ExclusiveDebussy: Danse sacrée et danse profane - 1. Danse sacrée

【Classical music and nature 古典音樂小站】Claude Debussy: Danse sacrée et danse profane - 1. Danse sacrée. This beautiful piece was played by United States Marine Band. It has Creative Commons license (CC BY 3.0 DEED Attribution 3.0 Unported) and is provided through www.musopen.org.

Danse sacrée et danse profane is a piece composed by Claude Debussy between April and May 1904. The piece was commissioned by Pleyel for Brussels Conservatoire competition, and it was first published in Paris by Durand, in May 1904. Its first performance was also in Paris the 6th of November 1904, at the Concert Colonne, under the direction of Édouard Colonne, and the harp soloist Madame Wurmser-Delcourt.

It is said, in 1894 the French piano maker Pleyel had just invented a chromatic harp which, because of an extra set of strings, removed the need for pedals. As part of their marketing for the instrument the firm commissioned Debussy to write a piece showing off the instrument’s capabilities. Of course, Debussy could have created something purely functional, but his Danses sacrée et profane has gone on to become one of his most admired works.

It seems that Debussy was sceptical about the potential of Pleyel’s new instrument, and indeed the company ceased production of the chromatic harp by 1930. Happily – as we’ll hear in this concert – the piece can be performed on pedal harp or even piano.

The ‘sacred’ and ‘profane’ labels of the title are perhaps better understood as ‘spiritual’ and ‘earthly’. The first of the two dances has an air of ancient religiosity and recalls medieval chants in the string melodies under the harp’s glistening melody. The composer himself once noted the ‘gravity’ of the opening dance in a letter to fellow composer Manuel de Falla.

By contrast, the composer pointed to the ‘grace’ of the second of the two dances. His exploration of the ‘profane’ – the earthly, the secular, the sensual – is a lilting waltz which nods to the lively music of the Mediterranean, particularly Spain. (Source: musopen/YT)

The video was filmed by Christian Schlegel and edited by Wenjing Ma.







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