Au Clair de Lune

Critics love to wax lyrical over how this piano miniature by Claude Debussy (1861-1918) captures dappled moonlight on lawn, river or forest, or evokes clouds, romance, nocturnal hush and most anything else. Its title, of course, means "Moonlight," and both words and concept fall easily on the page. But why does this third portion of Debussy's 1905 Suite Bergamasque achieve its ends so masterfully? It's a combination: the key of D flat, the overtones and flavors of which seem to favor rhapsodic playing and Debussy's mastery of strongly evocative sequences, especially those involving parallel chords of the ninth. At any level, it's a masterpiece.

The Ol'Kunnel first experienced it played by Jose Iturbi back in the early 50s. Recently, a friend of the Ol'Kunnel reported that he had a copy of this fine music on an old 45 rpm disk. On the reverse was Liebestraume No. 3 by Franz Liszt. My friend reported that he had played both so often as to finally wear it out. No problem. Listen to both here. 8-]