and has been in use since antiquity. Asian lacquerware, which may be ca ...

artwork or embroidery, or on a Japanese print. Other sources suggest it may have been inspired by actual goldfish swimming in a bowl, though the French for goldfish is 'poisson rouge' (red fish).

Recordings

Many famous pianists of the 20th century have recorded Debussy's ''Images'', such as Walter Gieseking and Arturo Benedetti Michelangeli. The French musical critic Jean Roy wrote of Claudio Arrau's 1979 recording ( Diapason d'Or n° 266 & 334) as being "unrivalled". A recording by Noriko Ogawa won the Editor's Choice of ''

Gramophone A phonograph, in its later forms also called a gramophone (as a trademark since 1887, as a generic name in the UK since 1910) or since the 1940s called a record player, or more recently a turntable, is a device for the mechanical and analogu ...

'' and is noted favorably by Stephen Walsh in

BBC Radio 3 BBC Radio 3 is a British national radio station owned and operated by the BBC. It replaced the BBC Third Programme in 1967 and broadcasts classical music and opera, with jazz, world music, Radio drama, drama, High culture, culture and the arts ...

's ''Building a Library'' series. A recording by Marc-André Hamelin is noted for its "intriguing interpretive vision".

References

External links

* * * {{Authority control Compositions for solo piano Suites by Claude Debussy