Jeux

"Jeux" ("Games") is the last work for orchestra written by Claude Debussy. Described as a "poème dansé" (literally a "danced poem"), it was originally intended to accompany a ballet, and was written for the Ballets Russes of Serge Diaghilev to choreography by Nijinsky. Debussy initially objected to the scenario, but reconsidered the commission when Diaghilev doubled the fee. Debussy wrote the score quickly, from mid-August to mid-September 1912.cite journal | url=http://links.jstor.org/sici?sici=0148-2076(198003)3%3A3%3C225%3A%22TTAOA%3E2.0.CO%3B2-M | last=Berman | first=Laurence D. | title="Prelude to the Afternoon of a Faun" and "Jeux": Debussy's Summer Rites | journal=19th-Century Music | volume=3 | issue=3 | pages=225–238 | date=March 1980 | accessdate=2008-03-16 | doi=10.1525/ncm.1980.3.3.02a00040] Robert Orledge has analysed the chronology of Debussy's composition and preserved manuscripts of the score. [cite journal | url=http://links.jstor.org/sici?sici=0027-4666(198702)128%3A1728%3C68%3ATGOD'%3E2.0.CO%3B2-%23 | last=Orledge | first=Robert | title=The Genesis of Debussy's "Jeux" | journal=The Musical Times | volume=128 | issue=1728 | pages=68–73 | date=February 1987 | accessdate=2008-03-16 | doi=10.2307/964775]

"Jeux" was premiered under conductor Pierre Monteux on May 15, 1913 in Paris. However, the work was not well received, and soon eclipsed by Stravinsky's "Rite of Spring", which was premiered on 29 May 1913 by Diaghilev's company. The first commercial recording was made by Victor de Sabata with the Orchestra Stabile Accademica di Santa Cecilia in 1947. A critical edition of the score, prepared by Pierre Boulez and Myriam Chimènes, was published in 1988. [cite journal | url=http://links.jstor.org/sici?sici=0027-4380(199103)2%3A47%3A3%3C955%3AOCS5V8%3E2.0.CO%3B2-0 | last=Grayson | first=David | title=Music Reviews: "Claude Debussy: Oeuvres complètes, ser. 5, vol. 8: Jeux, poème, dansé", ed. Pierre Boulez & Myriam Chimènes | journal=Notes (2nd Ser.) | volume=47 | issue=3 | pages=955–958 | date=March 1991 | accessdate=2008-03-16] [cite journal | url=http://links.jstor.org/sici?sici=0027-4224(199102)72%3A1%3C163%3AJPD%3E2.0.CO%3B2-D | last=Orledge | first=Robert | title=Music Reviews: "Debussy, Claude: Jeux, poème, dansé". Oeuvres complètes, ser. 5, vol. 8Edition de Pierre Boulez et Myriam Chimènes | journal=Music & Letters | volume=72 | issue=1 | pages=163–166 | date=February 1991 | accessdate=2008-03-16]

The number of tempo markings in "Jeux" is around 60, sufficient that Emile Vuillermoz described the score as changing "speed and nuance every two measures". The thematic motifs of "Jeux" are likewise very short, often two measures long or constructed from two single-measure building blocks.cite journal | url=http://links.jstor.org/sici?sici=0148-2076(198003)3%3A3%3C225%3A%22TTAOA%3E2.0.CO%3B2-M | last=Pasler | first=Jann | title=Debussy, "Jeux": Playing with Time and Form | journal=19th-Century Music | volume=6 | issue=1 | pages=60–75 | date=Summer 1982 | accessdate=2008-03-16 | doi=10.1525/ncm.1982.6.1.02a00070] L.D. Berman has analysed "Jeux" in the context of Debussy's earlier "Prélude à l'après-midi d'un faune". Jann Pasler has analysed in detail Debussy's motivitic construction.

cenario

Diaghilev intended the music to describe a homosexual encounter between three young men, and Nijinsky wanted to include an airplane crash. The final version of the story involved a man, two girls, and a game of tennis. The scenario was described to the audience at the premiere as follows:

"The scene is a garden at dusk; a tennis ball has been lost; a boy and two girls are searching for it. The artificial light of the large electric lamps shedding fantastic rays about them suggests the idea of childish games: they play hide and seek, they try to catch one another, they quarrel, they sulk without cause. The night is warm, the sky is bathed in pale light; they embrace. But the spell is broken by another tennis ball thrown in mischievously by an unknown hand. Surprised and alarmed, the boy and girls disappear into the nocturnal depths of the garden."

References

External links

* [http://www.sfsymphony.org/templates/pgmnote.asp?nodeid=3791&callid=117 San Francisco Symphony Program Notes]

*