The word “sad” covers a lot of emotional ground. It can mean anything from melancholy to outright misery.
Composer Claude Debussy was a master at portraying different gradations of emotions, including feelings of contradiction or ambiguity.
Today we’re looking at seven sad pieces by Debussy, exploring various gradations of melancholy, wistfulness, and heartbreak.
Claude Debussy © Classic FM
Beau Soir
“Beau Soir” (“Beautiful Evening”) is a song for voice and piano that Debussy published in 1891. It is set in poetry by French writer Paul Bourget.
Bourget writes about two young people out on a country walk, experiencing a stunning sunset and walking by fields of wheat rippling in a warm breeze.
Everything seems to “advise content”, but the narrator shares a grim observation amidst the pink beauty:
Our life slips by, as that river does:
It to the sea – we to the tomb.
Debussy captures the spirit of this gentle warning with the song’s mysterious, melancholy undertone. All things must come to an end, it seems to note, including beautiful days and long lives.
La plus que lente
Debussy published his waltz “La plus que lente” (“The more than slow”) in 1910. The title was a wry reference to the “valse lente” (“slow waltz”) genre.
However, this isn’t a traditional waltz. It is quiet and wistful, more like the memory of a dance than a real one.
Strikingly, its time signature is never particularly obvious, meaning that anyone who tried to dance to it might easily get lost.
To underscore the point, Debussy instructs the performer to take the tempo “molto rubato con morbidezza,” which encourages the pianist to tug the speed around.
Author F. Scott Fitzgerald referenced “La plus que lente” in his 1931 short story “Babylon Revisited”, one of the most quietly devastating of his career. It’s a fitting soundtrack to a tragic story.
Violin Sonata
In 1916, Debussy was nearing the end of his life – and knew it. He had been diagnosed with cancer the summer of the previous year. The treatments were difficult, and were ongoing during the stresses of World War I.
In this political and cultural environment, he found himself drawn to the idea of writing chamber music that was identifiably French, openly drawing on French character and identity. This resulted in a work of polished restraint.
The last major piece he composed was this sonata. When he played the piano at the premiere in 1917, it was the last time he played in public.
Debussy’s grave in Passy Cemetery
The work’s single most pungent moment of tragedy comes during the first movement, at 2:28 on, as the violin seems to pose a series of increasingly desperate questions, with the piano accompaniment wanders, worried.
Debussy died in the spring of 1918.
Rêverie
“Rêverie” is a slender solo piano piece written in 1890. It is another one of those Debussy pieces that isn’t outwardly tragic but deeply melancholy and wistful.
Chief among the elements contributing to its atmosphere is its slow and measured tempo. That tempo, combined with its soft dynamics and ever-changing harmonies, create an air of poignant, restrained yearning.
Des pas sur la neige from Préludes – Book I
“Des pas sur la neige” (Footsteps on the snow) from Debussy’s first book of Préludes is marked “triste et lent” (sad and slow), making it officially one of Debussy’s saddest pieces, according to its own score!
The piece begins with a two-note pattern that repeats in eerie fashion throughout the entire prelude. Rhythms don’t always follow the beat, making the mood uncertain and unnerving.
The sparse writing on the right hand meanders in response to the pattern on the left hand, creating a lonely and distraught sound.
Eight measures from the end, Debussy marks the score “comme un tendre et triste regret” (like a tender and sad regret).
La damoiselle élue
La damoiselle élue (The Blessed Damozel) is a nineteen-minute-long cantata written for soprano, contralto, chorus, and orchestra in 1893.
“The Blessed Damozel” is a poem from 1850 written by poet and painter Dante Gabriel Rossetti.
This poem describes the sorrow of a dead lover in heaven, longing for a reunion with her living beloved. It’s a classic tragedy, told from an unusual perspective.
Debussy described it as “a little oratorio in a little pagan mystical note.” Its mood is one of dreamy yearning.
Clair de Lune from Suite Bergamasque
You knew it was going to be on the list!
Claude Debussy, 1902
Clair de Lune is surely Debussy’s most famous sad music. It’s also, arguably, his most famous happy music. This slender little piano piece packs multiple emotions into its five minute runtime.
What’s your favorite sad music by Debussy?
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