Debussy was also inspired by the story of Pelléas et Mélisande and fashioned it into an opera. For his next project, he wrote conductor André Messager that he was undertaking "three symphonic sketches . . . under the general title La Mer. You do not know, perhaps, that I was intended for the fine career of a sailor and that only the chances of life led me away from it. Nevertheless, I still have a sincere passion for it."
Just as the French impressionist painters, like Monet and Degas, created new, abstract ways of looking at the world through their art, so Debussy and his compatriots pioneered a new musical vocabulary through which to depict their world. Debussy's sea is given voice through a series of whole tones, rather than the more familiar alternating pattern of whole- and half-tones handed down through Bach, Mozart, and Beethoven.
In the opening sketch, "From Dawn Until Noon on the Sea," the sea is at rest under the skies at dawn. Listen for small rhythmic figures and harmonic gems, rather than proper melodies. Debussy is painting scenes rather than telling stories with his music here. In "The Play of the Waves," the instrumental array shifts to a somewhat lighter touch; there is an added sparkle and shine to the music. The final sketch, "Dialogue of the Wind and the Sea," begins ominously and gathers momentum towards an explosion before falling silent. The orchestra can be heard in its lowest and highest extreme registers, framing the expanse of sea and sky as far as the eye can see. A new theme is heard, like a siren song, then developed and passed around, and the music surges towards a grand conclusion.
© 2008 Tyler S. Clark
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