Debussy: Rêverie - symphonic wind dectet

Rêverie

One of Debussy's popular piano pieces.

”The year 1890 witnessed the first flowering of French composer Claude Debussy's piano music in print, as the Deux Arabesques, the four-hand Petite Suite and, most significantly, the Suite bergamasque all found their way into published editions. 

Debussy was considerably less satisfied when Paris-based publisher Eugène Fromont issued his piano piece Rêverie from an old manuscript that had been lying about for some time. "I very much regret your decision to publish Rêverie," Debussy testily wrote to Fromont. "I wrote it in a hurry years ago and purely for commercial purposes. It is a work of no significance and, frankly, I consider it absolutely no good." 

The piece starts with a modal accompaniment figure that is started on the weakest beat of the bar. As Debussy's plaintive, simple melody gets underway on the beat, there is a rhythmic instability at first between the two parts. This is further obscured due to the wandering modal orientation of the harmony. The piece does not get firmly on the ground until the sixth bar. Debussy applies his melody lightly, and provides a bare, largely arpeggiated accompaniment that is rich in suspensions such as sevenths, ninths, and seconds.

The central section in E major is reminiscent of works by Grieg and Borodine.

Rêverie is wholly satisfying as a mood or relaxation piece, and unlike the vast wealth of similarly intentioned salon music that also appeared in the 1880s, it does not in the least seem dated.

Debussy's low opinion of Rêverie has not prevented it from taking pride of place among the very best known of his piano works. Debussy's original manuscript is no longer extant, and in terms of dating, that of the first published edition, as reflected above, is generally accepted. But in actuality, Rêverie was composed sometime between 1880 and 1884. As such, it is a milestone, as it represents the earliest known instance of Debussy working in the "impressionistic" musical vocabulary that eventually became his trademark.”

It is arranged here for symphonic wind dectet and bass.

The “preview” is a mp3.