Publication date:
15 September 2017Length of book:
254 pagesPublisher
Rowman & Littlefield PublishersISBN-13: 9781442269828
Claude Debussy’s exquisite piano works have captivated generations with their dreamlike atmosphere and mysterious soundscapes.Written in Paris at the height of the Belle Époque, the music creates a soundtrack for Parisians’ enjoyment of such delights as clowns, mermaids, eccentric dances, and the dark tales of Edgar Allan Poe. Debussy’s Paris: Piano Portraits of the Belle Époque explores how key works reflect not only the most appealing and innocent aspects of Paris but also more disquieting attitudes of the time such as racism, colonial domination, and nationalistic hostility. Debussy left no avenue unexplored, and his piano works present a sweeping overview of the passions, vices, and obsessions of the era.
Pianist Catherine Kautsky reveals little-known elements of Parisian culture and weaves the music, the man, the city, and the era into an indissoluble whole. Her portrait will delight anyone who has ever been entranced by Debussy’s music or the city that inspired it.
Pianist Catherine Kautsky reveals little-known elements of Parisian culture and weaves the music, the man, the city, and the era into an indissoluble whole. Her portrait will delight anyone who has ever been entranced by Debussy’s music or the city that inspired it.
In this fascinating fusion of music, literature, and social history, Kautsky, a pianist and piano professor, transports us to the milieu of a composer whose music captured the spirit of the times. Her purpose, she writes, isn't to ‘to provide a lengthy biography of Claude Debussy but rather to view him through the lens of his piano music and the city he so fully embraced.’ Debussy, ‘the dreamy French composer par excellence,’ counted among his acquaintances luminaries of the worlds of art (Degas, Gauguin, Rodin); literature (Proust, Mallarmé, Colette); and dance (Nijinsky, Diaghilev, Loie Fuller). Setting a number of his compositions in the context of the times, Kautsky explores a glittering world of music, dance, art, and poetry as well as its less appealing underside of racist minstrel shows, colonization, and nationalism. Her graceful and erudite prose is embellished with period illustrations and bolstered by a carefully selected bibliography. Kautsky has also recorded the complete Debussy Preludes (Centaur, 2014), a work that figures prominently in these pages. A treat for music lovers, Francophiles, and anyone who appreciates the arts.