Debussy: Pour Le Piano: Sarabande

Debussy – Pour le piano: Sarabande
Background:
- Claude Debussy (French composer)
- Composed in 1894
- Baroque period = sarabande was very slow (originally a dance)
- Sarabande = neoclassical, reflects Debussy’s interest in using earlier musical forms as the basis for composing in a much more modern style
Instrumentation:
- Debussy uses much of the piano’s range (particularly in the lower register)
- Most of the music requires the use of the sustain pedal
- No extremely high notes
- Some left-hand chords extend to well over an octave and have to be spread
Melody:
- Balanced phrases reflect the origins of the Sarabande as a dance
- Melodic ideas = often immediately repeated, sometimes with slight variations
…