Paris, 1900–⁠1913

At the 1889 Paris Exposition, Debussy heard Javanese gamelan, with gongs sounding beneath quicker instrumental patterns. In the Revue musicale S.I.M. in 1913, he wrote that its counterpoint made Palestrina’s seem like “child’s play”. His Pagodes of 1903 had already brought gong-like bass notes to the piano. Here Marcelle Meyer plays La cathédrale engloutie, published in 1910. Bare fifths rise slowly, with long spaces between them in which the notes ring. The left hand then begins rolling figures beneath the ascending chords, which represent the cathedral of Breton legend rising from the sea.

Paris first heard Nuages in December 1900. In the middle of the piece, flute and harp share a five-note melody over soft held strings. The cor anglais then returns with its earlier narrow phrase. Monet painted Impression, soleil levant from a hotel window in Le Havre in 1872. Dark boats are placed close to the viewer; the orange sun and its reflection stand out against the mist. Farther back, cranes and masts are barely visible in the morning haze.

The United States Air Force Band plays the opening of La Mer in Lawrence Odom’s concert-band transcription. A low B is held beneath the opening; short phrases enter above it, one at a time. Later, groups of two and three notes cross one another. When Durand published the score in 1905, its cover carried an adapted detail of Hokusai’s wave. In the complete print, narrow boats lie under the curling crest, and Mount Fuji stands far behind them.

On 25 June 1910, Tamara Karsavina danced The Firebird at the Paris Opéra, with choreography by Michel Fokine for Diaghilev’s Ballets Russes. In the Infernal Dance, the bird forces Kashchei and his creatures to dance. The United States Marine Band plays Thomas Knox’s arrangement for concert band. Short figures cut across the pulse, and the accents are displaced. Bakst’s costume design shows the bird on paper, before a dancer wore it. A longer melody then extends across the beat, while Kashchei remains under her spell.

On 29 May 1913, Pierre Monteux conducted the première of The Rite of Spring at the Théâtre des Champs-⁠Élysées. Nijinsky had choreographed the ballet for Diaghilev’s company. The music begins with a bassoon high in its range, playing a melody drawn from a Lithuanian folk-song collection. Other wind instruments enter around it, each with a separate line. In this recording Stravinsky conducts the Columbia Symphony Orchestra, in January 1960. Near the end of the introduction the wind parts thin out and the opening bassoon tune returns, briefly exposed, before the stamping begins.