Ex. 13-5: Clair de lune

Debussy's first setting of Verlaine's poem "Clair de lune," composed in late 1882 (L. 32). He wrote it for Marie-Blanche Vasnier, a married amateur soprano he accompanied as a young man and was in love with. It is one of many songs he wrote for her, collected in a notebook now called the "Vasnier Songbook." Another of his songs for her is also in this app. (Ex. 5-8: Romance by Claude Debussy)

Debussy copied the notebook out as a parting gift for Vasnier before leaving for Rome in 1885, after winning the Prix de Rome. He never published this early song. It first appeared in print in 1926, more than forty years after he wrote it.

Debussy came back to this poem in 1891, setting it again as a completely new song for Fêtes galantes, Book 1. That later version is also in this app. (Ex. 11-7: Clair de lune by Claude Debussy) Fauré set the same Verlaine poem in 1887. (Ex. 10-9: Clair de Lune by Gabriel Fauré)

From the album Gedankenverloren by Katarina Konradi and Gerold Huber (2018)
Spotify