Berlioz : Summer nights, Op.7 + Debussy : Trois Chansons De Bilitis + Poulenc : Banalités + La Courte Paille + Chansons Villageoises + Deux Poèmes De Louis Aragon + Ravel : Sheherazade [sound recording]
by Hector Berlioz (Composer), Claude Debussy (Composer), Francis Poulenc (Composer), Maurice Ravel (Composer)
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French composer Hector Berlioz was one of the most influential composers of the romantic period in music. The son of a French physician, Berlioz showed an aptitude for music at an early age and taught himself to perform and compose. For a time, his father indulged his son's pastime, but in 1821 he sent the young Berlioz to Paris to study medicine. show more Although he attended lectures at the medical school there, Berlioz gave most of his attention to music, studying with a private music teacher and composing his own pieces. Finally, in 1826 Berlioz abandoned his medical studies and enrolled at the Paris Conservatory. To support himself, he gave music lessons and wrote articles on music. While at the Paris Conservatory, Berlioz applied for the Prix de Rome. He entered the contest four times before finally winning the prize in 1830. In that same year, Berlioz completed the Symphonie Fantastique, his most ambitious and well-known work. Based on Confessions of an English Opium Eater by Thomas De Quincey, the symphony is an example of program music, that is, music that represents a story or sequence of ideas. Berlioz developed the genre of program music into a highly regarded art, drawing themes from the works of William Shakespeare, Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, Lord Byron, and Theophile Gautier. Because the unusual nature of his compositions failed to win him much recognition, Berlioz was forced to earn a living as a music critic and music librarian. By the time he was 34 years old, he had established a pattern in his career: Each new musical composition was greeted by a mixture of wild enthusiasm from younger composers and hostility from the entrenched musical establishment. Although he did achieve some measure of fame in later life, Berlioz's genius went largely unrecognized. Despondent in later years because of a broken marriage and financial problems, Berlioz composed the dramatic symphony Romeo and Juliet. His last years were lived in bitterness and loneliness after the death of his second wife and his son. Berlioz has been called the greatest composer of melody since Mozart. He is also recognized as a master of the orchestra, having greatly expanded its expressive range through his profound understanding of individual instruments. Finally, his experimentation with new musical structures and meters freed younger composers from the strict requirements of classical musical forms and opened the way to other musical approaches. Berlioz died in Paris in 1869 after a long illness. (Bowker Author Biography) show less
The French composer Claude Debussy is regarded as the chief musical figure in the early twentieth-century impressionist school that was centered in Paris. Debussy showed great musical talent at an early age and began studying music at the Paris Conservatory at the age of 10. By the age of 22, he had won the Grand Prix de Rome. Debussy's use of the show more whole-tone scale in his compositions, which were common to Russian and Asian music, led to expressive harmonies and the achievement of surprising nuances of mood. He also used numerous harsh-sounding harmonies and other new and original compositional techniques and elements. His music, like impressionist painting and poetry, stirs the imagination by its evocation of dreamlike sights and sounds. Because of his revolutionary changes and inventions, Debussy is considered to be one of the most creative and influential forces in the history of music. A list of composers influenced by his work would include nearly every distinguished composer during the first half of the twentieth century. Prelude to the Afternoon of a Faun (1894), a symphonic poem, is Debussy's famous orchestral work that has been choreographed for ballet and is an example of his use of stunning orchestral coloration. Other outstanding orchestral works are Nocturnes (1899) and La Mer (The Sea) (1905). Among Debussy's impressive piano works are 24 preludes, 12 etudes, and the Suite Bergamasque (1905), which contains the popular "Clair de Lune." Debussy also wrote many individual songs for voice and an opera, Pelleas et Melisande (1892-1902), considered by many to be his masterpiece. Debussy died in Paris of cancer in 1918. (Bowker Author Biography) show less
The French composer Maurice Ravel was the leading exemplar of musical impressionism. Ravel entered the Paris Conservatory in 1889, where his teachers included Gabriel Faure. As a composer, Ravel produced highly original, fluid music, much of it within the outlines of musical classicism. He excelled at piano composition and orchestration, and his show more compositions reveal many of the musical trends active in Paris after the turn of the century. His coloristic effects and occasional use of whole-tone scales and tritones place him with Claude Debussy and the impressionists. Yet the sense of proportion and the austere aspects of some of his compositions also reflect his interest in, and reverence for, classical forms of music. Ravel composed Pavanne for a Deceased Infant (1899), the piano work Jeux d'eau (1902), his song cycle Sheherazade (1903), and his String Quartet (1903) while still a student at the conservatory. In subsequent years, Ravel composed ballets, including Daphne and Chloe (1912); symphonic poems, such as La Valse (1920); two operas, L'Heure espagnole (1911) and L'Enfant et les sortileges (1912); and many pieces for piano, violin, and orchestra. His orchestration of Modest Mussorgsky's Pictures at an Exhibition (1922) attracted worldwide attention and inclusion in the repertoire of major orchestras. Another staple of major orchestras is Ravel's Bolero (1928). Ravel died in Paris following brain surgery in 1937. (Bowker Author Biography) show less
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- Berlioz : Summer nights, Op.7 + Debussy : Trois Chansons De Bilitis + Poulenc : Banalités + La Courte Paille + Chansons Villageoises + Deux Poèmes De Louis Aragon + Ravel : Sheherazade [sound recording]
- Disambiguation notice
- This work includes Decca – 475 7712 (distinguished by diagonal cover), which includes more tracks than the original release.
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