Cat No. JM32644
Price
£27.50
Composer: Claude Debussy
Arranger: Howard Snell
Categories: LIGHT CONCERT MUSIC, Howard Snell Music
MINSTRELS from Preludes Book 1- Claude Debussy (1862 - 1918)
The composer Claude Debussy lived and worked for most of his adult life in Paris, with the exception of a few months stay in England in the Spring of
1905, in Eastbourne, Sussex. His visit to Eastbourne, which lasted for several months, was not chosen for a holiday or for directly professional reasons, but to escape from a very negative marital situation brought on by various romantic relationships. His friends and colleagues in Parisian musical society had ostracised him for his unprincipled behaviour towards his wife, so much so that he felt it desirable to leave France temporarily. He used his time in Eastbourne to great effect however, in completing one of his greatest orchestral works, La Mer.
While in Eastbourne he took in the sights of Sussex-by-the Sea, including the traditional seaside entertainments. Already a lover of Parisian popular theatre
and its music, he would have found Eastbourne’s minstrel shows, with their comedians, singers, gymnasts and magicians, a very different offering. It is
assumed by some writers that MINSTRELS was composed, some years later, based on memories of the stop-start comic slapstick of those British end-of- pier shows. If so, they are characterised neatly in this sparkling little piece.
Howard Snell
1988/revised 2017
Arranger’s note -- The instructions on the score are my adaptations from Debussy’s mixture of languages. (The un-bracketed terms are the Composer's.) I do however give a few performance suggestions, where, at key moments, there is nothing in the score. These are the bracketed terms. Debussy’s piano-roll recording of MINSTRELS is utterly different to the score's instructions, and having having listened to a dozen or so different performances by various performers, I have not found any that is close to faithful to the printed pages, certainly not in regard to the metronome marks. I have left these latter as in the original.
Other Debussy arrangements by Howard Snell:
‘Clair de Lune (Suite bergamasque) for Brass Soloist & Piano
‘Girl with the Flaxen Hair, The (Prelude) for Brass Band
‘General Lavine, Eccentric (Prelude) for Brass Band
‘Golliwog’s Cakewalk (Children's Corner Suite) for Brass Band
‘Steps in the Snow (Prelude) for Brass Band
‘Submerged Cathedral, The (Prelude) for Brass Band
