MU9512a Advanced Orchestration

CLAUDE DEBUSSY – JEUX

Biographical summary:

• Jeux is the last work for orchestra written by Claude Debussy. It has been
considered the first work of the composer’s ‘late period’.
• Described as a “poème dansé” (literally a “danced poem”), it was originally
intended to accompany a ballet, and was written for the Ballets Russes of
Serge Diaghilev to choreography by Vaslav Nijinsky.
• Debussy initially objected to the scenario, but reconsidered the commission
when Diaghilev doubled the fee.
• At this time, Debussy had been diagnosed with cancer for three years, and
his second wife, Emma, had been disinherited upon his marriage to him. He
was burdened with illness and debt.
• Debussy wrote the score quickly, from mid-August to mid-September 1912.
• Upon completion, Debussy was pleased with the score. “How was I able to
forget the cares of this world, and manage to write music that is nevertheless
joyous and alive with droll rhythms? Nature, so absurdly harsh, sometimes
takes pity, it seems on her children.”
• Jeux was premiered on May 15, 1913 in Paris. It started the Russian ballet
season.
• Debussy disliked Nikinsky’s choreography so much that he left in the middle
of the performance to smoke a cigarette at the stage door. (“The man adds
up [32nd notes] with his feet, and proves the results with his arms… it is ugly.
Dalcrozian in fact.”)
• Two weeks later, The Rite of Spring, premièred in the same theatre by
Diaghilev’s company. Any hostility or acclaim that Jeux might have provoked
was quickly overshadowed.
• Stravinsky claimed to be in close contact with Debussy during the
composition of Jeux and said that Debussy “frequently consulted me about
problems of orchestration”. He went on to say: “I consider Jeux an orchestral
masterpiece, though I think some of the music is ‘trop Lalique’”.
• On March 1, 1914, Jeux was performed as an orchestral piece. In 1920 and
1923 there were two revivals of the ballet. The first commercial recording
was made in 1947 and then in the late 1950s the work started to come back
into concert repertoire. A critical edition of the score, prepared by Pierre
Boulez and Myriam Chimènes, was published in 1988.
• The number of tempo markings in Jeux is around 60. Enough that it has been
described as changing speed and nuance every two measures.
• Boulez: “The work requires only a single tempo for regulating the
development of thematic ideas; this accounts for the extremely difficult
interpretation, since that fundamental unity must be retained, by
distinguishing everything from the intermediary passages which move in
again and again.”
• Likewise, the thematic motifs of Jeux are very short, often two measures long
 or constructed from two-measure building blocks.
• Jeux has been analyzed as a series of variations, but not in the traditional
sense. The piece is in a state of perpetual variation, more closely linked with
the works of the Viennese masters.
• Stravinsky: “These qualities are French, even peculiarly French perhaps, but
they are new. The work’s influence on Boulez is therefore natural (and
natural too is its lack of influence on me, for its free-beat, loose bar-lines are
worlds apart from my rarely-rubato, strong bar-line music).”
• The program described to the audience at the premiere of Jeux is as follows:
“The scene is a garden at dusk; a tennis ball has been lost; a boy and two
girls are searching for it. The artificial light of the large electric lamps
shedding fantastic rays about them suggests the idea of childish games: they
play hide and seek, they try to catch one another, they quarrel, they sulk
without cause. The night is warm, the sky is bathed in pale light; they
embrace. But the spell is broken by another tennis ball thrown in
mischievously by an unknown hand. Surprised and alarmed, the boy and
girls disappear into the nocturnal depths of the garden.”
• In fact, the story was originally intended to describe a homosexual encounter
between three young men, and Nijinsky wanted to include a plane crash. The
final version is much more tame, but the subversive nature of the original is
still quite present in the score… Debussy described it to Stravinsky as a
“ménage a trios”.

General techniques of Orchestration:

• Debussy composed “along the subject”, so that the music and visual
association are at all times equally present. The orchestra is divided into
smaller groups of instruments in order to preserve the clarity of motives.
• The bass function is often taken over by the 2nd cellos. They are better suited
to the shorter and faster motives than the double bass (e.g. mm. 29-33, 84-
104, 166-177).
• Orchestral arrangement often resembles chamber music (e.g. mm. 1-8, 9-17,
18-24, 25-34. Four desks in violins, divisi string lines, pizzicato, “naturel”,
“léger”.)
• Full orchestral tuttis rarely occur (mm. 43-46, 47-57); details of dynamics
provide development, contrast and climax (m. 70).
• Subtle increases and decreases in dynamics and orchestral texture provide
interest. No extended sections where a high degree of intensity is maintained
over a long duration of time (mm. 71--91. Variations in tempo, “retenu”, “au
mouvement”).
• Debussy orchestrates small motivic cells in an almost pointillistic fashion. For
him, the composition of line is more important than melody:

“The actual experience in Bach’s music is not the nature of the melody, but the
conduct of its line; frequently the strongest impression is received by the
isolated or general coincidence of several lines running in the same direction. In
that ornamental conception the music acquires a technical certainty, with which
it becomes effective on the audience and gives rise to certain associations.”
 • Pierre Boulez described the orchestration as “a logical consequence of the
attempts contained in works such a La Mer or Ibéria concerning the splitting
up of the orchestral sound and the disposition of the sound.”

Specific points of interest:

Kiss motive
• mm. 262-283 (6:31). Instrumentation: Begins with an ascending line
between Clarinet in A and Clarinet in B-flat. Then Harps I and II glissando,
with a chromatic descending line between Flutes I and II. Rising three note
motive (e.g. F-sharp, G, B-flat) is played by Oboes, English Horn, Clarinets in
A and B-flat at mm. 263-264. Violin II and Violas have fingered tremolo
(minor thirds). A rising arpeggio is played by the first desk of Violin I. Basses
have a mix of arco and pizz on the same notes. In m. 273 Violin I and Oboes,
English Horn and Clarinets play the principal melody together, while the other
instruments continue with the same motives. At m. 278 the English Horn has
a solo over a thinner orchestral texture. At. m. 279, one desk of the Cellos
and one desk of Violin I play quietly together. D# minor?
• mm. 383-430 (9:34) Very different depiction of the Kiss. Retenu. Melody is
played by Violin I, Violin II and Violas tutti and con sordino. They are joined
by the Flutes, Oboes and Clarinets at m. 385. At m. 387 the dance “returns
gradually to the tempo of the waltz”. Woodwinds begin a a constant 16th
note pattern accompanied by Cellos and Basses pizzicato. At m. 391, Violin II
and Viola join in the Cello pizz, and then at m. 393, Violin II joins the faster
patterns played by the winds, only in 32nd notes. The woodwinds and Violin
I’s have an upward sweeping line to m. 296 Joyeux. The dance remains lively
until m. 431.
• mm. 677-688 (16:22) Very spare texture. Three desks of Violin I. Two desks
of Violin II. Four desks of Violas. Piano dynamic that moves to pianissimo at
m. 684. Harmonics in Harp I. Con sordino Horn I and II. Short and soft
melody in Flute I, Oboe I and English Horn. Perdendosi.

The Consolation
• mm. 431-455 (10:35) Only Violin I, Violin II pizz and Flutes play. At m. 435
there is a Violin I solo with three desks of Violin I, three desks of Violas, and 1
desk of Cellos con sordino. The Clarinets in A play together in thirds, with
very delicate touches (harmonics) added by Harp I. Flutes and oboes play
together two lines in contrary motion très doux. At m. 441, another desk of
Cellos is added, and in the next measure; Horns con sordino. At m. 245 the
texture thickens with 6 desks of Violin I, Violin II and Violas. The Violin I solo
continues until m. 451, when “the second girl succeeds in taking her in her
arms.” The Violas take over the Clarinet part from earlier concluding the
section at m. 455.
“Violent”:
• mm. 611-677 (15:25) Here we have a tempo indication “gradually more
animated.” Strings play bowed tremelo tutti, except for Bass II, who plays
pizz. Horns and trumpets play con sordino. Harp I has sweeping arpeggios.
The principal melodic material is in the woodwinds. A relatively thicker
orchestral is maintained up until rehearsal 74 (m. 645), where the expression
marking “violent” appears. There are further articulation markings “very
accented” and forte. The entire orchestra plays tutti here. Flute I, Violin I
and Violin II play rhythmically together; Flute II, Oboes and Bassoons play
together; and English Horn, Horns and Violas play together. Cellos and Bass
play together pizz and col legno. This texture continues. At rehearsal 75
another instance of “violent” occurs, this time, emphasized by a glissando
sweep in Harp I and II. The dynamics stay forte until rehearsal 78, where the
section opens up to a fortissimo rhythmic motive played by Oboes, English
Horn, Clarinet, Bassoons, Horns, Trumpet and Violin I. The other instruments
play a sustained harmony, tremolo in Violin II and Violas. M. 677 denotes the
“triple kiss” of the young man and the two girls.

Tennis Ball motive

• mm. 70-77 (1:58) Sustained harmony in Piccolos, Flutes, Trumpets, Violin I
and Violin II. Then, a downward sweep in Piccolos, Flutes and Violin I. Two
upward sweeps in Harp I and II follow, glissand. A short motive played
between Oboes, Bassoons and Horns; and Violin II and Violas.
• mm. 702-689 (7:06) Downwards arpeggio in Flute I and II, Clarinets in B-flat,
and downwards tremolo gliss in Violins I and II divisi. Fingered tremolo by
winds and strings (no Viola or Cello), accompanied by sustains in Horn I and
II, and Trumpet I and II. Upward gliss in Harp I and II leads to space and
single note motive between Violin I, Violin II and Harp I and II.

The ending
• mm. 702-709 (17:23) Sustained harmonies in all instruments except
quintuplet descending chromatic lines in half of the Violin I, Violin II and
Violas. Basses tacet. Single note motive in Harps (harmonics) and a trill
(tremolo) in the Timpani. Last four measures recall the tennis ball motive,
first in the strings, and then the whole orchestra tutti.