debussy's orchestral collaborations, 1911-13. 1 le martyre de saint-sébastien .pdf

Debussy's Orchestral Collaborations, 1911-13. 1: Le martyre de Saint-SébastienAuthor(s): Robert OrledgeReviewed work(s):Source: The Musical Times, Vol. 115, No. 1582 (Dec., 1974), pp. 1030-1033+1035Published by: Musical Times Publications Ltd.Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/960380 .

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Debussy's Orchestral Collaborations, 1911-13 1: Le martyre de Saint-Sebastien

Robert Orledge The aim of these articles on Debussy's orchestral collaborations with Caplet and Koechlin is to trace the exact extent of Debussy's participation in the orchestration. Apart from the unimaginative chorus parts in the last act of Le martyre, there can be no doubt that the music itself was composed solely by Debussy, as was the whole of the ballet Khamma, on whicfi a second article will follow shortly. Documentary evidence on the literary, external and production aspects of these collaborations is already fairly complete1 and is only summarized briefly here in the interests of clarity and perspective. The principal approach is from the musical angle, which has so far been treated only in passing.

Debussy met his most important collaborator, Andre Caplet, through G. Jean-Aubry in 1907, the year that Caplet organized a concert of Debussy's works in his native Le Havre. Debussy came to have great respect for Caplet as composer, musician and conductor, and also as a friend. He recognized his talents immediately, and wrote to Jean-Aubry in January 1908 after hearing two of Caplet's songs for the first time:2

This Caplet is an artist. He knows how to capture a sonorous atmosphere, and with a pleasing sensibility, a sense of proportion; something sufficiently rare that one cannot believe it in our times of music which is either haphazard or sealed like a cork!

Caplet's similar attraction to Poe, which led to the Conte fantastique (after The Mask of the Red Death) for chromatic harp and string quartet in 1919, probably served to strengthen the tie between the pair, Caplet being the more practical and industrious though lacking Debussy's vision and consummate taste. His performances of Debussy's music did much to consolidate the latter's international reputation, and in his role as amanuensis Debussy had occasion to call him 'le tombeau des fautes', 'I'ange des corrections'. Besides Saint-Sebastien, Caplet completed the orchestration of Gigues (1912) and La boite a joujoux (1919), orchestrated Pagodes and Children's Corner (1910), reorchestrated the early song Le jet d'eau (first orchestrated by Debussy in 1907), and arranged Iberia and La mer for two and three pianos respectively and Gigues for piano duet. He also prepared the vocal score for Le martyre in 1911, and the four-movement concert suite based on Debussy's incidental music in 1912.

It was the time element which compelled Debussy to call on Caplet's services over Le martyre early lOn Le martyre see G. Tosi, ed.: Claude Debussy et Gabriele d'Annunzio: correspondance inedite (Paris, 1948) for a full account of its genesis and fruition. Also E. Lockspeiser: Debussy: his Life and Mind, ii (London, 1965), 157-67; L. Vallas: Claude Debussy: his Life and Works (Paris, 1933, Eng. trans M. and G. O'Brien, rev. 1973), 224-34; G. Cohen: 'Gabriele d'Annunzio et Le Martyre de Saint-Sebastien', Mercure de France, xci/336 (1911), 688-709; ReM (1957), special number on Le martyre. 2quoted in Claude Debussy: Lettres inedites a Andre Caplet (1908-14) (Monaco, 1957), 23

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in 1911. While the original appeal was for help with 'the material aspects of his professional work', the collaboration developed into something more important. Ida Rubinstein, in league with d'Annunzio, had first approached Roger-Ducasse in November 1910 as composer for Le martyre. After he regretfully declined,3 d'Annunzio asked Ida Rubinstein if he 'dared' approach Debussy. She replied that he should do so personally, but as a precaution also secured an acceptance in principle from Florent Schmitt. Debussy appears to have accepted the commission some time around 7-9 December 1910 (the letter has not survived). D'Annunzio congratulated him on his decision in a telegram dated 10 December, and promptly announced the fact in the papers the following day. Letters to Emma Debussy from d'Annunzio and the impresario Gabriel Astruc show that much persuasion on her part proved necessary despite the promise of a considerable (and much needed) financial reward.

So far, Debussy had no knowledge of the text of Le martyre; Act 3 ('musically the most important') arrived first, on 9 January 1911, followed by Act 1 on 13 February. The complete five-act poem was not finished until 2 March, just over two and a half months before the date fixed for its premiere at the Theatre du Chatelet (22 May). The score itself seems to have been written in under three months, possibly nearer two. Debussy wrote to d'Annunzio on 29 January that it was 'not without a certain terror that I see the moment approaching when I must actually write something',4 and on 14 February, perhaps finally prompted to face the task by the arrival of another act the day before, wrote to Caplet: 'I have very little time to write a great deal of music-you know how much this pleases me! So there is not a moment to lose in deciding'.5 This implies that Debussy was only just beginning to write his score, if in fact he had begun. In early February he was also occupied with rehearsals for a revival of Pelleas et Mdlisande which took place on the 18th, and had spent much of January finishing the second version of Gigues. From a letter to Durand it appears that the last pages of the score may have been delivered in April, as he says: 'Here, if you agree, is the last appeal of St Sebastian, and I confess that I am not displeased with it'. The strain of forced production was evident, as he added: 'As I have told you several times already, I am at the end of my tether'.6 St Sebastian's last appeal, however, comes in Act 4, so the music of Act 5 in Paradise may well have taken Debussy into May 3see Tosi, op cit, 22; Roger-Ducasse's two letters to d'Annunzio are reproduced on p.114. 4Tosi; op cit., letter 16, 63-4; Debussy himself said the score took him only 'two months' (Comoedia, 18 May 1911; see below). 5quoted in Lockspeiser: op cit, 160 6Lockspeiser: op cit, 164n



to tie up with Vuillermoz's information in Musiques d'aujourd'hui7 that Debussy did not appear in the theatre until the day of the first dress rehearsal.

Debussy's letter to Caplet on 14 February ended with the words 'nothing definite for the moment, but I think that there will be something interesting in this matter for you later on', which implies that Caplet was drawn into the project sometime in late February or early March 1911. Few letters survive concerning Caplet's collaboration in Le martyre; one, an undated letter from d'Annunzio to Debussy,8 suggests that he was not involved until the last month of the project. D'Annunzio implies that he has only just met Caplet, who nevertheless 'inspired in me the warmest sympathy'. This gladdened Debussy 'infinitely', though he added that he was 'a little like a conductor who feared a strike!'9 Very few dated letters exist which refer to the composition of Le martyre in any detail, and the almost complete silence in March bears witness to Debussy's forced labour. We do know however that he participated in concerts of his music on 5, 25 and 29 March, which make the rapid production of the score seem even more incredible.

Normally Debussy liked to work on several projects simultaneouly, returning to each from time to time. How rushed he was with Le martyre can be seen from a comparison with Khamma, a 20- minute ballet as opposed to five-act drama with music. This was written in just over three months (late December 1911 to early April 1912). Jeux, written and orchestrated at great speed in just over a month (August-September 1912), is much less than half the length of the music of Le martyre; and Debussy also orchestrated a fair proportion of Le martyre himself, as we shall see.

Various accounts exist of the composition of Le martyre. In an interview10 just before the first performance Debussy claimed that he 'wrote in two months a score which in the ordinary way would have taken me a year'. Inghelhrecht, the chorusmaster under Caplet in 1911, said that Debussy 'composed day and night, shut up at his home, sending off the pages of the score one by one to the printer. "I am labouring like a piece- worker", he declared, "with never a look back" '. 11 This implies that Debussy was doing everything himself, and Emile Vuillermoz, acting as general repetiteur, gives a more likely version: 'The music arrived at the theatre page by page, hastily copied and corrected in pencil! Debussy remained invisible, shut up in his house, writing and revising this work up to the last minute'.12

Nevertheless, Debussy's letters to d'Annunzio show how much he was inspired by the project, especially in the early stages,13 and Durand readily supported this when he said:

Debussy was captivated by the subject of Saint- Sebastien ... he wrote this marvellous score in a

8Tosi: op cit, letter 24, p.72; Tosi suggests April/May 1911 for 7(Paris, 1923), 179 this, but April would seem more likely. 9Tosi: op cit, letter 25, p.73; again undated lOwith Rene Bizet, Comoedia (18 May 1911) "quoted Lockspeiser: op cit, 164n I2op cit, 176 13see Tosi: op cit, letters 16 and 18, pp.63-6

state of exultation. The mystical subject appealed to his innermost aesthetic. In addition, he had his own ideas, which he expounded to me, on the Passion mimed by Saint Sebastian; ideas stamped with a profound originality.14

* In his excellent section on Le martyre, Lockspeiser rather dauntingly considers it 'unlikely that we shall ever be certain of the extent of Caplet's participation in Saint-Sebastien',15 but since he collected his material the three incomplete scores (two in the Paris Opera Library, one in the possession of the publisher Durand which Lockspeiser did not see) have been amalgamated to produce a complete autograph score.16 As he points out, the letters to Caplet in the Sheridan Russell collection 17 un- fortunately contain no relevant information on the collaboration, and all we have on the musical side are the two tantalizing fragments reproduced in the same volume with an extract from the autograph score.18 The Opera library catalogue attempts an analysis of which parts of their manuscript are by Caplet and which by Debussy, but the librarians remain unaware that the score has been reassembled since Lockspeiser consulted it, and that the auto- graphs of Act 1, Act 3 nos. 1 and 6, and Act 5 are now present. As to the authorship of the rest, their conclusions are as follows:

Act 2: Prelude 8: ff. 19 by Caplet, except f.1. 'Tres modere' added by Debussy. [no.2]: 7 ff. By Debussy except marginal instrumental indications and f. 1 titles. no.3: 10pp. By Caplet; 'vox coelestis' part in a third hand.

Act 3: no.2 [lp.]. By Debussy. no.3: ff.4-6. By Caplet, except f.4. no.4: 15 ff. By Caplet, no vocal parts. no.5: ff.16-19. By Caplet, no vocal parts. no.7: 6pp. By Debussy, except words and marginal instrumental indications.

Act 4: Prelude. 6ff. By Caplet. no.2: 4pp. By Debussy except movement title and marginal instrumental indications. no.3: 16pp. By Caplet, except p.1 'modere', p.3 'poco a poco cresc' (by Debussy). 'Comme une plainte' perhaps by Debussy.

Thus of the three almost complete central acts it would appear that the bulk was orchestrated by Caplet, with Debussy orchestrating only Act 2 no.2, Act 3 nos.2 and 7, and Act 4 no.2, as well as adding a few tempo markings and other indications when he came to approve Caplet's finished article. Whether Caplet had any part in the 'harmoni- zation of certain passages clearly fixed in [Debussy's] mind' but only 'noted briefly', as Vuillermoz suggested at the time of the 1957 Paris Opera revival, cannot be ascertained from the autograph score, but it is reasonable to assume that the sections in Debussy's hand were completely composed and orchestrated by him, as he certainly would not have had the time to recopy work already done by Caplet. There are no signs in the autograph score of the revision of Le martyre for operatic performance 14Quelques souvenirs d'un editeur de musique, 2nd ser. (Paris, 1925), 21-2 15op cit, 164 160pera Res. 2004 17op cit (note 2) S8between pp.56 and 57 19All folios have blank versos.

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which Debussy planned in 1914. The problem lies in the great similarity between

the handwriting of Debussy and Caplet, and here the clue is given by Lockspeiser when he says that the third score in the possession of Durand is 'in Debussy's hand'.20 The assumption that this contained the music missing in the Opera catalogue (Acts 1 and 5) proved to be correct, and a detailed study of the handwriting in the now complete score showed that most of Act 1 and the whole of Act 5 were orchestrated by Debussy. Caplet took over (in pencil) for the last 11 pages of Act 1, and orchestrated most of Acts 2-4, with only a few minor corrections by Debussy. There was also evidence of at least three further hands in the score, mostly in the vocal parts, but also in the scoring of Act 3 no.7 and Act 4 no. 2. These scenes were apparent- ly the work of the same third person and are far untidier than the rest of the score, making them unlikely to be copies of work already completed by Debussy or Caplet. The writing may possibly be that of Debussy or Caplet in extreme haste, but this is also unlikely as the marginal instrument lists use uncharacteristic abbreviations, the musical writing is substantially different, and the evidence of haste elsewhere in the score is only momentary, never involving a complete movement.

My handwriting study was aided by a prior knowledge of Debussy's autograph scores, particularly the Durand score of Khamma (pp.1-10). In general, Caplet's writing is slightly larger and neater than Debussy's, showing closer attention to minute detail, especially in the repetition of key signatures and clefs. Caplet also tended to space his instruments to cover the entire page, whereas Debussy liked to leave blank spaces at the top and bottom of his, without any between the instrumental groups, which he meticulously bracketed together in a special way. The following shows some of the most fundamental differences between the two composers' style of instrumental abbreviations:

Debussy: C Ang; Hb; Cl; VO; VC. Caplet: C.a; Htb; Clar; V [violin]; velles. This study enabled me to complete and correct

the Opera catalogue as follows: ACT 1: Prelude and duet (Les Jumeaux) 8ff. in black

ink, by Debussy [OS 1-18],21 including the vocal parts and the later additions of the second vocal part on f.7. Some additions by Caplet include the movement title and 'Un peu anim6 qu'au debut (f.3), 'poco rit/a tempo' (f.4 bars 1-2). no.2: 5ff. in black ink, by Debussy [OS 19-26]. no.3: 21ff., numbered 21-4222 [OS 27-63]: (a) ff. 21-31 in black ink by Debussy plus a few additions by Caplet; (b) ff. 32-42 in pencil by Caplet23 [double bar and change to six sharps at the words: LE SAINT 'Je danse sur l'ardeur des lys', OS 47 bar 4]; some additions by Debussy, e.g. 'Chorus Seraphicus' (f.3 5) and probably the words of this part up to the end of Act 1.

ACT 2: nos.1-3, by Caplet [OS 64-98]; some additions by Debussy, e.g. 'Tres modere' (no.1, f.3).

20op cit, 163n 21OS numbers are from the Durand printed orchestral score (1911), 202pp. 22Originally ff. 13-34, indicating that an eight-page cut may have been made by Debussy. 23The rest of the score is in pencil unless otherwise indicated.

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Start marked 'pour le 3 Mai', probably by Caplet. In no.3, bars 1-5 of the 'vox coelestis' part are by Caplet, the rest (from 'II est tout clair sur mes genoux' to the end) are in black ink in a third hand, possibly that of Mlle F6art, who sang the part at the premiere, or that of Inghelbrecht or Vuillermoz. Parts of no.3 (especially p.2) show that Caplet was rushed for time, although only the marginal instrumental lists suffer.

ACT 3: nos.1-5, by Caplet [OS 99-132]; in no.3 (p.5, bars 4-5) Debussy altered the text of the bass part for 'Les Citharedes' from a literal repeat of the previous phrase 'Seigneur de Delos et de Smirthe' to the more poetic 'Beau roi chevelu de lumiere'. The original version was reverted to in OS 106 bars 1-2, although Debussy's amendment was not erased from the autograph score.

Further evidence of Caplet's being pressed for time occurs in no.4, which has no vocal parts and has identical orchestral passages repeated with the abbreviations A and B. Debussy used this device in the opening section of Khamma. No.5 also lacks the 'vox sola' part found in the printed score. no.6: 6pp., by Caplet and Debussy [OS 133-40]. Most of the music is by Caplet, but the instrumental lists on pp.1-2 were drawn up by Debussy with the usual blank stave at the bottom. The string tremolando parts and the corrections to the harp glissandos (pp.2-3) are almost certainly by Debussy, as are the vocal parts from 'Du noir Hades, oiu sont les ames' (p.4, fig.3) onwards. no.7: 6pp., mostly in a third hand, though some of the music and the tempo indications could be by Caplet [OS 143-8]. The score is very sketchy, written with a much blacker pencil; the orchestral abbreviations, Alti, vcelli etc, were never used by Debussy or Caplet. There are also no abbreviations for repeated orchestral material.

ACT 4: no.1: Prelude, 6ff., by Caplet [OS 149-55]. no.2: 4pp., in the same hand as Act 3 no.7, with some alterations by Debussy, e.g. strings and horn parts on p.4 and the stage directions on p.1 [OS 156-60]. no.3: 16pp., by Caplet [OS 161-75]. The vocal parts in black ink are in a thin copper-plate hand different from that used in Act 3 no.7 and Act 4 no.2, or in the vocal parts of Act 2 no.3 bar 6f. Thus at least five people were employed in the preparation of the 'autograph' score. As the vocal parts of Act 2 no.3 were begun by Caplet, it would appear that the orchestral score was written first with a blank space left for the vocal parts to be completed, and not vice versa. Refer- ence is made on Act 4 no.3 p.1 to the copyist M. Colombin; the numbers '8.7.4.4.4.' probably refer to string parts. Again Debussy added a few minor corrections and tempo indications.

ACT 5: Complete score by Debussy, except for the 'Chorus Martyrum' parts in black ink (no.2) which seem to be in the same hand as the vocal parts of Act 2 no.3. In this case alone, the vocal parts appear to have been prepared first, with space left for the orchestration [OS 176-202]. Besides adding some tempo indications and stage

directions to the sections orchestrated by Caplet in Acts 1 to 4, Debussy also made a few changes in the orchestration. As with Khamma, he obviously surveyed the work of his collaborator in detail but in the end changed very little, and then mostly in the interests of orchestral clarity and contrast. Towards the end of Act 1 no.3 Debussy cut two bars from Caplet's quiet sustained chord on trum-



pets and first and second trombones (f.40 bars 4-6; OS 60 bars 2-4). He brought them in again with the entry of the third trombone and tuba and a new rising thematic entry on the three harps. This harp entry was originally doubled on the violins, but Debussy saved their entry until the next double bar (f.41 bar 1; OS 61 bar 1) giving a further change of texture after the now more rapid brass and harp climax.

In Act 2 no.2 (f.2 bar 4f; OS 76 bar If) Caplet originally had sustained string parts and semi- quaver arpeggio figuration on the two flutes. Debussy reversed these roles putting the flute parts on the first violins (divisi a 6), and doubled the viola tenor part on english horn in the process; this gave the music a more sonorous sheen at the words 'mon ame, sous le ciel clement'. In the Act 4 Prelude (p.4 bar 3f; OS 153 bar 3f) Debussy rearranged Caplet's scoring for divided tremolando strings (viola, cello, bass) to eliminate the violas and so produce a darker sound. Caplet's doubling of the first violin harmonics on piccolos at this point was not altered by Debussy, but was nevertheless omitted from the printed score; it seems that Debussy made further revisions to Caplet's work not included in the autograph manuscript.

The two sketches in the Sheridan Russell collection consist firstly of a sketch for the vocal score of Le martyre prepared by Caplet,24 probably a passage on which Debussy was asked for advice. Debussy's version of the four bars was signed and under- written in Latin 'Hoc varietur' ('this may be changed'). It is hardly likely that Caplet was requesting Debussy's permission to alter this passage as so much was left to his discretion where the preparation of arrangements was concerned. Also the passage in question remained almost unaltered in the printed vocal score (end of Act 2 no.3, p.45 bar 12 to p.46 bar 2), and Caplet simply 'changed' Debussy's reduction from three to two staves and made it more pianistic in the process. 24Durand (1911), 104 pp.

Ex. 1 a Opera Res. 2004 Act 4 Prelude, p.6 bar 3f. a2

Hp. - * _

Cymbal o

/ (Str. ppp, muted)

Vc.

CB 3- ~ -

The second, more important sketch consists of the only preserved written suggestion from Debussy on the orchestration of Le martyre, which may, as Lockspeiser proposes, be an 'improvement Debussy wished to make, possibly after a rehearsal'.25 It concerns the harp and cymbal parts at the important changeover point between the Act 4 Prelude and Act 4 no.2 (OS 155-6) and the nine preceding bars. It is in fact a list of four suggestions to be incorporated into the final version. This suggests that Debussy may have worked by post, in addition to making his own autograph corrections to Caplet's score. The first and fourth directions refer to the point nine bars before the end of the Prelude (three bars before fig.3, OS 154). The first: 'Les sons d'echo plus marqu6 dans [les] dernieres mesures' resulted in Caplet adding 'un peu marque' to the second of his first horn echoes, although the fourth direction: 'Harpes 8ves-3 mesures avant [fig.] 3', seems to have been ignored. Perhaps Debussy revoked his decision to add the second harp in octaves to double the first, and even the first harp is left with single low notes in the final score at this point.

The second and third directions for harp and cymbal concern the end of the Prelude, which was followed by a pause and then Act 4 no.2. Ex.la shows the original orchestration by Caplet, giving only the relevant parts. The harp was originally doubled in the two final bars, and the final chord came on the second beat of the bar. First this chord was changed to a single harp (by Debussy ?), then in the printed version (ex. lb) the whole passage was put on first harp only. As far as the cymbal part is concerned, the autograph score is less clear; it appears originally to have stopped two bars before the end of the Prelude, with the trill marking extended to its final minim in another hand (perhaps Debussy's). Debussy's letter shows that he still intended the final note to be a minim only, although in ex.1b from the printed score it was 25op cit, 163

b Durand printed score, p. ISS last 3 bars

Hp. IP 9

Cymb. ° f s _ o IPP] pp

(Str. ppp, muted)

vc. c

4-9 ^M -®- ^(7 .^T

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converted into a semibreve. The mark in ex. la above the final note may mean that a separate cymbal stroke was contemplated at some stage, perhaps before the letter was written. Caplet retained the semibreve when he prepared the 'Fragments symphoniques' from Le martyre for concert performance,26 extending the double bass tremolandos and further modifying the harp part in the final bar of the Prelude to lead continuously into Act 4 no.2. He also marked the cymbal part in this bar 'baguette'. Ex.la also shows a further modification definitely by Debussy (included in square brackets), who extended the lower cello tremolando by a further minim in the penultimate bar of the Prelude. This modification was ignored in the printed score. There are other instances of Debussy's autograph corrections being ignored, for example in the bar before fig.5 in Act 4 no.3, where Debussy clearly indicated that the oboes and bassoons were to be lowered by an octave. They survive at Caplet's original high pitch in the printed score (OS 167).

*

It was rumoured after the premiere of Le martyre that the final chorus in Paradise (Act 5 no.2), generally judged the weakest by both audience and critics, was not by Debussy. A dispatch from Paris to the Italian journal // tirso suggested that it was composed by 'one of his most faithful disciples',27 that is, Caplet. Certainly its staid homophonic texture is at odds with the flexible choral style of the remainder of Le martyre, and is less inspired than Debussy's only later choral pieces, the Trois chansons de Charles d'Orleans (1908). It is also less imaginative than the florid 'Anima Sebastiani' part which separates the ecclesiastical sections in the early part of the scene (OS 184f). All the interest in the final act lies in the superbly detailed and subtle orchestral part which is wholly by Debussy, and it is difficult to believe that the whole scene was not written and orchestrated by the same person when confronted with the subtle change from A flat major through an incomplete 7th chord on B to C sharp minor (OS 195). It is really only the opening a cappella choral section of no.2 in A flat which can be in doubt (OS 180-84). The orchestra enters as the 'Chorus Angelorum' reach a held chord of D flat (6 bars after fig.4, OS 184), the two harps creeping in with a magical dominant seventh (Cb), soon to be joined by high muted divided strings and fluttering woodwind preparing the entry of the 'Anima Sebastiani', 'Je viens, je monte'. The remaining chorus sections, especially the final Alleluias (OS 201-2), are relatively pedestrian, but after the orchestra enters this aspect seems far less obvious.

Just as d'Annunzio had found the Paradise scene 'a problem' as early as February 1911,28 so Debussy's most clearly expressed written worries involved this act. He complained to the theatre director Gabriel Astruc, probably early in May after attending the first dress rehearsal, of the bad coordination between the action and the music, particularly from Act 4 no.3 to the end. Too little was happening on stage 26Durand (1912), pp.68-9 274 June 1911; quoted in Lockspeiser: op cit, 164 28Tosi: op cit, letter 19bis, p.69 (to Astruc), 14 Feb 1911

during this crucial section, and what did happen (Sebastian's funeral procession), happened too quickly. He thought the cortege should begin later, and after pausing at the moment when the light burst forth (OS 179), should continue into the unaccompanied chorus in Act 5 no.2 (for which there were no stage directions).29 Part of this strongly worded letter, which even suggests 'sup- pressing the Paradise section' altogether, and com- plains of the poor lighting and the 'impolite' actors' entries during the orchestral preludes, suggests that the problems involved in this hurried production were pretty basic.

Probably to improve the continuity and splendour of the premiere, Caplet made some further orchestral additions to the score of Saint-Sebastien which are preserved in his printed conducting copy in the Paris Opera Library.30 As well as doubling various brass parts near the end of Act 1 (OS 61-3) and in the fanfares at the start of Act 3 (OS 99-103), he also added a part for full organ to double the antiphonal answers in the orchestra to the chorus parts in Act 5 no.2 (OS 190f). This only enhances the artificial grandeur of the final pages, and is in complete contrast to the subtle harmonium part used by Debussy in the same scene. The two appear side by side around fig.7 (OS 191) and, whatever the practical reasons involved, the difference in musical taste between Caplet's huge organ chords and Debussy's quiet harmonium, playing high ethereal 2nds in the wings, is marked indeed.

It is odd that Debussy should have orchestrated the final act of Le martyre himself when he was so pressed for time. Perhaps his beautifully detailed scoring was an attempt to conceal a mundane choral part that he had no time to rethink. The remainder of this restrained but inaccessible score betrays few signs of haste or over-obviousness in its conception. Its veiled mysticism and Parsifal- like qualities have often been commented on,31 and Debussy himself was finally confident about his ending. He thought he had created:

decorative music . . . the illustrations in timbres and rhythms of a noble text, and when, in the final act, the Saint ascends to Paradise, I think I realized all that I felt, experienced in this conception of the Ascension. Have I succeeded? That does not worry me any more. We no longer possess the spirit of faith of old. The faith that my music expresses, is it orthodox or not? I ignore this. It is mine alone, mine which sings forth in complete confidence.32

29Bibliotheque Nationale, La Debussy (Cl) 54 30A742a, the 'modifications' Caplet intended to make are also listed on the cover. 31Vuillermoz, op cit, 182 32Comoedia (18 May 1911)

A Rakhmaninov Museum was opened in September in Ivanocka, near Tambov, central Russia; it is housed in a building on the estate once owned by Rakhmaninov's parents-in-law, where he wrote several of his major works.

A Richard Tauber Memorial Showcase has been placed in the amphitheatre promenade at the Royal Opera House.

The two music examples in Neal Zaslaw's article 'The Enigma of the Haute-Contre' (Nov MT, p.939) were transposed, after the proof stage; our printers apologize to Mr Zaslaw and to readers.

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debussy's orchestral collaborations, 1911-13. 1 le martyre de saint-sébastien .pdf

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