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DEBUSSY – Claire de Lune (from the ‘Suite Bergamasque’) – FOUR CELLOS

Other Identification:
The Suite Bergamasque is one of the most famous piano suites by Claude Debussy. It was first composed by Debussy around 1890, at the age of 28, but was significantly revised just before its publication in 1905. It seems that by the time a publisher came to Debussy in order to cash in on his fame and have these pieces published, the composer loathed their earlier piano style. While it is not known how much of the Suite was written in 1890 and how much was written in 1905, it is clear that Debussy changed the names of at least two of the pieces. “Passepied” had first been composed under the name “Pavane”, while “Clair de lune” was originally titled “Promenade sentimentale”.

Movements or sections:
The third and most famous movement of Suite bergamasque is “Clair de lune”, in D♭ major. Its name comes from Verlaine’s poem Clair de lune, “moonlight” in French. It is written in 9/8 meter, marked andante très expressif, and to be played mostly pianissimo. Musically, Debussy’s “Clair de lune” belongs to French Impressionism.

Instrumentation:
Johnstone has taken as a base a string quartet version in the public domain, and although this is reproduced for reference it is a mere guidance – registers and even note distributions have been sometimes rescheduled for this cello arrangement. Indeed, its performance on four cellos has to be most careful – the greatest problem for arrangers of this piece is how to find solutions to the wide playing registers and large intervallic leaps in the melody lines, whilst other harmonies are often very closely written. There are times when the writing appears in the lower ranges of the cello register; this is deliberate, and a soft floating bowing, almost ‘sur la touche’ is called for. Vibrato has to be sweet, but generally not wide and niether fast, making this a reference point of rehearsals for established cello ensembles enabling them to improve their musical colouring and shading.

2 PDFs, one with cellos 1 to 3, and the other of Cello 4 with the string quartet base score

Approximate difficulty:
Difficult (all parts)

Links (Audio – Visual), and known performances given by:
DEBUSSY – Clair de Lune, for 4 Cellos
Performance by Swiss-based cellist group with performers: Christopher Jepson / Alejandro Olóriz / Yolena Orea Sanchez / Benjamin Gregor Smith

The cellists William Butt, Rosalie Curlett, Martin Johnson and Ailbhe McDonagh play a brief snippet here:

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