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RE: Debussy Rhapsodie

Author: Gregory Smith
Date: 2002-10-10 06:00

This is the great paradox of this highly detailed and specifically notated composition. Debussy was meticulous when it came to precise and detailed instructions when crafting a work so I had to conclude that he meant what he wrote. There are no inconsistencies from one printed form to another (manuscript, piano score, orchestral score, solo parts, etc.) regarding this one, glaring, explicit instruction.

I have spoken with so many professional colleagues about their experiences performing it and have listened to so many recordings (many historic ones, some from nearly that time period) and have never heard it played at nearly that much slower a tempo. In my own performances, I have never been able to reconcile the printed tempo with the suggested style of scherzando.

That is why I personally concluded that there was an inherent weakness in the composition since there have been many generations of supremely insightful performers that have instinctively ignored the marking - and by a wide margin - since to them, it could never have resalistically sound scherzando at quarter = 72.

I also had to conclude that for almost a century now, great clarinetists performing the work under the guidance of great conductors preparing it such as Boulez, Ansermet and the like, knew what they were doing by deliberately ignoring the slower tempo.

Gregory Smith

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2002-10-10 02:19