SKU: FA.MFCD007PN

8.27 x 11.69 inches.

Debussy's friendship with the versatile poet and playwright Gabriel Mourey began in 1899, and in July 1907 Mourey offered Debussy a libretto based on Le roman de Tristan - Joseph Bedier's adaptation of a twelfth-century Breton romance by the Anglo-Norman poet known as Thomas - which had recently been published in Paris. Debussy enthusiastically outlined the four-act plot to Victor Segalen that October, and the main differences from Wagner's Tristan und Isolde are that none of the action takes place in Cornwall and that Isolde of the White Hands is found guilty of cuckolding King Marc with Tristan, who has to rescue her from the leper colony in which she is abandoned in Act 1. She also betrays him when he goes mad at the end.

The idea of a Tristan that restored its 'legendary character' and had no connections with Wagner, appealed to Debussy, who was extremely moved by the circumstances of Tristan's death. Even if he thought that Mourey's poetry was 'not very lyrical and many passages do not exactly invite music', he did work on the libretto and the music that summer and sent his publisher, Jacques Durand, 'one of the 363 themes for the Roman de Tristan' in a letter sent from Pourville on 23 August, 1907. The present prelude grows from this theme, together with the poignant Breton folksong Le Faucon. After a short atmospheric introduction, Debussy's dance-like theme (which is definitely not a leitmotif) gradually gains momentum and after it reaches its ecstatic climax, representing the transient happiness of the lovers, it dissolves into an expressive coda and an elegiac close (all growing from Debussy's opening, off-stage trumpet calls), leaving us with the ultimate tragedy of their ill-fated affair.

Unfortunately, Mourey's actual libretto has been lost and the project eventually foundered because Bedier's cousin, Louis Artus, wanted Debussy to use the scenario he had prepared and copyrighted for the stage, and would not allow him to proceed with Mourey's version. Debussy, it need hardly be said, would never have dreamed of collaborating with the author of the vaudeville hit La culotte (The pants)!

SKU: BT.DHP-0940529-120

Who doesn’t know the children’s TV series Thunderbirds. The Gerry Anderson classic is still as popular today with both children and adults as when it was first shown in the sixties. This arrangement of the theme tune will be loved by all and will leave your audience humming it all the way home.

Thunderbirds ist eine legendäre englische Fernsehserie aus den Sechzigern über einen futuristischen, weltweit operierenden Rettungsdienst. Die Serie, in der die Figuren von Puppen gespielt werden, genießt heute Kultstatus. Ihren Erfolg verdankt sie nicht zuletzt Barry Grays Musik im Stil der großen amerikanischen Kinofilme. Kazuhiro Morita verwendete das Hauptthema der Serie für dieses ausgezeichnete Arrangement.

Thunderbirds (Les sentinelles de l’air) est une série télévisée d'animation britannique créée, dans les années 1960, par Gerry Anderson. Particularité de cette série légendaire : les héros étaient des marionnettes, membres d’une organisation futuriste, appelée la « Sécurité Internationale » (« International Rescue »). Ce programme culte doit son succès en partie la musique de Barry Gray, écrite dans un style proche des musiques des grandes fresques cinématographiques américaines. Un retour aux souvenirs d’enfance !

SKU: RM.FRAY05200-BA

ISBN 9790231052008.