Help! Can't seem to find anything on Debussy's 'La Plus que Lente'?!

[Jay_Matt]

hey,
thing is, i am planning on sitting my ABRSM Diploma exam. so my piano teacher asked me to research on Debussy's 'La plus que lente', which i performed some time back at a Young Musician's COmpetition. the only problem is that i have looked for analyses of the piano piece on the Internet using various search engines, and the only topics that pop up are on the Japanese pianist Noriko Ogawa, who released an album in which she performed'La plusque lente'. what's going on...hasn't anyone written an essay on Debussy's piece? if you do know anything about this work, kindly e-mail back!

Jason
Ottawa, Ontario
Canada

[bernhard]

Here is a start:

La plus que lente (1910).

“Let us think of cabarets, let us think also of the numerous ‘five o’clocks’ where the beautiful feminine listeners of whom I thought, meet.” With this light touch Debussy wrote this charming waltz, sometimes so sensitive as to betray a youthful  romantic earnestness, and at other moments impulsive and frivolous a turn which makes one wonder if Debussy’s tongue was not a little in his cheek! The very popular melodies are yet given freshness by subtle harmonies. It may be the inspiration came form the New Carlton Hotel in Paris, where Debussy went with his wife, Emma, to be charmed by the gipsy fiddling of a violinist named Leoni, to whom the MSS was given by Debussy. A very popular tune at the time in Paris was “La valse lente”, hence the humorous title of “La plus que lente” for the present work. The work was orchestrated by Debussy for the tympanum. It is music definitely meant for a wide appeal, and not really a stylised, super-sophisticated take-off on the popular genre; it maintains a sensitive balance, even in its passages of humour, devoid of grotesqueness or grossness sometimes found in later parodies of popular tunes.

In the performance, subtle amounts of rubato, allargando, and contrasting animation must follow Debussy’s indications and the multiple curves and allusions of the melodies without losing the basic, and most danceable waltz spirit.

(E. Robert Schmitz: “The piano works of Claude Debussy” – Dover)

Best wishes,
Bernhard.

P.S.: Drop the blue font!

[Jay_Matt]

wassup!
thanx a million 4 da info. it really helped. by da way, i aint never heard of anyone called Bernhard...is that a guy or a chick...where r u from?

Thanks again for your help. You're a lifesaver.

Kind regards,
Jason

[bernhard]

wassup!
thanx a million 4 da info. it really helped. by da way, i aint never heard of anyone called Bernhard...is that a guy or a chick...where r u from?

Thanks again for your help. You're a lifesaver.

Kind regards,
Jason

You are welcome.

(Bernhard is a guy from the UK - Have you never heard of the Dutch Royal family? They are all Bernhards... ).