La Mer

Double basses and timpani hold a low B. The two harps alternate, and muted cellos and violas begin to move above them. Debussy marks the opening Très lent, very slow.

Debussy began La Mer in the summer of 1903, while staying with his parents-in-law in Burgundy, far from the sea. As a child he had spent holidays at Cannes.

The main movement changes to D♭ major and 6/8, marked Modéré, sans lenteur (moderate, without slowness). Divided strings play continuous semiquavers, and the woodwinds pass short phrases between them.

On 12 September 1903 Debussy told André Messager of “three symphonic sketches” titled La Mer: “Mer belle aux Sanguinaires”, “Jeu de vagues” and “le vent fait danser la mer”. Published, they became De l’aube à midi sur la mer, Jeux de vagues and Dialogue du vent et de la mer.

Duplets and triplets cross throughout this movement. One part divides the beat into triplets while another plays even notes. Beneath a single wind phrase, the harps and divided strings can play several rhythms at once.

Debussy dedicated La Mer to his publisher, Jacques Durand. Camille Chevillard conducted the first performance with the Lamoureux Orchestra in Paris on 15 October 1905, and Durand published the score that November.

Debussy calls for sixteen cellos, divided into four groups. They play a new melody in interlocking parts, and the horns reply above them. The marking is Très rythmé.

Debussy chose Hokusai’s The Great Wave off Kanagawa for the cover of the published score. The Japanese print was cropped and redrawn for the 1905 edition.

Writing to his publisher Durand from Le Puys, near Dieppe, on 8 August 1906, Debussy complained about bathers: “all those arms, those legs moving in such ridiculous rhythms, it’s enough to make the fish weep.” He wrote that there should be nothing in the sea but Sirens.

Très lent again. Bassoons, horns and trombones play the chorale over triplets in the flutes and harp figures. The movement ends on chords of D♭ major.

Paul Paray and the Detroit Symphony recorded La Mer in the city’s Old Orchestra Hall on 3–⁠4 December 1955, for Mercury’s Living Presence series. One Schoeps microphone in the centre and two Neumann U-47s left and right fed three-track half-inch tape.

Soft chords in cor anglais, clarinets and bassoons sound above plucked cellos and basses. Harp figures and short notes on the glockenspiel (celesta is permitted as an alternative) fill the gaps. The violins, divided into several parts, follow in short chords.

Debussy qualified the Allegro with dans un rythme très souple (in a very supple rhythm). Short accents and triplets shift the phrases across the beat.

In July 1905 Debussy took the proofs of La Mer to the Grand Hotel in Eastbourne. In a letter from there to his publisher Jacques Durand, he wrote that “the sea unfurls itself with an utterly British correctness”.

Camille Chevillard conducted the Lamoureux Orchestra in the première of La Mer on 15 October 1905. The Paris audience received it coolly. Three years later, in January 1908, Debussy conducted the work himself in Paris and had an enthusiastic reception.

A short phrase passes from strings to woodwinds before it has formed a complete tune. Debussy alters its rhythm at each change of instrument. Harps and percussion play brief figures between the orchestral phrases.

The strings play more softly and the wind phrases become shorter. Harp glissandos rise and fall around a clarinet solo marked très doux — very gentle. In the closing pages, instruments drop out one by one.

On the last page a solo flute plays a short phrase above held strings. Six first violins play harmonics, with harp and a few bell notes. The bass stays quiet to the end.

Animé et tumultueux — animated and tumultuous. Timpani and bass drum roll softly while cellos and basses climb in short, twisting figures, and the tam-tam sounds. Most of the orchestra is still silent.

A muted trumpet plays above the low strings, beside phrases for oboe and clarinet. For part of this passage the double basses bow close to the bridge, which gives their held notes a thin, grainy edge.

Reviewing the 1905 première in Le Temps, Pierre Lalo, formerly an admirer of Debussy, wrote: “I do not hear, I do not see, I do not smell the sea.”

In the finale, the wind play a sustained theme in long phrases over much quicker string figures. Beneath it, groups of two and three notes are superimposed.

The trumpet call of the first movement also belongs to the finale. Debussy brings back its shape among the stormier exchanges and later restores the broad chorale.

In the middle pages, the flutes and oboes exchange short phrases above the two harps. The horns hold long notes and the first violins sustain a high line over the moving inner strings.

On 19 and 26 January 1908 Debussy conducted La Mer himself with the Paris orchestra. The work had met resistance in 1905, and these performances brought him his greatest public success since Pelléas et Mélisande.

The brass chorale from the first movement returns in the closing pages. Horns and trombones hold the broad line against repeated wind notes and short string figures. At Très animé the orchestra moves into the final fast section.

After the orchestra’s last sustained chord in D♭ major, the timpani strike once more with the strings playing pizzicato. Debussy marks this final attack sec — dry.

A low B is held beneath the opening. Short phrases enter above it, separated by long rests. Debussy marks the passage Très lent (very slow), and the first notes enter one at a time.

In the summer of 1903 Debussy stayed with his parents-in-law in Burgundy, far from the coast. He began La Mer there, drawing on memories of childhood summers at Cannes.

The main section of the movement is in D♭ major and 6/8. Debussy marks it Modéré, sans lenteur (moderate, without slowness). The short rising phrases now have a running accompaniment beneath them.

Debussy chose Hokusai’s The Great Wave off Kanagawa for the cover of the published score of La Mer.

Groups of two notes and groups of three cross throughout the movement. One phrase divides the beat evenly while another runs across it, and the cross-rhythm continues in the quieter passages. Jacob Greenberg identified this interplay of twos and threes as a feature of the whole first movement.

A new melody enters in four parts, marked Très rythmé (strongly rhythmic). Its lines rise in turn and overlap, forming a phrase much longer than the short figures of the opening.

Camille Chevillard conducted the première in Paris on 15 October 1905, and it was coolly received. Debussy conducted the work himself in Paris on 19 and 26 January 1908, and the audience received it more warmly.

The closing chorale moves in broad notes over quicker figures underneath. The score returns to Très lent. D♭ major, first reached after the introduction, returns for the ending.