Debussy's Études are his last major piano works They are a result of the maturation and crystallization of his style that appear to reflect the course of his life and are thus sublimated into an abstract and emotionally controlled language. Written in August and September 1915 at Pourville, they were dedicated "to the memory of Chopin", but Debussy had at one time also considered a dedication to Couperin. The immediate impulse for their creation might have been the work that earlier that same year Debussy had done as the editor of the piano works of Chopin for Jacques Durand. Just as Chopin, Debussy researched the tools of the contemporary piano technique and applied his conclusions in a manner that results in works of art that transcend their primary objective. In a letter to Durand, he stated: "These Études will be useful in teaching pianists that to embark on a musical career they must first have a formidable technique that does not exhaust itself in 'fierce hands'". Furthermore, following the old "masters" who honoured individual hand construction and the skill level of the musicians, he consciously avoided suggesting fingerings throughout the cycle. Probably because of their surprising abstractness, the studies were initially considered dull and technically too specific.
The first one, Pour les 'cinq doigts' - d'après Monsieur Czerny is a parody related to Doctor Gradus ad Parnassum from Children's Corner . It is followed by the study Pour les tierces , with character of a prelude, and the one Pour les quartes , which has the freedom of a fantasy. Referring to the study Pour les sixtes , Debussy commented in a letter to his publisher: "For a very long time, the continuous use of sixths reminded me of pretentious Misses, sitting in a drawing room, sulking over their embroidery, while envying the scandalous laughter of the mad ninths [des folles neuvièmes]...Yet, here I am writing the étude, in which attention to the sixth goes so far as to organise its harmonies solely with the aggregates of this interval, and - it is not ugly! (Mea culpa...)" The study Pour les octaves is written in ternary form and is extrovert character.
The last study of the first volume is a curious one, having been written Pour les huit doigts . In a footnote at the beginning Debussy suggested that "In this etude, the changing position of the hands makes the use of the thumbs awkward and acrobatic in performance". Only after hearing Marguerite Long's performance of it Debussy was apparently convinced of the legitimacy of using thumbs contrary to his instruction. The character of this piece is essentially one of moto perpetuo in a restricted space and thus akin to Mouvement of the Images .
The second volume begins with the study Pour les degrées chromatiques that uses a four-bar melodic phrase as a base for derivatives in a texture that is complemented by a perpetual movement in the chromatic scale that resembles the previous study. The study for the ornaments, Pour les agreements , was the last to be composed. Debussy indicated that it follows the form of a barcarolle, written in short sections. Some of the ornaments are indicated in small notes while others are fully notated. The study Pour les notes répétées is of a toccata-like character with variations in articulation. Several sections that evoke the spirit of some preludes (Les collines, Des pas sur la neige) appear in the study Pour le sonorities opposés and some authors even consider it autobiographical. It is a study of timbrical contrasts that follows orchestration procedures. Broken chords of at least five different notes of a diatonic scale are the technical basis for the study Pour les arpèges composés . In its middle section, where the indication in the score lumineux makes one think of Scriabin's understanding of the sounds in terms of luminosity and colours, these chords are transformed into grupetti.
The strong rhythm and unusual power of the final study, Pour les accords , suggest new expressive paths, to be explored by other composers, such as Stravinsky. Debussy expressed his relief upon completion of the cycle: "Last night, at midnight , I copied the last note of the 'Études'. OUF! ... The most detailed Japanese print is child's play, compared to the graphism of some of the pages, but I am happy. It is good work."
The suite Le tombeau de Couperinwas being written at the same time as Ravel's Trio, between 1914 and1917. It was premiered by Marguerite Long in Salle Gaveau at a concert of the Societé Musicale Independente in 1919, in what was her first public appearance since the end of war and Debussy's death, and elicited a warm and enthusiastic reception. Debussy made a partial orchestration of it (Prelude, Forlane, Menuet, Rigaudon) , that Cortot considered as the definitive version, in the same year and then it was used for a ballet in 1920.
The composer indicated that "the homage is directed less in fact to Couperin himself than to French music of the eighteenth century." It is worth mentioning that Ravel himself was not involved in editing or promoting performances of the music of that age.
As for the validity of the process of paying homage by using the style of a certain composer in the twentieth century, Ravel had an educative guideline, which he used to share with his pupils: "Copy, and if while copying, you remain yourself, that's because you have something to say." The inclusion of a Forlane , a relatively obscure dance, was Ravel's bemused reaction to Pope Pius X's attack on the lasciviousness of tango and his efforts to revive forlane , a dance that originated in Venice between 17 th and 18 th centuries. Ravel made a reference to the episode in a letter: "I'm working on something for the Pope. You know that this august personage has just launched a new dance, the forlane. I am transcribing one by Couperin...I will see about getting it danced at the Vatican by Mistinguette and Colette Willy in drag".
The circumstances behind the dedication of the movements of this Suite do not correspond to the tone of the above reference: although most of the music had been written before, each of the six pieces was dedicated to the memory of a friend fallen in WWI. However, because of the very spirit that emanates from the music itself, Ravel was at the time criticised for having writing "merry music" for such a sombre occasion.
Overall, the Suite's formal construction seems to have been influenced by Malayan pantun poetry (also the case of the Piano Trio). In Western literature this form was made famous through Baudelaire's Harmonies du soir . Briefly, a four-line stanza is made up of two contrasted couplets, and the 2 nd and 4 th line reappear as the 1 st and 3 rd of the next stanza, that being the procedure that Ravel seems to have particularly followed.
The first movement, Prélude , also contains a fugue and was originally entitled Prologue . In spite of his satirical remark, Ravel did take composing seriously, and to prepare for writing Forlane , he transcribed for piano a forlane from Couperin's Concerts royaux . Rigaudon opens with what was a new technique particular to clavecinistes and for which a piece employing it was called pièce croisée : it involves rapid hand crossing. Menuet 's middle section is a Musette , a typical folklike dance imitating the sound of the bagpipe. Although Ravel had indicated that the ending of Toccata was "pure Saint-Saëns", probably wanting to impart some irony to the comment, the reference turned out to be an artistic tribute, as the piece's texture and structure exhibit remarkable clarity and balance and thus make the best possible case for the neo-classical style.
La Valsewas a piece that took Ravel fourteen years to formulate and crystallise, having begun as a "symphonic poem" Wien and ended as a "choreographic poem" La Valse . Meant to represent an "apotheosis of the Viennese waltz", it follows the customary form of a series of enchained waltzes that can be divided into two sections, the second of which is a free recapitulation. The work was composed in 1919-20, and was premiered in the same year by the Lamoureux Orchestra. Its first ballet presentation, by Ida Rubinstein's troupe, took place at the Paris Opéra in 1929. Both the piano solo version and the version for two pianos appeared in print in 1920, before the orchestral version of 1921. The two piano version was the first to be performed, two months before the orchestral one, in October 1920, and that performance indeed took place in Vienna , at Arnold Schönberg's Society for Private Musical Performances, with Alfredo Casella and Ravel at the pianos.
Curiously enough, Ravel played the piece for Diaghilev in Paris in April 1920, in Stravinsky's company. Diaghilev pronounced it "a portrait of a ballet, a painting of a ballet" while Stravinsky, obviously seeking to remain neutral, made no comment. This event marked the end of Ravel's relationship with Diaghilev and only formal contact was kept afterwards with Stravinsky. In another backhanded compliment, Darius Milhaud reviewed it as "Saint-Saëns for the Russian ballet". Here is how Ravel, who authored the argument for the ballet, describes the setting in the score: "Clouds whirl about. Occasionally they part to allow a glimpse of waltzing couples. As they gradually evaporate one can discern a gigantic hall, filled by a crowd of dancers in motion. The stage gradually brightens. The glow of the chandeliers breaks out fortissimo. An Imperial Court about 1855".
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