Claire de Lune
Have you ever heard Debussy's "Claire de Lune"? I think it is the third movement of his Suite Bergamesque. Something like that. It's one of the most famous pieces of classical music, and I think definitely the most famous piece of impressionism. I think it was played near the end of Ocean's Eleven, when the guys are staring at the Bellagio Fountains. Anyway, I dragged it out of my pile of sheet music yesterday to attempt it once again... This is a battle that has been waged half-heartedly by me for years. I love it, my Mom loves it, and it's somewhat fun to play, so... should be easy, right? Wrong. I think it's because I like it so much and when I hear it played brokenly by someone learning how to play it, even if that's me, it's no fun. Regardless, I should have more mental fortitude and finally seriously tackle it, I think. The final product would be worth it. I'm no fine musician, but I think that is something I could play pretty decently, if I do say so myself (and I do say so myself).
Anyway, at the top of the sheet music is an inscription that I've always noted every time I've attempted it but always passed over after an interested grunt. Descriptive, no? So, this little blurb says something like "This piece is possibly inspired by Verlaine's poem 'Clair de Lune', in which the word 'bergamesque' is used.' Like I said, I've always been somewhat intrigued by that, because although I am generally unimpressed by poetry, something that inspired such a song must be worth checking out. So yesterday I finally did so. I will reproduce it (in the original and translated of course - it seems to rhyme in French) for your perusal.
Clair de lune
Votre âme est un paysage choisi
Que vont charmant masques et bergamasques
Jouant du luth et dansant et quasi
Tristes sous leurs déguisements fantasques.
Tout en chantant sur le mode mineur
L’amour vainqueur et la vie opportune,
Ils n’ont pas l’air de croire à leur bonheur
Et leur chanson se mêle au clair de lune,
Au calme clair de lune triste et beau,
Qui fait rêver les oiseaux dans les arbres
Et sangloter d’extase les jets d’eau,
Les grands jets d’eau sveltes parmi les marbres.
Moonlight
Your soul is a select landscape
Where charming masqueraders and bergamaskers go
Playing the lute and dancing and almost
Sad beneath their fantastic disguises.
All sing in a minor key
Of victorious love and the opportune life,
They do not seem to believe in their happiness
And their song mingles with the moonlight,
With the still moonlight, sad and beautiful,
That sets the birds dreaming in the trees
And the fountains sobbing in ecstasy,
The tall slender fountains among marble statues.
Paul Verlaine, 1869
I must confess my disappointment. First of all, I don't know why, but I always assumed "Claire de Lune" meant "Pool of Moonlight", which, though it smacks of juvenile fantasy, struck me as vaguely more poetic than just "Moonlight". I knew 'Lune' meant 'moon' because I'm not a dope (and I took Latin and whatnot)... but in any case I expected something better. Maybe I just don't get poetry (actually that's not a maybe - I'm pretty positive I don't, I don't think I have the requisite patience to overcome my natural drawbacks where poetry is concerned), but it just wasn't inspiring. I don't know how Debussy got something like this (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SKd0VII-l3A) from that. I will say I was initially somewhat entranced by it, but as it went on it got worse. I don't know. Inspiration springs from odd places. I suppose that's all I have to say about it.
What is it with art and artists, eh?
Anyway, at the top of the sheet music is an inscription that I've always noted every time I've attempted it but always passed over after an interested grunt. Descriptive, no? So, this little blurb says something like "This piece is possibly inspired by Verlaine's poem 'Clair de Lune', in which the word 'bergamesque' is used.' Like I said, I've always been somewhat intrigued by that, because although I am generally unimpressed by poetry, something that inspired such a song must be worth checking out. So yesterday I finally did so. I will reproduce it (in the original and translated of course - it seems to rhyme in French) for your perusal.
Clair de lune
Votre âme est un paysage choisi
Que vont charmant masques et bergamasques
Jouant du luth et dansant et quasi
Tristes sous leurs déguisements fantasques.
Tout en chantant sur le mode mineur
L’amour vainqueur et la vie opportune,
Ils n’ont pas l’air de croire à leur bonheur
Et leur chanson se mêle au clair de lune,
Au calme clair de lune triste et beau,
Qui fait rêver les oiseaux dans les arbres
Et sangloter d’extase les jets d’eau,
Les grands jets d’eau sveltes parmi les marbres.
Moonlight
Your soul is a select landscape
Where charming masqueraders and bergamaskers go
Playing the lute and dancing and almost
Sad beneath their fantastic disguises.
All sing in a minor key
Of victorious love and the opportune life,
They do not seem to believe in their happiness
And their song mingles with the moonlight,
With the still moonlight, sad and beautiful,
That sets the birds dreaming in the trees
And the fountains sobbing in ecstasy,
The tall slender fountains among marble statues.
Paul Verlaine, 1869
I must confess my disappointment. First of all, I don't know why, but I always assumed "Claire de Lune" meant "Pool of Moonlight", which, though it smacks of juvenile fantasy, struck me as vaguely more poetic than just "Moonlight". I knew 'Lune' meant 'moon' because I'm not a dope (and I took Latin and whatnot)... but in any case I expected something better. Maybe I just don't get poetry (actually that's not a maybe - I'm pretty positive I don't, I don't think I have the requisite patience to overcome my natural drawbacks where poetry is concerned), but it just wasn't inspiring. I don't know how Debussy got something like this (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SKd0VII-l3A) from that. I will say I was initially somewhat entranced by it, but as it went on it got worse. I don't know. Inspiration springs from odd places. I suppose that's all I have to say about it.
What is it with art and artists, eh?