Piano - Grade 4
SKU:
FA.MFCD011PN
Composed
by Claude Debussy and
Robert Orledge.
Rediscoverd Debussy.
Classical,
Impressionistic. Score.
Musik Fabrik #MFCD011PN.
Published by Musik Fabrik
(FA.MFCD011PN).
8.27 x
11.69 inches.
In
January 1913, Debussy
struggled to complete
Toomai des elephants as
the 11th prelude in
Book2, finally replacing
it by a rather
Stravinskian study Les
Tierces alternees.
However, his daughter
Chouchou was fascinated
by elephants and in the
summer of 1913, Debussy
wrote her a 'Toybox
Ballet' (La Boite a
joujoux) which contains a
'Pas de l'elephant' and
an 'old Hindu chant which
is still used to train
elephants [in India]. It
is constructed on the
scale of 5 o'clock in the
morning,which means it
must be in 5/4 time.' My
reconstruction of this
lost prelude is based
around this material and
it evokes a day in the
life of Toomai, the young
mahout, and his faithful
elephant Kala Nag from
one dawn to the next,
incorporating the
legendary 'Elephants'
Dance' from Rudyard Kip
ling's First Jungle Book
(1894) which only Toomai
was ever privileged to
witness. The version
presented here is the
revised second version of
this prelude which
contains an effect of
piano harmonics as the
dawn returns towards the
end.