Rhapsodie for Saxophone and Orchestra
by Claude Debussy
arr. for saxophone and piano by Vincent David
Photo by Otto (Otto Wegener, 1849-1924), Public domain
The Composer
Claude Debussy — born August 22nd, 1862 and died March 25th, 1918 — is a French-based composer and, arguably, one of the most influential classical composers of his era. His experimentation and creativity in the usage of harmonics and timbre give his compositions a uniquely expansive yet dreamy quality that has impressed upon composers in the decades since. Best known for his works for piano, such as La Cathédrale engloutie (The Submerged Cathedral), and orchestra, like La Mer, he helped bring forth new classical genres that expand the timbral colors and sonic qualities that these instruments and ensembles can produce. He is one of the most prominent composers associated with the term “impressionism” which describes music being more focused on mood and atmosphere (similar to modern day ‘soundscapes’) rather than attempting to depict a specific tone-picture.
Debussy was influenced just as much by poets and painters as any of his music teachers — if not more so. Over the course of his life, he dedicated three of his compositions directly to visual artists: one of the Images for piano to Alexandre Charpentier, one of the Proses lyriques to Henri Lerolle, and Estampes to Jacques-Emile Blanche. Other works were directly influenced by his admiration of artists such as Japanese artist Hokusai for La Mer or the American artist James Abbott McNeill Whistler from whom the title of Debussy’s Nocturnes was borrowed. It was from the movements of the time in poetry and painting that Debussy took his inspiration for his music. He saw the creation of free verse poetry and the disappearance of the subject or model in painting and began to think about the modern problems of music. From the visual he saw the virtue of stylization of Japanese print, the quick sketch, the qualities associated with the ‘arabesque’, and the possibilities of a dreamlike world bordering on anguish (like artist Edvard Munch and poet Edgar Allan Poe). These were all aesthetic notions that Debussy retained from his association with poets and artists of the symbolist era. Debussy often discussed his pieces using vocabulary from the visual arts and was noted as “describing his scores as one would a painting.”
When his pieces began to become associated and reviewed using terms such as ‘impressionist’, Debussy initially rejected these in favor of terms like ‘symbolism.’ He wrote to his publisher in 1908: “I’m attempting ‘something different,’ realities in some sense – what imbeciles call impressionism, [is] just about the least appropriate term possible.”
References:
Lesure, François, and Roy Howat. "Debussy, (Achille-)Claude." Grove Music Online. 2001. Oxford University Press. Date of access 23 Jul. 2020, <https://www-oxfordmusiconline-com.ezproxy2.library.colostate.edu/grovemusic/view/10.1093/gmo/9781561592630.001.0001/omo-9781561592630-e-0000007353>
The Arranger
Vincent David is a French-based saxophonist who has been teaching at the Conservatoire royal de Bruxelles since September 2019. He is a leader among generations of saxophonists having won three international competitions and has worked to commission pieces such as Dialogue de l’ombre double by Pierre Boulez , Troisième round by Bruno Mantovani, and Trame XIII by Martin Matalon. Additionally, he uniquely focuses on both classical and contemporary genres and has worked with composers such as Luciano Berio, Pierre Boulez, Peter Eötvös, Gérard Grisey, Philippe Hurel, Michael Jarrell, Mauro Lanza, Philippe Leroux, Bruno Mantovani, Martin Matalon and others. As a composer and conductor he has published a myriad of pieces including solo pieces such as Sillage for soprano sax, Pulse and Éclats d’échos for alto saxophone, Mirages for soprano saxophone and piano, Nuée Ardente for alto sax and piano commissioned by the International Adolphe Sax competition in Dinant, l’éveil de la toupie and concertos Reflets for alto sax and orchestra, Arches for soprano sax and orchestra, and Rhizome for alto sax and strings. He is a dedicated teacher and leader who believes strongly in the transmission of teachings to others and supports his students in pursuing their own musical curiosities within the classroom.
References:
David Vincent. www.conservatoire.be/en/study/faculty/vincent-david.html.
Taken from Vincent David's online biography -- http://www.conservatoire.be/en/study/faculty/vincent-david.html
Elise Hall, photograph by Eugène Pirou, from "Paris musical et dramatique", n ° 6, May 1905; Public Domain - https://gallica.bnf.fr/ark:/12148/bpt6k6110847w/f1.item
The Piece
The significance of the Rhapsodie lies not in the inspiration for the piece (which is hard to definitively narrow down) but instead in the dramatic story behind its creation. The story begins with Elise Hall in 1898, a French-born / American-immigrated amateur (at the time) saxophonist. She was notably frustrated by the lack of new music for the instrument. She then began her search for composers who would commission works for the saxophone — one of whom was the renowned Claude Debussy.
Hall was born in 1853 in France and later married the American doctor Richard Hall. Around 1893, she began to lose her hearing and her husband recommended that she take up the saxophone to prevent further hearing loss. She was a quick-study becoming a prominent musician in her own right, even founding Boston Orchestral Club and taking lessons from Georges Longy (the principal oboist of the Boston Symphony Orchestra). Her skills in the saxophone reached incredible heights by 1898 after the death of her husband by a ruptured appendix. It was then that she became dissatisfied with the repertoire that was available to her.
In 1901, her commissioning found its way to Debussy who, upon seeing that the commission was prepaid, immediately jumped at the opportunity for the financial payment. Unfortunately, it would be years before the music was published or even performed. In a correspondence to one his friends, Debussy noted that he hadn’t written a note of music for months — this was immediately after he accepted the commission. Two years after receiving it, Debussy writes to his wife Lily about Hall (who he describes as ‘the saxophone lady’) writing that her expectations of producing a piece was akin to the Commendatore who appears to Don Giovanni in Mozart’s opera. He writes that Hall has “bored him” and calls her an “old bat who dresses like an umbrella.” In late 1903, however, Debussy did finally write. He completed most of the piece but did not orchestrate the work. He traveled to visit his new publisher, Jacques Durand, who wrote up a contract and bought the Rhapsodie for 100 francs.
From then on, the Rhapsodie fell by the wayside. Hall was busy with her career and performing other works, and Debussy was well into writing La Mer. By the time Hall brought her attention back to the piece, it was still floundering and the legal responsibility of Debussy to finish it was subjective once sold to his publisher. After his death in 1918, the responsibility of finishing it fell to his dear friend: Jean Roger-Ducasse. However, James Noyes (a scholar on the subject) notes that “Roger-Ducasse did not ‘orchestrate’ Rapsodie, but rather ‘created the orchestra score’ using information and contained on the hall manuscript.” Finally, the piece was finished and premiered in 1919, but Hall never heard it nor performed it due to her near total deafness (her last concert appearance was in 1920 which she performed completely deaf). Hall would die four years later never having the Rhapsodie realized in her performing repertoire.
In the decades following, the piece had a bad reputation due in large part to poorly researched biographies and publications that —incorrectly—would dismiss Hall as crazy and asserted that Debussy didn’t want anything to do with the piece. In actuality, it has been discovered that neither of these are true, but the damage was done and both the Rhapsodie and Hall would face a poor reputation for several years.
Fortunately since then, the negativity surrounding both the Rhapsodie and Elise Hall has been mostly removed. The piece has become a saxophone masterwork that, while not technically challenging, has been recognized for its artistic merit. Legendary saxophonist Claude DeLangle has adopted the piece into his published collection editions while arranger and prominent saxophonist Vincent David has increased its virtuosic and technical demands. Elise Hall has become more fondly remembered and is even colloquially known as the ‘Saxophone Queen’ in the United States. The Elise Hall Competition for Emerging Saxophonists has been established for her namesake and “aims to encourage and support the professional and artistic development of young female-identifying, trans, and non-binary saxophonists by providing career building and performance opportunities.”
References:
Bennett, James. “The Incredible Story of Elise Hall's Saxophone and Debussy's Trainwreck Commission: WQXR Blog.” New York Public Radio, WQXR Blog, 30 Aug. 2017, www.wqxr.org/story/incredible-story-elise-hall-saxophone-and-debussys-trainwreck-commission/.
James R. Noyes, Debussy's Rapsodie pour orchestre et saxophone Revisited, The Musical Quarterly, Volume 90, Issue 3-4, Fall-Winter 2007, Pages 416–445, https://doi.org/10.1093/musqtl/gdn020